CIDS development

Qinetiq, General Dynamics United Kingdom and Rockwell Collins have been awarded £3m by the Ministry of Defence to develop the Joint Data Network Combat Identification Server Technical Demonstrator.

According to Qinetiq, the Combat Identification Server (CIDS) will contribute to improving tactical situational awareness for UK forces involved in the delivery and control of indirect and direct fires to land operations.

It will also assist in improving situational awareness for forces working together on other joint fires operations.

CIDS will provide military commanders and pilots with fast access to accurate near-real-time force-tracking and location information, improving mission effectiveness through increased accuracy and tempo of operations and assisting in reducing the frequency of ‘friendly fire’ casualties.

The CIDS will correlate blue-force tracking information from 15 different network sources including Link-16, Bowman and UK asset-tracking systems as well as coalition network sources.

Once requests are received, the CIDS will make it available to joint fires assets and Close Air Support (CAS)/Close Combat Air (CCA) aircraft.