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The FICAPS Project has been established as a Project of the European Defence Agency based on an initiative of
Germany and France. Goal of this Project was to derive Guidelines, which by a proper implementation in future
developments improve Camp Protection Systems (CPS) by enabling and improving interoperability between Camp
Protection Systems and its Equipments of different Nations involved in multinational missions. These Guidelines shall
allow for:
• Real-time information exchange between equipments and systems of different suppliers and nations (even via
SatCom),
• Quick and easy replacement of equipments (even of different Nations) at run-time in the field by means of plug and
play capability, thus lowering the operational and logistic costs and making the system highly available,
• Enhancement of system capabilities (open and modular systems) by adding new equipment with new capabilities
(just plug-in, automatic adjustment of the HMI Human Machine Interface) without costly and time consuming
validation and test on system level (validation and test can be done on Equipment level),
Four scenarios have been identified to summarize the interoperability requirements from an operational viewpoint. To
prove the definitions given in the Guideline Document, a French and a German Demonstration System, based on existing
national assets, were realized. Demonstrations, showing the capabilities given by the defined interoperability
requirements with respect to the operational scenarios, were performed.
Demonstrations included remote control of a CPS by another CPS, remote sensor control (Electro-Optic/InfraRed
EO/IR) and remote effector control. This capability can be applied to extend the protection area or to protect distant
infrastructural assets Demonstrations have been performed. The required interoperability functionality was shown
successfully.
Even if the focus of the FICAPS project was on camp protection, the solution found is also appropriate for other force
protection and ISR (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance) tasks not only due to its flexibility but also due to the
chosen interfacing.
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