Defence`s Feeds

We understand that the Hungarian civilian foreign intelligence service, Informacios Hivatal (IH), has been instructed to keep as close a

Israel/Iran - Mossad satisfied by latest operation against Iran Israel's Mossad intelligence service and its boss, David Barnea (IO, 11/11/22),

Despite assurances from Minsk to the contrary, for several weeks Russia has been placing its pawns to allow itself the

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani's visit to Paris from 26 to 27 January (IO, 24/01/23), was a let down from

Alex Beckles, a career lobbyist with strong connections to the US Democratic Party and head of his eponymous firm Alexander

On 1 February, the European Defence Agency (EDA) has launched its largest Research and Technology project to develop highly autonomous combat unmanned ground systems. The project, Combat Unmanned Ground Systems (CUGS), brings together nine member states and 28 European industry partners.  With a € 35.5 million budget and running for 36 months, CUGS aims to define, design and develop a set of functional modules which will be mounted on to existing platforms. The final phase of the project will test full demonstrators for highly autonomous combat unmanned ground systems.

Autonomous systems provide operational benefits across a very broad range of missions, from intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and logistics missions to combat missions. Deploying unmanned systems reduces the danger to human personnel and manned platforms, while increasing robustness, sustainability and resilience of ground systems. It is expected that these systems will play an increased role in future Armed Forces by bringing faster manoeuvrability and more efficient and precise lethal and non-lethal effects, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of land systems and ensure an advantage in respect to the adversary.

CUGS - Adapting European Platforms

The functional modules to be developed in the project will ensure autonomous navigation; command, control, communications, and cooperation; and use of weapon systems.  The modules will be integrated on several European autonomous ground systems; the mid-sized platforms Themis (Milrem, Estonia) and Wiesel (Rheinmetall, Germany), and large-sized platforms Type X (Milrem, Estonia), Lince 2 VTLM (Iveco, Italy) and Patria AMV (Patria, Finland).

The project will run across three phases; firstly, with the requirements and standard-based system architecture of the full CUGS demonstrator being developed for both the current autonomous platforms and future modules.

The adaptation of the five existing platforms will begin in parallel with the development of the combat functional modules. In the third phase of the project the solutions will be mounted on the platforms and will be tested and evaluated individually and in a cooperative way in relevant environments.

In the testing phase, the adapted unmanned ground systems should be able to autonomously move, navigate, communicate, detect, identify and lock targets, choose weapon systems and test firing sequences and safety aspects.

Human on the loop

Each type of weapon or type of engagement will require some specificity to reach the requested level of capability with a human in/on the loop. This project will contribute to identifying the adequate level of autonomy for autonomous weapon system with humans on the loop and to test relevant features in TRL (Technology readiness levels) demonstrators.

The decision to take lethal actions on the targets will remain a human decision. The execution of this project will be made following in respect to the European Parliament “Resolution on autonomous weapon systems (2018/2752(RSP))”.

Pan-European consortium

Due to the growing importance of unmanned ground systems for operations, nine contributing Member States (cMS) decided to launch the Combat Unmanned Ground Systems (CUGS) project. CUGS is a very ambitious and challenging project, led by Italy, that will also bring together the cMS of Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, the Netherlands and Poland, as well as Norway.

The project will be carried out by a consortium led by Italy’s Leonardo and involves other 28 consortium members, namely Iveco, Larimart and MBDA IT, also of Italy, John Cockerill Defence, FN Herstal and the Royal Military Academy of Belgium, Diehl Defence, KMW, MBDA DE and Rheinmetall of Germany, Milrem Robotics, Estonia and the Estonian Military Academy of Estonia, Patria and Bittium of Finland, Nexter, Safran, Thales, MBDA FR and Arquus of France, TNO, Demcon and NCIM of the Netherlands, Kongsberg and FFI of Norway, and WAT, PIAP, ZMT and ASW of Poland.

As a project managed by EDA, the initiative is co-funded by Member States and additional participants can opt in. 

 

More information 

• Project Fact Sheet 

The European Defence Agency (EDA) supports its 26 Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the ‘hub’ for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks allowing it to the whole spectrum of defence capabilities. 

Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. What we do (europa.eu)

US cybersecurity company Cyber Systems & Services Solutions (CS3) has had its contract with the US Air Force for the

Lord Graham Evans, Baron Evans of Rainow, who was appointed as the new government whip in the UK's House of Lords

When most people pick a restaurant, great food, atmosphere and price are generally the most important criteria. If you work

Rustam Emomali, the mayor of Dushanbe and eldest son of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, asserted his authority in regime circles by

The newly knighted Conservative MP Julian Lewis is locked in battle with the government and UK intelligence services to defend

#StandWithUkraine is in the middle of its preparations for its next big, shock public relations event. On 22 February, it

Americas The US Air Force (USAF) has chosen Electra Aero for a Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) award, securing up to $85 million in investment funding. This award will go towards the rapid development of a full-scale pre-production prototype of Electra’s electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) aircraft. The eSTOL aircraft represents a new class of […]

Rapidev, the official distributor of materiel from the Pakistani defence production ministry-owned military electronics company National Radio & Telecommunication Corp (NRTC), will be exhibiting on the UAE's pavilion at the IDEX defence fair in Abu Dhabi on 20-24 February. According to our

With a smile on his face and a sudoku in his hand, ex-Beirut port security chief Ziad Al Awf flew

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made sure to bring up bilateral intelligence cooperation on a visit to Israel on 18-20 January,

After plunging in value from more than $8 a share five months ago to about 30 cents early this year,

The Russian government is determined to make its digital industry more self-sufficient, and in a bid to do so, the

Naypyidaw - Andrei Masalovich resumes his charm offensive in Myanmar According to our information, Andrei Masalovich, chief executive of Russian

The personal quarrels between bosses Andy Milburn and Andrew Bain (IO, 13/01/23) undermined the Mozart Group's operations, and the specific circumstances of the Ukrainian theatre