MBDA Presents Weapon Effects Management System for FCAS Program at Farnborough

European MBDA presented at the Farnborough Airshow its vision for weapon effects optimisation in the Future Combat Air System (FCAS).

As part of its involvement in the FCAS programme, MBDA is developing a Weapon Effects Management System. Working closely with its Partners in the programme, the concept intends to deliver software that works in harmony with the core platform’s mission systems and sensor suite, providing the best threat response, deployable at the most opportune moment, therefore maximising the overall mission effectiveness.

In an ever increasingly complex operating environment, a pilot – or even remote operator – will need the assistance of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) of a Weapon Effects Management capability to reduce their cognitive burden and facilitate the coordination of all available complex weapons in a battle space.

It may also be that the best effect does not come from the system’s core platform, but an un-crewed adjunct or UCAV or even from wider in the battlespace such as a ground or naval-based systems, or a combination of them. An additional capability of the system is to exploit sensing and data-linking capabilities on an Effector to contribute into a mission system thus increasing situational awareness. This is what MBDA’s weapon effects management capability aims to manage for the pilot, providing them the optimal solution to choose from before they even have to think about it.

Chris Allam, Managing Director of MBDA UK and Executive Group Director of Engineering, said: “At MBDA, we know that networked weapons, cooperating in packs, or even swarms, will provide an operational advantage in the future battlespace. The Future Combat Air System will also have the information advantage in that same space. Coupling the two, the vision for the Weapon Effects Management System is to enable true effects optimisation, making complex weapons simple.”