Focus on the future: DWT focus group meeting at the IABG

This year, the DWT’s “Future” focus group (Initiativkreis Zukunft) held its annual symposium at the IABG on 23rd and 24th January.
The symposium, which took place under the patronage of the German Federal Armed Forces’ Centre for Transformation (ZTransfBw), bore the title:

Concept Development and Experimentation - CD&E: dialogue and exchange

The symposium focused on a dialogue between the German Federal Armed Forces, science and the economy. Distinguished representatives from the Armed Forces and the economy gave reports on the foundations, methodology, general set-up and national and international experiences of CD&E projects during a debate which was led by Mr. Landahl-Gette (IABG), who gave the symposium the benefit of his extensive experience.
The speakers pinpointed current methodology in use in the field of concept development and experimentation via instructive application examples during half-hour lectures, simultaneously providing a preview of future developments in this area.

All the lectures clearly highlighted the fact that concept development and experimentation is an iterative process involving the optimisation of deployment, communication and management systems, whose success depends on their constant improvement and additional development.

A particularly important CD&E project, currently in the planning stages, is the creation of mutual interfaces for information exchange between internal Armed Forces departments, taking specific account of IT security requirements and the development of a networked operation management system, or linked combination of real and simulated intelligence, management and communications systems (VintEl, or Shared Integrated Testing Landscape).

Dr. Nuxoll of Rheinmetall Electronics, Mr. Imkenberg of Diehl BGT Defence and Dr. Kolland of the System Design Center, EADS, all representing the economy, related their experiences in the field of CD&E.

The IABG contributed to the symposium in the form of two lectures: Professor Dr. Schaub spoke on the subject of “Human Factors in Transformation“, and Mr. Neumann gave a live presentation in the IABG’s simulation, integration and test centre (SIT) within the context of his lecture entitled “The Suitability of Training Systems in the Field of CD&E, taking GUPPIS (Army Command and Staff Simulation System) as an example”.

There was no lack of questions and contributions during what became a lively discussion. The participants were given the opportunity to contribute to the subsequent concluding debate.

With approximately 100 participants, this year’s IKZ symposium was well-attended, and thanks to the consistently high standard of lectures and contributions, it provided a comprehensive overview of current CD&E planning within the German Federal Armed Forces.

Both participants and organisers were agreed that CD&E should continue to be observed and addressed during a follow-up event.