Stu’s Look into Opportunities in Europe

One of the greatest things about my job is I get to meet with industry and international SOF all the time. No matter where I go, nations are always looking for new game-changing technologies that make their SOF better and more interoperable.

The Capabilities Catalog

To help our partner nations, the Global SOF Foundation (GSF) uses a SOF Capabilities Catalog and the nations determine their “level of interest”. We reach out to relevant industry asking them if they would like to exhibit or if possible demo their products at our Symposium events.

The GSF is jointly hosting the 2019 Global SOF Symposium – Belgium in Brussels from 1 – 3 October, and several participating partner nations have listed the following capabilities as CRITICAL items of interest. Some of the capabilities cannot be exhibited at the venue in Brussels, BUT most can and I encourage industry with these capabilities to consider exhibiting.

When I say Critical, I mean it is the highest level of requirement for the surveyed nations. We know the nations will attend the event, and they also know that we are reaching out to industry to get them to demo / exhibit the capabilities they seek. I am not sure how other events operate, but the GSF does this to ensure nations and industry are not wasting time and money.

VISUAL AUGMENTATION SYSTEMS

• Integrated Multi-Spectral Night Vision Optics – Integrated with small arms and major weapons systems; ability to sense environments in zero light and degraded visibility.

SOLDIER PROTECTION, SURVIVAL, AND EQUIPMENT SYSTEMS

• Armor – Novel technologies and designs that decrease weight while increasing level of protection.
  

MARITIME SYSTEMS

• RHIBs – High quality vessels available in a range of sizes. The modular and rapidly configurable range includes 2-man back pack mounted boats with stealth whisper engine, foldable and air droppable 380m, 470m, 530m inflatables and a selection of RHIBs up to 9m designed for superior handling and maximum passenger or equipment payload.
• Underwater Operations Equipment – Includes but is not limited to diving rebreathers, diving and dry suits, fins, underwater navigation systems, DPDs, Swimmer Delivery Vehicles, underwater communications systems, oxygen booster pump, oxygen generators, and auto inflation devices.
• High speed boat Operations – Coastal patrol craft enabling interoperability between land, naval, air forces and coalition partners.

TARGETING AND INTELLIGENCE CAPABILITIES

• Handheld Geospatial Mapping, Tracking, Planning Communications and Survey tool – Software that operates on handheld devices to enhance soldier understanding of the battlefield while securely communicating critical information to peers, partners and leaders as required.
  

MANNED AVIATION SYSTEMS

• Fixed Wing Platforms – Airpower capabilities that are adaptable, innovative and can effectively enable SOF to accomplish missions. These platforms provide the backbone for SOF airborne mobility, aerial refueling support, airborne precision engagement, and aerial surveillance capabilities. They provide critical infiltration and exfiltration, and they resupply capabilities for SOF in and out of hostile territory.
  

UNMANNED AVIATION SYSTEMS

• Group 1 UASs – Typically hand-launched, portable systems employed at the small unit level or for base security. They can provide “over the hill” or “around the corner” type of reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition. Payloads are modular such as fixed EOIR systems. Data from these systems is limited to the user / operator, usually within close proximity to the UAS. These systems operate at altitudes less than 1,200 feet above ground level.
• C-UAS – Designed to detect, track, identify, and defeat UAS engaged in hostile airborne surveillance and potentially malicious activity. A complete system will provide command and control across the detect, track, identify, and defeat cycle, ensure digital interoperability with joint integrated air and missile defense, and field non-kinetic/kinetic capabilities versus UAS in defense of a maneuver force.
  

TACTICAL COMBAT CASUALTY CARE MEDICAL SYSTEMS

• Remote Surgical Suite – Lightweight, highly portable, remote tele-surgery capability that allows a doctor to perform surgery on a patient near the battlefield even though they are not physically present at the same location.

C4ISR SYSTEMS

• Cyber Defense – Software that helps protect communications networks from compromise.
• NATO/USSOCOM Interoperable SATCOM with TRANSEC – Universal SATCOM modems that offer STANAG compliant waveforms that allow for partner bandwidth sharing and direct termination on partner networks.
  

Learn More:

We will post the second level of interest in future blogs but we hope industry that can deliver these capabilities participate. Everything you want to know about the 2019 Global SOF Symposium – Belgium is on the event website.