Saab wins multimillion 'Legend' contract

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 01 Aug 2008

Saab Systems SA has been awarded a contract in excess of R30 million to provide the SA Army its first-ever integrated ICT-based command-and-control (C2) system.

Saab pipped to the post several other contenders, including international contractors, with a locally-developed solution called Chaka, named for the Zulu Napoleon.

Saab SA CEO Riaz Salojee says the contract was "hotly contested" as "whoever wins has business for the next 30 to 40 years".

The company says Chaka enables a brigade commander and his staff to enjoy situational awareness unequal to that available up to now, plan operations and electronically send the resulting operational orders to subordinate commanders and control the execution of their plans.

Saab Systems SA MD Willie Bothma says the deal represents a major leap forward in the utilisation of IT to improve the operational effectiveness of the SA Army, the SA National Defence Force and its Joint Operations Division that exercises C2 over all deployed forces.

"Planning time will be reduced drastically and orders can now be sent instantaneously in near real-time", says Bothma.

Local content, local IP

Bothma adds that Chaka is a fully South African system developed over several years by South Africans in close cooperation with the end user.

"It expands on the system supplied to the Ground Based Air Defence Formation," says Bothma.

"It is of special significance that the Chaka can also integrate with the conflict simulation system supplied by Saab Systems SA to the SANDF Centre for Conflict Simulation (CONSIM) [last year]. This will enable the SANDF to 'train as you fight and fight as you train'," he adds.

"The fact that the system is truly South African guarantees continuous, cost-effective support of the system, as well as the possibility of developing any additions to the system, according to evolving needs. This puts the SANDF in full control of their system," Bothma further adds.

Saab Systems SA previously also developed and built the heart of SA Air Force's Air Picture Display System (APDS), which is that service's air mission C2 system.

"With this new contract Saab Systems SA adds the landward command and control domain to the existing air command and control domain in one business entity," says Bothma.

"The advantage to the SANDF is that the expertise gained in the air environment is also available for the landward Command and Control domain. Furthermore, Saab Systems SA has already integrated elements of both systems to move towards the achievement of a more integrated joint command and control system for the SANDF."

What it does

The system architecture the Army sought had to consist of a static C2 system to support brigade headquarters, mobile C2 systems to support battalion and company commanders, and location sensors, called "Impi" to track own forces.

The army wants enough of these to support three simultaneous peace support operations elsewhere in Africa and one training exercise at home.

Bidders had to fulfil a range of requirements, including a commitment to "having a local support and enhancement capability within SA that can maintain/upgrade the full software suite for at least 10 years after commissioning".

The tender documents also required that the "source code of the system shall reside in SA for Department of Defence use".