UK becomes US Army's first Digital Interoperable Partner

Project Zodiac will manage sensor tasking and collection planning, ingest data from all battlefield sensors, fuse and analyse it, and then distribute the resulting intelligence product. (British Army/Crown Copyright)

The United Kingdom became the US Army's first Digital Interoperable Partner during Exercise ‘Warfighter 2025' conducted in May at Fort Cavazos, Texas, under the US III Armored Corps, Chris Squier, defence director of Roke, the prime contractor for Project Zodiac, told Janes at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Land Warfare Conference 2025 held in London on 17 and 18 June. Project Zodiac aims to deliver an integrated intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) system, which Roke says will transform how the British Army undertakes data-led decision making in the land environment to gain operational advantage.

During Exercise ‘Warfighter 2025', US III Armored Corps provided a multinational headquarters leading 3 (UK) Division, the French 1st Division, and the German 10th Panzer Division. Zodiac was deployed to support 3 (UK) Division to find and destroy enemy targets, with Roke deploying 20 engineers who were located adjacent to the military participants in the exercise.

Squier told Janes that Roke created a digital infrastructure providing a common intelligence picture and a common operating picture for Zodiac and linked it to the British Army's Operational Communications and Information Systems (OpCIS). He said his company worked together with 3 (UK) Division to find a software solution, which was proven during Exercise ‘Warfighter 2025', with interoperability provided by shared standards. He added that the exercise demonstrated system reliability in the heat and usability by 150 users. III Armored Corps provided over two million data objects for the exercise, which were fused with Warfighter Simulation (WARSIM) sensor data entered by exercise control using Zodiac.