European Commission launches collaborative land combat project

LATACC is primarily being funded by the European Defence Fund and includes a range of companies specialising in key technology areas such as cloud software, communications, sensors, robotics, artificial intelligence, and system resilience in challenging environments. (Thales)

A project to enhance and accelerate collaborative combat for European land forces has been launched following the signing of a grant agreement between Thales and the European Commission, the company announced on 17 January.

Called the Land Tactical Collaborative Combat (LATACC) project, the aim is to develop a solution that enhances, optimises, and accelerates the tactical command and combat capacities of European land forces from the brigade command post down to the combat vehicle, dismounted soldier, and unmanned system, a European Union factsheet on the project detailed.

Thales will be leading the 36-month EUR59.27 million (USD64.42 million) project, which encompasses a consortium of 34 companies from across 12 countries. The companies include, among others, Electronica, Indra, ISD, John Cockerill Defense, Leonardo, Milrem Robotics, Nexter Systems, Rheinmetall, and Thales.

According to Thales, the project will aim to co-ordinate actions with the major ongoing land command, control, communications, and intelligence (C3I) programmes, such as France's Scorpion, Sweden's LSS Mark, Norway's Mime, and Germany's Digitisation of Land-Based Operations (D-LBO).

As part of the project, the companies will also analyse “the requirements of European users and conduct a series of studies to identify common operational scenarios, define interoperable open architectures that are compatible with current and future standards, and develop the key technological building bricks needed to produce advanced technology demonstrators”, Thales detailed.

Trials will be conducted in operational conditions and during large-scale demonstrations to confirm the tactical benefits of land collaborative combat in European coalition operations, Thales added.