BAE Systems and Thales target teamwork

BAE Systems and Thales have formed a teaming arrangement to provide an advanced, cost-effective combat identification capability for ground vehicles. The system is being developed in anticipation of a US Army and US Marine Corps requirement for a ground vehicle combat identification system. As programme lead, the US Army is expected to seek proposals later this year.

The BAE Systems and Thales team will offer a battlefield target identification (BTID) device that combines Thales’s advanced millimetre-wave technology with BAE Systems’ network-centric and platform integration experience.

The BTID system will consist of interrogators and transponders. Combined interrogator and transponder devices will be mounted on direct-fire ground combat vehicles and transponder-only devices will be deployed on all other platforms. The interrogator can ‘ask’ platforms within its field of view to identify themselves, with the transponders replying to identify vehicles as friendly.

The system will use digital data link technology that allows real-time position information to be transferred to other platforms and small units, including dismounted forces, and to be seen in the tactical situational awareness picture.