Honing your edge

Source: Dynamics magazine, issue 6 July 2008

The EDGE™ UK provides a secure and adaptable environment that will help customers exploit the benefits of new C4I technologies

In the defence industry, taking advantage of the latest technological advances isn't always easy.Yet the ability to recognise and realise the potential of innovations is key to the success of most programmes.

Its aim is to allow GDUK's customers to take best-of-breed science and technology innovations into fielded capability as fast as possible. For SMEs and academic institutions, it's a way of showcasing their technologies, and so presents an attractive route to market for the latest innovations.

It's a perfect example of what the recently published Defence Innovation Strategy called a ‘new environment for innovation within the defence supply chain'. Collaborative environments The facility provides both physical and virtual environments in which customers, partners, suppliers and GDUK can collaborate on C4I
projects.

In addition to a shared integration lab that will be used by customers and GDUK, there are five multipurpose
‘member' labs, one of which is a specially designed vehicle lab. Each lab provides military radio services, GPS, tactical C4I data connectivity; audio-visual multimedia and wireless internet and telephone connections.

There are also links to outdoor facilities – for example, to mobile systems. And the labs offer a synthetic environment allowing visualisation, virtualisation and immersive demonstrations managed from a centralised control room.

The EDGE™ UK will play a part in developing the partnership-based concept of the UK's unique Joint Systems and Joint Networks Integration Bodies (JSIB and JNIB). The Joint Integration Bodies, pioneered by General Dynamics UK and the MoD in delivering the UK's flagship Bowman communications programme, bring together industry and the MoD to integrate key networks and systems into a coherent whole.

The UK facility is based on a similar US centre created in Scottsdale, Arizona in 2006. This has been a resounding success and has attracted more than 50 member companies. The fact that the UK was chosen for the second such facility underlines the importance of the UK defence industry, and the firms that supply it, not just to the UK's own security and business community, but to Europe and the world.

Customer benefits

For the UK's defence organisations, the EDGE™ UK facility provides some unique and invaluable benefits. These include:

• An environment for early user interaction – helping to ensure that solutions precisely match the customer's needs

• Visibility of new and relevant technology – so that customers can gain the benefit of new technologies as soon as possible

• Solution de-risking via realistic demonstrations – ensuring that the solution is truly effective

• An agile development environment – providing a way for both supplier and customer to adapt to changing circumstances

SME Benefits

For General Dynamics UK, SMEs represent a vitally important resource. As partners and suppliers, they provide a significant part of the wealth of skills and capabilities that make up the UK's Defence Industrial Base.

The EDGE™ UK has been created with SMEs in mind. They are able to become ‘members' of the facility (with no membership fee). The EDGE™ UK then provides them with a number of benefits:

• A secure, trusted environment in which to develop and test solutions, and demonstrate them to potential partners and customers

• Insight into the latest MoD initiatives, so that they can best judge where their solutions will benefit the customer and where to put their development efforts

• Networking within the EDGE™ UK community, opening up opportunities for partnering and new business

• Agile processes, so that they can adapt as fast and effectively as possible to new opportunities