On 20 February GMV’s Tres Cantos site in Madrid, Spain, hosted a meeting to present the Generic Open Soldier System Reference Architecture (GOSSRA) project.

GOSSRA is financed by the European Union through the European Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) program. GOSSRA’s remit, as its name suggests, is to develop a generic open soldier system reference architecture; this reference architecture will recommend specific approaches, guidelines, system structures and standards to be used in order to facilitate the development, integration and interoperability of systems based on this architecture, i.e., operating under the aegis of the EU or NATO.

GMV is working on this project in a consortium led by the German company Rheinmetall Electronics, together with the European firms TNO (Netherlands), Indra (Spain), Larimart SPA (Italy), Leonardo (Italy), SAAB (Sweden), iTTi (Poland) and Tekever-ASDS (Portugal).

GOSSRA focuses on the electronics of these systems, the voice- and data-communications, the sensors and effectors, the HIDs (human interface devices) and C4 systems (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence).

The meeting explained the capabilities developed under GOSSRA, which is now in its final (standardization) phase. Several technical demos highlighted the benefits to be obtained from the standardization of the various hardware and software components, such as the exchange of batteries, sensors or other devices among the systems of different countries. There was also a live exhibition involving the following soldier systems: dZ-ES 68 (Germany), SISCAP (Spain), VOSS SmartVest (Netherlands) and Soldato Sicuro (Italy), demonstrating the capability of interoperating and exchanging tactical information through the standard interfaces recommended under GOSSRA.

The event was attended by, among others, Colonel Juan Luis González, Head of the Professional Army Support Section (Sección de apoyo al Ejército Profesional: SEAPRO); colonel Moisés Serrano, Head of Spain’s Soldier System Program together with GOSSRA office personnel and other army representatives; the Head of the Program of the Netherlands; representatives from the MoDs of Sweden, Italy, Poland plus representatives from the European Commission and the European Defence Agency (EDA).