Indra and Thales strengthen intelligences of 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, where the exchange of data and the level of coordination of the force is extremely high and critical to gaining an advantage over the adversary.

Both companies will evolve this system, which they developed and went into operation in 2021. The system has become one of the most advanced and a benchmark for armies worldwide.

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 to coordinate, which multiplies their effectiveness.

Increased processing power and performance

The current goal of this evolution is now to increase the processing power 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 in which the volume of data exchanged between platforms and weapon systems is constantly growing.

   Antonio Hernández Bejarano, director of Business Development for Electronic Combat Management at Indra, explains that "the improvements also make it possible to exploit the capabilities of the new transmission media, making the most of the available bandwidth while providing the capacity, transparently, to adapt the information dynamically flows to work in contested environments, where the adversary tries to impede your communications".

   Thales Director of Projects, Juan José Forteza, underlines that "the system has been designed to guarantee interoperability with other allied armies, in line with NATO's Federated Mission Networking (FMN) standards, which facilitate the integration of the different command and control networks of allied countries, something crucial in the current context".

Both companies will also streamline the system architecture to enable it to be installed on tablets, which will allow for high mobility requirements. An additional benefit will be the integration of the BMS with the Army 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 the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence Mission (EFP), in which the Spanish Army was deployed.