Getting meshy: BAE scores £89m deal with MoD to build new battlefield network

The UK subject is group to get a caller tactical wide-area web from BAE Systems conscionable successful clip for nan decommissioning of nan aged 1 from BAE Systems, for which BAE Systems will slope £89 cardinal ($113 million) for its efforts. 

Details regarding nan caller battlefield network, dubbed "Trinity," are scarce from some nan Ministry of Defence and BAE itself, which don't spell acold beyond describing nan strategy arsenic a bid of nodes that support operational resilience by being capable to return complete for different nodes that are damaged aliases destroyed, a la a mesh network. 

"If a number of nodes are damaged successful warfare, nan remainder automatically re-route to support optimum web velocity and travel of information, making it highly effective," nan MoD said. The US subject is similarly investing successful mesh network-style resiliency for subject networking, though it's focusing connected a ample constellation of inexpensive satellites for its efforts. 

"Trinity is simply a onshore based, tactical wide area web and successful that consciousness is not to dissimilar to a abstraction based wide area network," Mark Todd, BAE Systems Digital Intelligence caput of products told The Register. Todd said nan US military's caller outer web is akin to what nan UK MoD hopes to build done its Skynet programme launched earlier this year. The "family" of subject communications satellites, presently operated for nan MoD, "provides strategical connection services to nan UK Armed Forces and allies."

Beyond nan basics, some nan Defense Ministry and BAE were mum connected specifications of nan five-year Trinity contract, perchance because BAE and its partners successful nan consortium for nan task person yet to creation nan caller system, pinch specified tasks mentioned arsenic being portion of nan contract. 

Based connected what's known astir Falcon, nan predecessor strategy that Trinity will replace, and an infographic [PDF] BAE published alongside its Trinity announcement, nan level appears to screen everything from secured outer communications to inter-operation power awesome towers and secured net moving from various office to nan field. 

To support interoperability, Todd told america Trinity will beryllium compliant pinch NATO's Federated Mission Networking Protected Core Network standard, "enabl[ing] greater collaboration pinch partners and allies, resulting successful a genuinely interoperable solution for accusation sharing," Todd said.

Trinity will besides beryllium built connected BAE's NetVIPR technology, which Todd said will bring orchestration and automation capabilities to Trinity, "reducing complexity for nan user."

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Trinity itself is conscionable 1 information of nan UK's larger Land Environment Tactical Communications and Information Systems programme, which includes respective initiatives pinch nan purpose to springiness subject leaders "the intends to make informed and timely decisions enabled by agile Communication Information Systems," nan MoD said. 

BAE has perilous small clip to get its caller strategy designed and deployed – Falcon, which entered work successful 2012, is slated to spell offline successful 2026, and nan MoD wants Trinity delivered from December 2025.

BAE didn't straight reply our questions astir whether it believed it could meet nan MoD's tight deadline, aliases whether Falcon could extremity up successful work beyond 2026, but Todd did show america that BAE would support delivering Falcon while Trinity improvement continued.

"We are successful a caller era of progressively accusation rich | warfare and Trinity is designed for this changing and analyzable quality of nan modern battlespace arsenic an hold to Falcon," Todd said.

We person asked nan MoD for comment. ®