The European Defence Agency, or EDA, has contracted with Rheinmetall and its partners in Germany and France to create a demonstrator system for protecting military assets and installations in a multinational context.
Standing for “Future Interoperability of Camp Protection Systems”, the Franco-German FICAPS project seeks to develop methods and means to harmonize semi-static and mobile protection systems for the combined (multinational) protection of co-located sections, camps and critical infrastructure.
Development of a common system architecture for linking various semi-static and/or mobile protection systems will enable better cooperation between the armed forces of different nations, thus fostering greater interoperability.
Interoperability of equipment and systems has emerged as a critical factor in coalition operations. After all, in this era of international conflict management and intervention, a growing number of missions involve troops from more than one country.
Having embarked on national programmes to develop systems for protecting military camps and semi-static bases, Germany and France agreed back in 2005 to launch a bilateral project to promote European interoperability of these systems.
Adopting a “system of systems” approach, FICAPS will draw on national assets to implement a European protection system demonstrator featuring interoperable capabilities for defending facilities such as forward operating bases. The programme will involve increased sharing of human and technological resources in a joint or even combined framework.
The Rheinmetall consortium has been given a three-year processing period to complete this task.
The French and German governments have assigned coordination of contractor activities to EDA in Brussels. The award of this contract brings to a successful conclusion a three-year preparation and harmonization phase worth a total of EUR 8 million.
