Indra and Thales reinforce the intelligence of the Spanish Army's Battlefield Management System (BMS)
Indra and Thales reinforce the capacity of the Spanish Army's Battlefield Management System (BMS) and prepare it to operate in highly digitalised scenarios, in which the exchange of data and the level of force coordination is extremely high and is key to gaining an advantage over the adversary.
Both companies will evolve this system, which they themselves developed and which came into operation in 2021. The system has become one of the most advanced of its kind and a benchmark for armies around the world.
The BMS enables commanders to monitor and disseminate orders in real time, helping them to make the best decisions quickly, and provides deployed units in the field with a complete view of the mission on digital mapping, allowing them to exchange tactical information, images and text messages for coordination, which multiplies their effectiveness.
Increased processing power and performance
The goal of this evolution is now to increase the processing capacity and performance of the system, so that it can handle more information, which will provide greater situational awareness and force coordination, thus adapting it to a context where the volume of data exchanged between platforms and weapon systems is growing all the time.
Antonio Hernández Bejarano, director of Business Development of Electronic Combat Management at Indra, explains that ‘the improvements also allow exploiting the capabilities of the new transmission media, making the most of the available bandwidth while providing the capacity, in a transparent way, to dynamically adapt the information flows in order to work in contested environments, where the adversary tries to impede your communications’.
Thales project manager Juan José Forteza emphasises that ‘the system has been designed to guarantee interoperability with other allied armies, aligning with NATO's Federated Mission Networking (FMN) standards, which facilitate the integration of the different command and control networks of allied countries, which is crucial in the current context.
The two companies will also streamline the system's architecture so that it can be installed on tablets, which will meet high mobility requirements. An additional benefit will be the integration of the BMS with the Army's Logistics Management System (SIGLE) to reduce the workload associated with armour maintenance and improve the sustainment of vehicles and tanks throughout their life cycle, increasing their availability and the safety of crews.
The BMS system has demonstrated excellent performance in real missions of maximum complexity, such as NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence Mission (EFP) in which the Spanish Army was deployed in Latvia with Pizarro tracked vehicles and Leopard tanks, among other means equipped with the battlefield management system.
