situational awareness the ‘mantra’ for future-ready armed forces

oPiNioN situatioNal awareNess:

ThE ‘MANTRA’ FOR FuTuRE-READy ARMED FORcES

Situational awareness is nothing less than a blessing in disguise for the armed forces and is already beginning to make its presence felt in war and peace. The Azerbaijani military victory in the 44-day-long Azerbaijan-Armenian war was largely due to better situational awareness in the Azerbaijan armed forces

By SAI pAttAbIrAm

w

e all are today more aware of the developments both in our immediate neighbourhood as well as across the globe and more connected to each other than ever before. We are able to communicate across the world in a fraction of a second. We are all situational aware of matters that concern us and can track such events live as they happen. This awareness helps us avoid roadblocks and plan our journey and movements better. there by removing the human element from the danger zone. The Ngarnokarbakh war and the more recent Russo-Ukraine conflict are some examples of this fact.

The first and the most soughtafter technological application of situational awareness is

All this is possible because of multiple data sources like mobile phones, vehicle tracking devices, and cameras using wireless networks, Wi-Fi databases and user-friendly dashboards.

Situational awareness is nothing less than a blessing in disguise for the armed forces and is already beginning to make its presence felt in war and peace.

The Azerbaijani military victory in the forty-four-day-long Azerbaijan - Armenian war was largely due to better situational awareness in the Azerbaijan armed forces.

Sensors, cameras or wireless communication systems in use today are some to the technological tools for a higher level of situational awareness. They are easily available and can be deployed across a range of devices like drones, IoT, and connected mobility to name a few.

As far as defence services are concerned, the quest mainly is to integrate them into a single rugged, secure, militarized solution that can be rapidly deployed across terrains and geographies.

teChNologies to eNhaNCe situatioNal awareNess

Enhanced situational awareness is all about embedded electronics and their ability to acquire, transmit and automate systems unmanned systems commonly known as drones.

The autopilot of a drone is the piece of embedded electronics that replaces the need for the human controllers in the air, ground or water.

UAS (unmanned aerial systems), UGV’s (unmanned ground systems) & USV’s (unmanned surface systems – boats) today are the most sought-after defence products.

The UAS literally changed the course of the war in favour of Azerbaijan. The completely asymmetric outcomes in this war were a direct result of the deployment of UAS and loitering munitions which essentially are Kamikaze Drones.

Surprisingly some of the prime movers behind this unpredictable shift in warfare are not the traditional defence manufacturing heavyweights like the USA, Russia, Germany or Israel but countries like Turkey and Iran.

The fact that Turkey and Iran have been able to build capacities in this new technological domain clearly indicates that with the right kind of policy support and direction it is possible to develop indigenous products and capabilities in this future critical domain. The single most critical component of situational awareness technologies is the “complete end-to-end control of the critical control and communication electronics from design stage including firmware”.

This is essential to ensure security, operational flexibility, and future-readiness for upgrading and widening the applications and scaling in size.

Zuppa’s NavGati and Edge are future-ready fully aatmanirbhar motherboards designed from the ground up to ensure India’s complete self-reliance as far as “situational awareness” electronics is concerned.

–The writer is Director of Zuppa Geo Navigation Technologies Pvt Ltd

www.add-engineering.in

ADD Engineering -

single source supplier of High-Tech Cutting Tools for Machining

ADD Engineering offers comprehensive modern industrial solutions in the field of machining for Aerospace, Indian Defence and other wide range of sectors. The process involves focusing not only on the production and distribution of high-performance cutting tools, but also providing the professional technical support in the field of machining and the correct selection of the tools.

GERMANY I INDIA I RUSSIA

For enquires please contact: B N Madhu: 9448581679