Insights into the two research programmes «Reconnaissance and surveillance» and «Communications»
On Thursday, 11 April 2024, the annual reporting event of the two research programmes «Reconnaissance and surveillance» and «Communications» of armasuisse Science and Technology (S+T) took place. At this event, the Directors of the respective research programmes, Dr Peter Wellig and Dr Christof Schüpbach, presented their ongoing work and results to the internal DDPS employees.
Sarah Trösch, Strategic Staff, Competence sector Science and Technology
In addition to interesting insights into ongoing research activities and keynote speeches from technical experts, the annual reporting of the two research programmes also offers the participants the chance for networking and to exchange ideas. This opportunity for internal DDPS networking promotes the exchange of knowledge and cooperation.
Like last year, the two research programmes «Reconnaissance and surveillance» and «Communications» were the starting point of this year’s annual reporting. Around 100 experts from the DDPS came to Thun to find out more about the ongoing research projects and findings.
Multistatic radars and quantum cameras – the future of «Reconnaissance and surveillance»
Dr Peter Wellig started the day with a general overview of the research programme «Reconnaissance and surveillance». The many diverse activities of the research programme included the assessment of technological trends as well as the development and implementation of technology demonstrations. In addition, competences for future sensory analysis and countermeasures are being developed to support the Armed Forces in planning, testing and procurement. In addition, representatives of the research programme «Reconnaissance and surveillance» have been involved in activities of the NATO research organisation as part of the «Partnership for Peace» (PfP) for more than 15 years. This multilateral cooperation offers the opportunity to actively expand the international research partnerships and to focus on military applications. Within armasuisse S+T, various joint research activities are also taking place.
After the introduction, Dr Beat Ott, specialist area Sensors, presented a field experiment on the topic «Battlefield acoustics». The experiment was performed in 2023 in Walenstadt within a NATO research group. For the implementation, threats such as engagement from houses or vehicle convoys were selected and various UAV flights (unmanned aerial vehicle) carried out. Microphones, seismic sensors, radar devices and cameras were used in the experiment.
Another presentation dealt with the topic «New radar architecture - multistatic active radar». Among other things, it was emphasised here that the advantage of multistatic radar receivers is that they are difficult to disrupt. This is due to the fact that a multistatic radar system contains several transmission and receiving units for a common coverage area. Multistatic radar systems can thus offer a spatial diversity which enables various aspects of a goal to be recorded simultaneously. The keynote speech on quantum cameras must also be mentioned. Such cameras promise to detect objects located behind camouflage nets or around corners in the future.
As regards the outlook, Dr Peter Wellig announced that further tests are planned for this year in Walenstadt and that radar and acoustic measurements of low-noise drone propellers will be carried out.
Testing and research on «Communications»
The Director of the research programme «Communications», Dr Christof Schüpbach, also started the afternoon with an overview of the research activities. He emphasised that as part of this research programme, the most important and most necessary competences for the development of the «Intelligence collection and tactical reconnaissance network» (SNFW) will be set up and provisioned. Some specific research activities take place on mobile ad hoc networks (MANET), for example. MANETs only occur very seldom in the civilian world, but are very important for military application as they are not based on infrastructure and are thus more failsafe. In this subject area, the research programme «Communications» deals, for example, with the question of how the connection between two radio nodes can be made more robust while at the same time preventing the adversary from eavesdropping.
At the end of the research report, Dr Raphael Rolny demonstrated how the findings from the research projects are being incorporated in the CISLabs (Communication and Information Systems Labs). The CISLabs are the test environment of armasuisse S+T for the various projects in the SNFW network. This enables, for example, communications networks with a large number of participants to be virtually and physically emulated and complex scenarios to be run through. These types of extensive tests are only possible with a great deal of effort using conventional methods. With the modern approach of the Lab-as-a-Service (LaaS) from CISLabs, these types of tests can now be easily automated and controlled by remote access from anywhere. The other organisational units and partners can thus also use the test infrastructure. The findings from the research projects ultimately help to design the correct tests as well as enable new technologies and procedures to be better assessed or integrated into existing system landscapes.
Until the next time…
armasuisse S+T looks back on an interesting and valuable exchange of ideas with all those present and thanks the many speakers for their fascinating insights.
- Research Program 1 - Reconnaissance and Surveillance (admin.ch)
- Research Program 2 - Communications (admin.ch)
- The project «RadCom» – Sensory Analysis and Communications embark on a collaboration (admin.ch)
- Reconnaissance technologies: armasuisse is organising an international research event in Interlaken in cooperation with NATO (admin.ch)