From 25 April to 22 May the Spanish army took part in the Dynamic Front (DVIDS) multinational exercise led by the United States in Europe, designed to improve the allied countries’ ability to deliver long-range firing capabilities.

During these exercises the Spanish army’s Campaign Rocket-Launcher Artillery Regiment (Regimiento de Artillería Lanzacohetes de Campaña: RALCA) No. 63 validated the TALOS fire support command and control system for its integration in the ASCA (Artillery Systems Cooperation Activities) community.

Photo: Spc. Zachary Stahlberg

Developed since 2010 for the Spanish army’s Directorate General of Armaments and Material (Dirección General de Armamento y Material: DGAM), TALOS is GMV’s C4I system for the planning, management and execution of military operations at tactical level, allowing integration of various combat functions (command, firing, intelligence, logistics and communications) in the same mission. In terms of the firing function it allows for all-in management of the fire support cycle. The latest upgrade also implements the ASCA protocol that allows its integration with the fire support systems of allied nations belonging to ASCA group (USA, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, Great Britain).

To be eligible for membership of the ASCA program a country has to show that its national command and control system and national operational rules (NIOP) are compatible with the ASCA interface.

The command and control system certification process is conducted by interconnecting the candidate’s national system with the system of an ASCA member country. This member country sponsors the candidate national throughout this process. Spain’s sponsor is the United States.

TALOS came to this exercise with the implementation of the ASCA protocol already validated with the artillery systems of two ASCA countries, following the procedures laid down by the standard: with the US’s (Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System: AFATDS) and the UK’s Fire Control Battlefield Information System Application (FC-BISA).

As a preliminary phase to Spain’s full ASCA membership, and in order to build up to operational capability, the exercises included integration of a Spanish Artillery Battery in a US army group to carry out real firing actions using TALOS with its ASCA capability.

The exercises, supported remotely by GMV as national Spanish representation, were a resounding success and rubberstamp Spain’s full ASCA membership.