"The Future is in Applications"

Oded Nachmoni of Elta Systems, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), presents the company's vision in the field of communications and recounts the birth of the new TAC4G system

"The Future is in Applications"

"In today's army, communication is tightly connected to application. Elta has come up with the concept of store applications," says Oded Nachmoni, marketing and sales manager and computer networks manager at IAI's Elta Systems. "Our solutions cover the gamut of scenarios."

Nachmoni is referring to the TAC4G system that Elta began developing two and a half years ago. TAC4G is a broadband tactical communication solution based on fourth generation cellular technology that provides an answer for forces in diverse combat scenarios: routine operations, all-out war, spec ops, and HLS policing. Tac4G can be based on the existing infrastructure or operate as a separate network for forces in movement.

"In the past, you shouted something on the radio and hoped the other side heard it; at best, you wanted to convey a bit of data. Well, that world is passé. Today, clients want it all – pictures, video, and command and control (C2) systems while in motion. They demand the highest quality and that everything work synchronously in real-time.

"This means that you have to build an applicative environment suited to the network. Applications change frequently and I cannot reach a situation where the integration of an application that I just brought out requires major network changes. Therefore, it has to be a classic model. If anyone dreamed about bringing all the applications, well, this dream is over and done with. No one can bring all of the application that the customer needs, which is why an applications store has to
be under the customer's control."

"The DAP Model is No Longer Relevant"

"When I started out in the field, a manufacturer would approach a client and discuss his product," Nachmoni says. "At some point, a shift occurred, more or less when broadband came in. Today, the client tells you to bring him this, that, or something else.

"The client buys the applications that Elta and IAI excel in; for the rest, they go to others or develop it themselves. The network has to be able to work with all of them. This is a concept that is very different from DAP (the Digital Army program developed by Elbit for the IDF ground forces)."

Elta's network is based on international standards that enable the integration of communications systems from different manufacturers.

"What stops us from going to Ericson, Nokia, Siemens or Motorola and taking civilian equipment and using it?" Nachmoni asks rhetorically. "Well, it seems that there are several major differences betweensolutions, while at the other end,
there's a solution that integrates hardware and software. We know how to provide software solutions, but so do many others. The advantage lies at the other end, where the hardware is integrated to meet more threats.

"Traditional data protection was mainly a matter of encryption. Today the objective is cyber. The applications are in perpetual communication between themselves and we supply encryptions, but today, cryptographers have the advantage.
A permanent strategic system can be cracked in a month or two. However, if we are talking about a tactical force operating for a day or two, and it takes a month to crack the encryption, then the force has been long gone by the time the decrypters finish their work. As for identifying and spotting the forces, there are measures to counter this. Compared to other methods of communication, the technology's low volume transmission makes it difficult to pinpoint because you have to be very close to the transmission to pick up its exact location.

"We launched this project with the idea that we have to supply users with cyber-defenses. This isn’t a question of one threat - it's about thousands of threats. Our solution can also operate in an unprotected infrastructure. In some places, where suited, we lay out the entire infrastructure including military base stations, though it's also possible to be based on the commercial civilian network. Most HLS forces are regularly based on civilian operators, and we have developed
a solution capable of providing protection at a very high level, even on such a network."

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