Since the CONTACT programme was launched, we’ve held annual training days for French defence personnel. This year’s sessions took place at our Gennevilliers facility near Paris from 5 to 7 February. They were attended by 60 military and civilian personnel, mostly from the French defence procurement agency, command headquarters, training academies and France-based units.

Over the three days, participants benefited from the expertise of the Thales team members involved in the programme, who took them through the system’s capabilities in a series of lecture room presentations, practical workshops and demonstrations.

These annual events are a valuable opportunity for the Ministry for the Armed Forces and the Thales teams to meet, interact and share information to help the customer gain a closer insight into the project ahead of the future rollout of the CONTACT programme across the French armed forces.

This year, four workshops and two dynamic demonstrations were held at the Customer Innovation Centre, our showroom  dedicated to our customers, to present the capabilities of the CONTACT system to participants and show how it can support them in the context of joint forces operations.

• Joint forces demonstrator: Using short, simple scenarios, this workshop was a chance to showcase the new capabilities offered by the CONTACT system for French land, air and naval forces. The idea was to help personnel get a feel for the system and discuss how these new features could be better optimised and utilised in the specific context of their units (land vehicles, aircraft, helicopters, dismounted soldiers, logistics convoys, naval vessels, boarding parties, etc.).

CONTACT joint forces workshop

• Equipment presentation: The various radio devices and accessories developed under the CONTACT programme were presented at this workshop. Participants were able to see the equipment that will soon be fielded by their units, with devices shown in their order of arrival on the programme.

Mockups workshop

• CONTACT communication management system: Planning the deployment of a communication system like CONTACT is complex. To simplify the planning phase, the configuration tool minimises this complexity and automates certain actions to make the task easier for operators in charge of setting up the various networks. However, operators are still free to intervene and change certain configurations and settings, depending on how the force is organised and deployed.

• Communication Laboratory (ComLab): Scaling up a complete communication system so it can be tested and validated would be difficult without a simulation facility. For the CONTACT programme, we’re using our own proprietary ComLab. This allows us to verify and illustrate the benefits and risks involved in planning communications and fielding radio equipment. To do this, ComLab uses representative operational scenarios with simulated terrain environments (open country, mountainous terrain, desert, etc.) and closely modelled radio devices and functionality (waveforms, range, networked connectivity, security, etc.). This simulation workshop was also a chance to illustrate the features of the various waveforms, their added value and when best to use them.

• Flexibility demonstration: Currently, attachments and detachments between units need to be anticipated and require technical changes to be made, which isn’t ideal in a combat situation. One of the benefits of the CONTACT programme is that combat units can be reinforced at any time by units identified as potentially ‘flexible’ with no technical input required, in what we call dynamic re-articulation from one unit to another. These units are identified and listed at the planning phase. They can then join and be easily integrated into other units. The demonstration was based on a network of PR4G radios on X-CONTACT and connected to an information system. Using a range of examples, it showed the benefits of this new functionality.

 

Flexibility demonstration

 

 

• VHF technical test demonstration: This demonstration recreated the key phases in the tests conducted in open terrain last November. Supported by a French land force unit with several combat vehicle types (VBCI, VBL, PVP, P4), the purpose was to conduct technical tests in different configurations at various levels of command and demonstrate a first level of interoperability and the capability gains of the CONTACT system and the future SICS tactical information system.

 

VHF technical test demonstration