Thales introduces new command and control system for weapon coordination

by John McHale

Thales officials introduced the Engagement Control Station (ECS), a customizable command and control solution for air defense weapon coordination.

The ECS fulfils key critical missions such as radar management, airspace surveillance, combat management, and fire control, leading to heightened operational capabilities and kill probability of ground-based air defense forces, company officials say. The ECS computes an optimized deployment of air defense sensors and weapons to provide air defense authorities with effective tactical solutions. By intelligent data fusion, the ECS elaborates the local air picture, combining multi-radar data and information provided by upper air authorities.

The system provides accurate and automatic target designation of any kind of weapon systems and performs automatic threat evaluation and weapon assignment (TEWA) ensuring optimal pairings between weapon systems and threatening targets, avoiding overkill, underkill, and fratricide, Thales officials say.  

The system's design allows several options including one for a two-operator station embedded in the SHIKRA 200 or SHIKRA 60 shelter. Alternatively a single operator station is available for embedding in a variety of air defence weapon systems. Finally, an option allowing up to a five-operator station is embedded in a dedicated command and control shelter.