Display screens are the eyes for maneuver forces needing to command and control

Army formations face threats that extend from kinetics to unmanned ISR drones to electronic warfare, which means much of their situational awareness comes from displays and visualization systems inside vehicles like Bradley infantry fighting vehicles.

We discussed these challenges and how advanced capabilities in visual displays present data for decision making with Neal Toso, director of technical business development for ScioTeq.

Breaking Defense: What are the lessons learned from Ukraine as they relate to rugged visualization solutions for mission and/or safety critical applications?

Toso: Lessons from Ukraine show that if you’re stationary you’re an easy target. Instead of having a fixed shelter for a command post – they’re too easily detected because of electronics and their digital signatures – the military needs to find modern ways to keep command posts mobile. That’s our focus, giving the Army larger-size, qualified display options for mobile command and control.

What is the value of visualization from the standpoint of force protection so that the soldiers and marines inside vehicles have situational awareness around them?

It’s essential that they have access to a real-time common operating picture sourced by multi-domain and joint service C5ISR data streams in large-scale combat operations. Visualization technology is the mechanism for such information conveyance. The screen is the system that must give warfighters the data that’s necessary for mission success, and what they want more than anything else is for the display to do what it’s supposed to do by providing them with situational awareness.

The display is the ultimate endpoint where the warfighter’s eyeballs meet mission data. Beyond clarity or pixels or sunlight readability, ruggedization and reliability are of critical importance – otherwise the warfighter is flying blind. The display simply must work. It’s got to be accurate, it’s got to be available, and it’s got to be timely and readily understood.

Describe the integration challenges of installing visualization onto a vehicle for command and control.

A maneuver battalion has about 20 Bradley fighting vehicles, and they pick three or four to convert into complete command posts. In the back of those vehicles are operators that need to control a UAV, for example. To do so, the Army is upfitting the interior of these vehicles with big 24 or 32-inch displays so that soldiers can have a visualization system that displays multiple sources of data for a full operational picture.

They’ll also have smaller displays to operate the actual sensors. Regardless of whether that unmanned system is a drone or a robotic combat vehicle that the Army’s developing now, their ability to control them is through the visualization systems.

To assist the Army in that endeavor, ScioTeq is stepping away a bit from the traditional small-size-form-factor displays that you find in a typical vehicle. We’re developing new visualization solutions that strike a balance between providing soldiers the ability to process the streams of data coming in and the advanced video processing capabilities they need to view the data in the most suitable manner.

ScioTeq provides hardware systems to vehicle manufacturer OEMs. What are the demand signals you are hearing from them and from the DoD about what’s needed in visualization and display technologies?

We see a shift toward standardization and the introduction of open formats both from an integrator’s perspective and from the end-user community. The first initiatives were launched in the UK with the DEF-STN 00-23 GVA (generic vehicle architecture) introduction, and this has become a baseline in many NATO countries with the NGVA standard.

In the U.S., the introduction of MOSA (Modular Open Systems Approach) and GCIA (Ground Combat Systems Common Infrastructure Architecture) show a clear shift toward a more open standard platform, avoiding vendor lock-in. For displays and computing, this change has required us to design and qualify our products, supporting multiple standards and offering low-risk integration for vehicle OEMs.

End users expect common strategic views for situational awareness. They want to understand the technical risks, and be able to manage a lifecycle from concept to design to manufacturing and lifetime support because they want to reduce technical risk and lower the system cost for the end users. They want to decrease operator stress and distraction because that has an impact on the mission, and they want to provide real-time situational awareness prior to the engagement. The key here that I’ve heard all the way up to Army Futures Command Commanding Gen. James Rainey is that he wants data, he wants knowledge, and he wants decision-making.

From another angle, we hear repeatedly about the requirement for obsolescence management. Deploying new systems is tremendously expensive, and retrofitting existing systems to remain operational, sometimes for decades, is a continuous struggle.

Partnering with a company like ScioTeq that has the knowhow and processes in place to maintain equipment for extended periods of time, coupled with exacting quality standards that yield minimal field failures, greatly reduces the total cost of ownership and provides a tremendous value to the government.

A key element of force protection is the speed at which data from on-vehicle sensors like thermal imagers is disseminated across the vehicle. How does ScioTeq’s visualization and display technologies reduce latency?

Presenting timely information is critical to the warfighter decision loop. The information stack is often a synthesis of data from multiple sources combined and presented to soldiers in such a way that they can rapidly identify alternatives.

ScioTeq displays allow the warfighter to switch views at the press of a button depending on the tactical situation. Low-latency video from a camera can be prioritized and projected directly on the screen without processing for applications such as driving or fire control.

The ability to support both this lowest video to glass latency (80-100 ms glass to glass) together with the advanced and rapid video processing on the order of 20 ms, as well as overlays combining data packages, provide the users with the best options during operations.

Breaking Defense: Final thoughts?

ScioTeq considers itself the leader in rugged visualization, computing, and networking hardware solutions. We take pride in collaborating with the OEM’s and end users to define architectures that provide a common strategic view for situational awareness.

By working upfront with the OEM’s we provide a better understanding of the technical risks, how lifecycles are managed, and the logistical support demands of warfighters. That translates into visualization systems for mission-specific implementation, all within a defined budget and timeline that meets the demand for decreased size, weight, power and cooling required for today’s maneuver forces.