MP-IST-209-1760.pdf — page 3

sories. This means more options for everyone involved, from
autonomous systems makers to people using them, and it stops
any company from dominating the market [20]. MAVLink is
about improving how UxVs work together, sparking new ideas,
and helping the industry grow [20].
Since UAVs navigate through three-dimensional space, they
present a broad scenario for communicating position and
velocity data. Consequently, it makes sense to utilise the
same protocol for other vehicles, like UGVs moving in two-
dimensional space or UMVs, which operate in three dimen-
sions but beneath the ocean’s surface [20].
E. BMS
The BMS integrates the Army Command and Control
Information System (Sistema de Informac˜ao para o Comando
e Controlo do Ex´ercito) (SICCE) of the SIC-T, which in turn
supports the Command and Control (C2). The BMS works via
the radio network in the Very High Frequency (VHF) band in
secure mode (SECOM-V). This C2 system is designed for low-
ranking units (Battalion and below) in vehicular use, with an
application that facilitates the sharing of geographical position
in the field via portable terminals connected to a secure radio
network [22].
The BMS fulfils the requirements of the NATO, guaran-
teeing interoperability with the means of communication of
the alliance’s member countries through the Standardization
Agreement (STANAG) 5527 standard - Friendly Force Track-
ing [23].
F. Army Tactical Radios
This subsection presents two tactical radios used by the
Portuguese Army, the P/PRC-525 and the TR5000.
1) P/PRC-525: The P/PRC-525 Tactical Radio results from
a partnership between EID and Rohde & Schwarz. It operates
on High Frequency (HF), VHF, and UHF and follows the
Software Defined Radio (SDR) philosophy [22].
2) TR5000: In August 2019, to meet the Army’s needs,
TR5000 radios were purchased from Rohde & Schwarz’s
SOVERON family, in the vehicular and manpack versions,
TR5000V and TR5000H [24].
G. Related Work
The article “Unmanned Systems Interoperability in Military
Maritime Operations: MAVLink to STANAG 4586 Bridge”
presents a link between the MAVLink communication protocol
and STANAG 4586 — which defines the architectures, proto-
cols, data elements, and interfaces between the various control
systems of an unmanned aerial system. To realise this link,
converter software was developed on the UAV. This article
aimed to enable UAVs that communicate with MAVLink,
which is cheaper, to communicate with a GCS that uses
STANAG 4586. The proposed system was developed using
the Python programming language and a Raspberry Pi [25].
The experiments by the NATO IST-149-RTG group demon-
strate interoperability between UGV and C2 systems. The goal
was to test interoperability standards in real-world scenarios,
specifically the Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems and
its interoperability profile. The experiments involved multiple
NATO countries using different UGVs and GCS, demonstrat-
ing that systems could be easily extended to comply with
these standards. No experiments were carried out with UAVs
in this experiment due to technical problems. However, the
integration of UAVs that used the MAVLink communication
protocol was studied [26].
The report by the Estonian Defence Investment Centre [27]
analyses eleven platforms from different companies/consortia
from various countries. The report concludes that, in general,
all the UGVs were able to drive in an open field with
waypoints based on satellite navigation systems; the same was
not true in rougher scenarios or with vegetation. Table 1 shows
the companies/consortium, platform and country of origin.
TABLE 1: List of companies and the platforms that participated in the
Estonian trials [27].
Company/Consortium
Platform
Country of Origin
ARX Landsysteme
GEREON RCS
Germany
charismaTec OG
ARTUS PTAone
Austria
Czech University of
Defence/ VOP CZ, s.p.
TAROS V4
Czech Republic
Diehl Defence
Ziesel
Germany
Hentschel System
MoSeS UGV
Germany
iMUGS
THeMIS 4.5 +
iMUGS autonomy kit
Multinational
consortium
LEM S.R.L
RANGER-POLARIS
570
Italy
Milrem Robotics
THeMIS 4.5 +
MIFIK
Estonia
Nexter-KNDS
ULTRO 600
France
Rheinmetall Canada
Mission Master SP
Canada
Star Defence Logistics &
Engineering
SR-0001 UGV 4x4
Spain
The THeMIS UGV uses an IP radio at 2.4 GHz. It employs
MIMO technology in a mesh network with 4W of power. This
configuration allows a control range of up to 1.5 kilometres
in line of sight [29].
Fig. 1: THeMIS UGV [29].
The Gereon RCS UGV of ARX Landsysteme in terms of
remote control and communication [28]:
• Mobile communication (5G backwards compatible);
• Wi-Fi;
• Radio frequencies of 698 — 960 MHz, 1710 — 2700
MHz, 3200 — 3800 MHz, 2.4 — 2.5 GHz and 5 — 6
GHz.
STO-MP-IST-209 
1760 - 3 
Integration of a Commercial 
Unmanned Vehicle into the Army Communications System