C4ISTAR

C4ISTAR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) capability has a vital role to play in the delivery of the UK MoD's Network Enabled Capability (NEC) vision.

The importance of providing sustainable investment to enable the research and development (R&D) of future innovative C4ISTAR capability is confirmed by its pre-eminence in both the UK MoD’s Defence Industrial and Technology Strategies.

Enhanced C4ISTAR capability aims to provide UK armed forces with integrated information and communications systems that will ensure increased accuracy of operational critical information being delivered to the right people at the right time. Headline programmes such as DABINETT, LISTENER, and FUTURE CORE NETWORK are all charged with delivering C4ISTAR capability to ensure strategic, operational and tactical intelligence is quickly and accurately disseminated to commanders across the joint UK forces and their allies.

The UK MoD, like many other international defence organisations, is, however, striving to improve C4ISTAR military capability during a climate of intense budgetary challenge.

With a commitment to two increasingly expensive operational campaigns, the cost of new large-scale equipment platforms such as the Future Aircraft Carrier, and the challenge to meet the objectives of the Defence Acquisition Change Programme (DACP), the C4ISTAR community is under intense pressure to plan appropriately for future Through Life Capability. The community is therefore already embracing the philosophy of Through Life Capability Management (TLCM) and is re-assessing how capability effect can best be delivered by examining the merits offered by all Defence Lines of Development (DLoD).

In such an environment, it is of paramount importance to have the ability to make informed decisions about how best to deliver the required C4ISTAR capability. Additionally it is vital to understand what technology warrants R&D investment to ensure that the most effective military capability reaches the front line commands.

At VEGA, we believe that the success of such Through Life Capability Management (TLCM) and R&D investment decisions comes down to the UK defence acquisition community’s (DECs, DE&S, end users and, just as importantly, Industry) ability to:

Create a repository of new and existing capability across all DLoD
Better understand the interdependent relationships of DLoDs across systems and systems of systems
Define a common language by which the resulting investment decisions can then be more accurately assessed, prioritised and reviewed
Enable repeatable, defendable decisions that result in a Recognised Acquisition Picture and Synchronized Procurement Programme
Define, understand and visualise how the true potential of a specific programme is of particular value to the C4ISTAR community where the complexity of such interdependencies and interactions is heightened by the very nature of C4ISTAR capability.

To discover more about VEGA’s work delivering C4ISTAR capability, as well as our ability to support the new challenges set by the implementation of TLCM and R&D, please visit some of the topics listed below.

C4ISTAR-related topics

Through Life Capability Management (TLCM)