How can innovation facilitate international collaboration and remove hurdles to interoperability?

The point of departure for this session is that the way in which Research & Technology supports innovation – that is the introduction of novel solutions – in hitech areas like defence and security is shifting. For a long period innovation was linked to new major equipment systems – in defence primarily platforms. With, say, a new fighter generation came also new weapons, new sensors, new C2 systems, new doctrines, etc. In summary a quantum leap in capability. Adopting the UK acronym TEPID-OIL, T(raining), P(ersonnel), I(nfrastructure), D(octrine & Concepts), O(rganisation), I(nfrastructure), and L(ogistics) were all enslaved by the big E for Equipment.

Under this regime R&T is naturally cyclical and to a large extend synchronous with the development and procurement of main equipment systems. The most significant role for R&T was in supporting the early design phases of new equipment generations, where the key decisions were taken on capabilities for the next several decades. This also meant that defence R&T was a game mainly for countries with significant industrial resources.

Since the last couple of decades this situation is changing mainly due to network technologies based on standardised interfaces enabling easy insertion of new generations of component technologies and easy reconfiguration of systems to address new challenges. Technology development is changing to be asynchronous with major system development. Modelling & simulation is a key enabler in all of this.
A number of concepts have been coined to describe this shift:
· from platform to net centricity;
· from integrated systems solving a specific task with extreme efficiency to more open systems-of-systems capable of adapting to a broad scope
  of missions;
· from focusing on equipment to focusing on the services they provide.

The starting point for this debate session is that defence and security R&T in Europe still has a lot of adaptation to do to fully exploit this new situation. The new situation however could act as an equaliser between bigger and richer vs. smaller and poorer nations in the sense that the barriers to entry are much lower when it comes to developing innovative services, predominantly based on existing equipment, than for, say, completely new fighters.

The session will start with an introduction by Dr. Anders Eriksson, and followed by a structured debate in several groups on predefined questions. Collectively we will try to find answers on how to effectively use this new situation.

Introduction: Dr. Anders Eriksson (FOI, Sweden)
Chair: Dr. Sadhbh Mc Carthy



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