Full-size demonstrators for next generation soldier systems

The outcome should contribute to:

• Address the 2023 Capability Development Priority “Future Soldier Systems”.
• Provide standardised and harmonised solutions that meet the future capability needs of participating EU Member States and EDF Associated Countries with maximum commonality and modularity that can be quickly integrated into existing soldier systems and equipment.
• Develop and increase the maturity of innovative technologies specifically adapted to the soldier needs of all EU Member States’ and EDF Associated Countries’ Armies.
• Enhance EU industrial capacity to develop, produce and provide soldier systems and soldier equipment.
• Reduce dependences on non-EU technologies and products.
• Increase the opportunities for various smaller actors in the defence sector established in the EU, EDF Associated Countries or Ukraine - including those not previously active in the defence sector, to adapt and apply innovative technologies for defence applications- and promote technological edge in the field.
• Increase opportunities and future involvement for third parties participating in FSTP in the field of force protection and mobility within tasks described previously in the call text under “Conditions related to FSTP”.

As it is related to EUDIS, and in addition to the development activities, this call topic aims to support innovation opportunities and enable small companies to receive acceleration support and demonstrate innovative technologies relevant to soldier systems. To achieve this objective, financial support to third parties (FSTP, i.e., cascade funding) is included as part of the grant. This should increase the opportunities for various smaller actors, including those not previously active in the defence sector, to adapt innovative technologies for soldier systems, which include a significant number of small elements such as for ballistic protection, load carrying systems, textiles/clothing, including smart textiles, requirement for light batteries, electronic equipment (e.g., for communication, situational awareness, GPS, various sensors, etc.), and to identify potential business opportunities in the defence sector.

This call topic aims to develop the next-generation dismounted soldier system (NGDSS), finding synergies with existing topical EDF projects’ concepts and developments through an updated open-source architecture, as well as NATO efforts and the development of individual and networking capabilities.

It is therefore to continue the development of a demonstrator and the underlying concepts, by increasing the technical maturity for the capability suites to enable evaluation under representative conditions, and to demonstrate a new level of innovative technologies and the capability to address new threats, in the perspective of the NGDSS.

This should enable the EDTIB to design and promote a common, open and an innovative standard essential to the development of new equipment and subsystems for an interoperable solution.

Dismounted combat is highly exposed to high intensity operations. Recent conflicts around the world show that improving the soldier's proximal defence is essential to maintaining a good numerical ratio on the battlefield. The roboticisation of the battlefield is a clear opportunity, but also a constant threat to which a dismounted combat platoon must constantly adapt.

The challenge for soldier systems is to improve the effectiveness, resilience, and survivability of the soldiers on the battlefield. It should be designed for an easy integration of soldiers in the digital battlefield, through interoperability features, allowing them to quickly access available information and to receive protection against new threats (e.g., swarms, loitering munitions), while reducing the total burden on the soldier (i.e., including physical load and cognitive load).

The development of the NGDSS aims to meet this objective by finding synergies with emerging concepts and developments, through an updated open-source architecture and individual and networked capabilities.

Specific objective

The objective of this call topic is to enable the EDTIB to design and promote an innovative and open standard essential for the development of new equipment and subsystems for an interoperable and sovereign solution for a NGDSS.

Taking into account the lessons identified from recent conflicts, this call topic aims at addressing solutions in response to new threats, in particular those based on quickly adoptable civil technologies. These solutions should be applicable to urban and densely populated environments in temperate, cold, and hot climates. Certain individual solutions can be combined to achieve a collective effect at the platoon level.

The main specific challenge is to increase the maturity of the different building blocks required in terms of survivability, sustainability, mobility, energy, observation, and lethality, and to improve the ergonomic integration and system reliability at the soldier system level.

Another challenge is to further explore and demonstrate the benefits of emerging technologies, in particular to protect soldiers against growing and evolving threats in a high-intensity warfare environment. Therefore, the consortium is requested to reach out to third parties across the EU, EDF associated countries and Ukraine, in particular SMEs, including start-ups, to test a broad spectrum of technological solutions and give those innovative players the opportunity to demonstrate the potential of their ideas to relevant players in the defence application field. As a tool to enable this open innovation approach, funding for financial support to third parties (FSTP) is an integral part of the awarded grant. The consortium is required to organise calls to third parties to select and award start-ups and SMEs.

The selected third parties should be offered the opportunity and financial support to test their solutions, receive technical mentoring and other relevant acceleration services for a specific period. This should support the creation of a cross-border defence innovation network that encompasses players that would otherwise not have the means to access EDF actions, thereby further enhancing innovation capacity and competitiveness of the EDTIB.

The consortia responding to the call may include a large variety of entities, such as military or civil test centres, research institutes, universities, industry, certification authorities, accelerators, or incubators as well as other organisations that can play an important role to contribute for the benefit of the proposal.

With a view to a NGDSS capable of facing new types of threats, the proposals must further develop the concepts and open architecture for soldier systems with leading edge innovative technologies, by increasing the technical maturity of the capability suites to enable evaluation under representative conditions, including prototyping and testing of relevant soldier capability suites and devices.

The proposals must therefore address:

• The update and further development of the European open and modular architecture for Soldier Systems, in the perspective of the NGDSS with possibilities of open-source interfaces for integration of technologies and networking (e.g., with Battle Management Systems).
• The detailed analysis of requirements for the NGDSS, including end-user perspectives view and observations from recent conflicts.
• The study and the design of a range of innovative technologies for new equipment, specifically focused on high intensity combat.
• Prototyping activities for the various hardware and software building blocks for individual soldiers and teams.
• Testing and evaluation activities for the integrated hardware and software building blocks for individual soldiers and teams.

The proposals must describe how entities with expertise on the relevant technologies know-how should be supported, including the proposed implementation conditions for FSTP. Recipients of FSTP that contribute to the technology development must receive financial support to prepare a sample of their technology, to attend and support the testing of their technological sample, and to technologically improve their solution.

FSTP may also be provided to entities that contribute with analysis and measurement capacities, technology-specific expertise, innovative tools, or support the manufacturing of technology test samples or components necessary for testing. The proposals must include technical mentoring for the selected recipients of the FSTP as well as the set-up of additional measures to support the recipients of the FSTP business case.

Types of activities

The following types of activities are eligible for this topic:

Accordingly, the proposals must cover at least the following tasks as part of mandatory activities:

• Studies:
  • • Update the use cases, with specific focus on high intensity warfare (e.g., in overstretched combat zones with a lack of personnel on the ground).
    • Conduct detailed requirements analysis including end users view and observations made in current conflicts.
    • Update the GOSSRA^[1] soldier system architecture including their interface descriptions for the integration of, but not limited to, extended interfaces with Battle Management Systems, anti-tank weapons and combat vehicles.
• Design:
  • • Design and evaluate a new set of Proof-of-Concepts and technological demonstrators fulfilling the functional requirements.
    • Design a set of innovative functionalities to create new capabilities, specifically focused on high-intensity combat, including but not limited to:
      • Integration of new materials such as textiles for improved survivability, protection, and signature reduction.
      • Improved integration of effectors (e.g., weapon systems).
      • Capabilities to interact with highly autonomous unmanned systems (unmanned aerial systems – UAS and unmanned ground systems – UGS).
      • Capability to detect, identify and contribute to neutralise disruptive threats such as UAVs in order to improve soldier protection and contribute to collaborative combat for a coordinated action.
      • Cooperation with UxS-Swarms in different environments.
      • Capability of collaborative combat with combat vehicles.
      • Defensive cyber measures for soldier systems.
      • Optimising power management by minimising energy consumption in a soldier system. Focus on efficient power sources, power management systems, energy-efficient equipment and data, communication optimisation and energy harvesting.
• System Prototyping:
  • • Build prototypes for the soldier capability suites and devices:
      • External augmentation of soldiers to counter the physical load induced by the carried equipment and supplies, for scenarios to be defined by the end users.
      • Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T), with UGS and UAS and including swarms of UxSs to fulfil ISTAR, force protection, and combat tasks, including protection against aerial threats.
• • • • Integration with Battlefield Management Systems (BMS) enabling connection with existing and new technologies, e.g., unmanned systems.
      • Integration of sensors and effectors with regards to human and machine interfaces for ease of usage (i.e., intuitive, easy operation).
    • Build a full system prototype, based on the selection of the most mature Proof-of-Concepts.
• Testing:
  • • Perform validation testing at squad and platoon level under representative combat and environmental conditions and against the functional requirements.

Concerning the implementation of the FSTP, the proposals must cover the following tasks:

• • • Screening and identification of landscape of suitable candidates from various sectors, including those that have not been active in the defence sector before, for the sub-calls organised by the consortium providing FSTP.
    • Preparation of the call documentation to issue up to two sub-calls for FSTP.
    • Organisation of up to two sub-calls for FSTP.
    • Selection and award of recipients for FSTP.
    • Providing technical mentoring for recipients of FSTP.
    • Providing networking and cooperation activities between the EDTIB and third parties, as well as the establishment of additional measures to support the business case and innovative ideas of recipients of FSTP within the scope of the call topic.
    • Providing recipients of FSTP calls with the necessary knowledge on doing business in the defence sector, in particular on IPR protection, IPR strategies, export control and other specificities of the defence sector.
    • Describe how the support to recipients of FSTP may be contributing to any type of task within the proposal.

In addition, the proposals must substantiate synergies and complementarities with foreseen, ongoing or completed activities in the field of ground combat capabilities and Force protection and mobility, notably those described in the call topic on Force protection and advanced soldier systems beyond current programmes/Generic Open Soldier Systems Architecture under the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR), and the EDF call topics EDF-2021-PROTMOB-D-SS on Soldier Systems and EDF-2022-MATCOMP-SMT on Smart and multifunctional textiles.

Functional requirements

Considering the experience gained from existing deployed soldier systems, including usage of large numbers of UxS, the proposed Soldier System and Capability Suites sub-systems should meet the following functional requirements:

• Have a system approach including standardisation and harmonisation of system specifications and modular open architecture, to ensure system adaptability and interoperability in a cost-effective manner.
• Enable enhanced individual soldier combat capabilities, with improved ergonomics and reduced physical load through an optimised Size, Weight, Power and Cost (SWaP-C) approach.
• Ensure interoperability and enhanced networking capabilities, at/beyond the squad and platoon levels by implementing efficient Observation, Orientation, Decision and Action (OODA) loops and battlefield information sharing, including interaction with manned combat vehicles, unmanned ground and aerial systems and anti-tank weapons.
• Enable operations indoor (e.g., urban terrain, subterranean), in confined space (e.g., trenches) and under GNSS denied conditions, while maintaining collaborative combat capabilities and resilient global situational awareness.
• Develop disruptive solutions focused on reducing cognitive load on the soldier.
• Provide a modular, open, scalable, and cyber-secure architecture with defined and standardised interfaces for different technology components and devices, including integration with non-autonomous and autonomous systems and subsystems, including future manned and unmanned capabilities.

In order to meet the above requirements, the proposed soldier system and the devices and capability suites associated with the soldier system should demonstrate the following:

• Interchangeability and interoperability, through the implementation of modular and standardised open architecture.
• An updated open architecture to be published for interface adaption by equipment vendors.
• An advanced situational awareness with application of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR), leading to an effective detection, reconnaissance and identification chain and improving decision-making process.
• An improved survivability at soldier level, with high protection level facing a wide range of threats, including the latest emerging ones.
• High level of ergonomics integration at soldier system level, with reduced physical and cognitive load and improved comfort and mobility.
• Accelerated OODA loops, at individual and collaborative levels with a low cognitive load.
• Advanced smart engagement with possible application of AI to improve the effectiveness of the augmented soldier system.
• Disruptive power management solutions to improve soldier ergonomics, lethality, and survivability by controlling power distribution allowing longer run times.
• Robustness to meet the demands of the harsh military environments.
• Compatibility with severe military environmental conditions.
• An embedded training capability to facilitate system usability on the field.
• A minimised logistics footprint through standardisation.
• Optimised power consumption.

In addition, the FSTP includes the following specific requirements:

• • The consortium should:
    • Organise one or two calls for third parties selecting target of minimum 5 and up to 10 entities per call, depending on the industrial landscape of the target domain, whereas each third party may be supported with up to EUR 60 000 for a maximum 6-months long acceleration programme that encompasses the associated tasks.
    • Provide the third parties with the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge, technologies, capabilities, and products.
    • Foster the possibilities for future involvement of these third parties in the European defence community.
    • Provide a clear methodology allowing to measure the FSTP’s contribution to the innovation performance of the supported SMEs in the short-term, e.g., via indicators such as numbers of new or significantly improved products (goods and/or services), processes, new marketing methods, or new organisational methods, and to its impact on resource efficiency and/or turnover.
    • Aim at a wider impact on innovation performance of the supported entities in the medium-term.
• The proposals should clearly delineate the expected contributions from the main beneficiaries as well as from the recipients of FSTP, to ensure their coherence and impact.
• Concerning the organisation of FSTP, the proposals should include a description of:
  • • The method for calculating the exact amount of the financial support requested by the third parties.
    • The payment arrangement options to third parties.
    • The possible types of activities for which a third party may receive financial support.
    • The potential results to be obtained.
    • The roles and responsibilities of the consortium with regard of the management of FSTP.

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