News and Insights

Airbus, Fujitsu and Thales in the UK team up for the British Army’s future tactical communication programme

Airbus, Fujitsu and Thales UK have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work collaboratively on the upcoming Systems Integrator (SI) opportunity for the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD), Land Environment Tactical Communications and Information Systems programme – known as LE TacCIS.

Following the signature of the MOU, the partners have formed team ICELUS led by Airbus that will bring together a trusted collective of MOD strategic partners who have a unique breadth of expertise of defence communications networks. ICELUS will offer pioneering change through a coherent systems integration approach to ultimately deliver operational effectiveness and information advantage to the end user, whilst sustaining a UK centric, defence industrial base. The three partners will be able to jointly explore how their respective unique expertise and solutions can be combined in order to put forward the best-possible proposals with regard to capabilities and competitiveness for this major programme.

ICELUS will focus on the upcoming LE TacCIS System Integrator (SI) opportunity to lead on the design and integration of the products & services for applications, infrastructures and networks. The LE TacCIS System Integrator is expected to be contracted by 2023/2024.

The LE TacCIS programme consists of multiple sub-programmes and projects with the aim to deliver the next generation of tactical military communications in the land environment, providing the means to make informed and timely decisions enabled by agile Communication Information Systems (CIS).

LE TacCIS is designed to be resilient, working securely in a congested and contested cyber battlespace. It will degrade gracefully and recover when attacked, continuing to provide essential Command and Control (C2) services and capabilities. It will integrate with other systems to allow the quick and easy sharing of information between platforms and weapon systems, delivering full-spectrum, multi-domain effects.

In contrast to the current system’s single source prime supplier model, elements of the LE TacCIS programme will be competed from industry who will be incentivised to deliver increased system agility, capability and value for money.

Note to editors:
Airbus has provided a range of services and solutions to the UK as well as NATO Armed Forces including tactical land communications, radio networks, security and IT network infrastructures as well as delivering and operating the Skynet military satellite communications services for more than 15 years. Airbus also manages test and reference services at the UK Land System Reference Centre (LSRC), providing an appropriate test, integration and transition capability that assures release packages for introduction onto the defence networks as well as in support of operations and exercises worldwide.

For over 50 years Fujitsu have innovated with the MOD, Government Departments and intelligence communities, co-creating new technologies and capabilities. Fujitsu understands that within the military, end-to-end digitalisation is crucial, and are committed to developing innovative digital solutions that overcome the complexities of transformation and deliver decision advantage. As a result, Fujitsu has security cleared staff and experience to deliver and manage both generic industry offerings and those tailored to specialist needs at all levels of classification. From IT service management, secure cloud, software defined networking, information and application integration, artificial intelligence and dev ops. Fujitsu promote a human centric intelligent society, in which innovation is driven by the integration of people, information and infrastructure.

Thales has a vision for the future of military capability called “Collaborative Combat”. This vision demonstrates a clear understanding of the UK MOD’s focus on data-centricity and multi-domain integration in the ISTAR and TacCIS areas. Our focus for LE TacCIS SI is to offer the systems integration outcomes for the next generation of secure tactical and operational radio bearers and soldier worn systems - integrating capability from soldier to satellite. Our credentials in research and the delivery of capability in both the UK and globally, mean that our radio, ECM and high assurance engineering and security skills remain leading edge. Thales are NATO’s leading supplier of ISTAR systems and number two in the world for the supply of military radio communications. For LE TacCIS our secure communication technologies, innovative sophisticated waveforms and systems integration for mounted and dismounted combat systems are highly complementary to our partners’ expertise in aerospace and information technologies.