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2020-12-13

Patria Builds Foundation for a Secure Future

Patria Group is an international provider of defence, security and aviation life cycle support services, pilot training and technology solutions. The company’s mission is to give its customers confidence in all conditions, and the vision is to be the number one partner for critical operations on land, sea and air.

Patria provides its aerospace and military customers with equipment availability, continuous performance development as well as selected intelligence, surveillance and management system products and services. The key services include maintenance, repairs and modifications to aircraft, helicopters, engines and various platforms, as well as design, products and product development of various vehicle platforms and mortar systems. Software expertise and system integration, intelligence, monitoring and command systems, as well as related life-cycle support services include to the variety of Patria’s offering.

The company will be 100 years old in 2021. The theme of the anniversary is “The foundation for a secure future”. History provides a strong foundation for a safe future, growth, working together and success.

The Group employs 3,000 professionals and is owned by the State of Finland (50.1 per cent) and Norwegian Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS (49.9 per cent). Patria owns 50 per cent of Norwegian Nammo, and together these three companies form a leading Nordic defence partnership.

High-tech Solutions for Older Vehicles

Patria is prepared to introduce high-tech solutions that extend manned armoured vehicles with remote-controlled and autonomous driving capabilities. Unlike unmanned vehicle robots widely used in the armaments business, the company’s software-based solution can be integrated into both older generation and new armoured vehicles without compromising the machine’s manual control functions.

According to Matti Saarikko, Director of Technology of Patria’s Land business unit, the company’s goal is to provide Defence Forces with a solution that allows the driver to switch from manual control mode to autonomous or remote-control mode. The system can also integrate into other vendors remote control architectures allowing the user to standardise the control systems between different systems.

“Remote control and autonomous control functions are one of the future directions of the military world. In our opinion, however, this does not necessarily have to mean acquiring new unmanned vehicles. If such a solution is reasonable and cost-effective, it is possible to integrate modern control technologies into any already used machines during the reconstruction, thus expanding their useability with new functions during their life cycle,” he explained.

According to him, rapid digitalisation and electrification development in automotive world has made it easy to apply these technologies to modern vehicles. Naturally some of the older vehicles require little bit more work.

“As the Estonian Defence Forces are procuring new armoured vehicles in the coming years, today is the best time to consider future demands on most modern technologies and to map their future capability requirements. The Patria 6x6 armoured vehicle, which has been discussed with the Defence Forces as a possible armoured vehicle solution, offers good baseline for increasing its unmanned and remote capabilities for the future,” he highlighted.

Patria’s remote control technology has been tested over 4G, 5G and tactical network, and the distance between the vehicle and the control panel can reach up to a thousand kilometres.

“In order to ensure effective remote control regardless of visibility or weather conditions, in difficult terrain, various sensors and cameras simultaneously localise and map to create an informative 3D view of vehicle’s surroundings. To achieve accurate mapping, we use Lidar sensors, but also passive sensors such as stereo cameras, which cannot be detected by the opponent in dangerous situations,” said Saarikko.

He stressed that effective remote control of a 20-30-tonne 8x8 armoured vehicle in the demanding terrain and environment, where it is capable of travelling, is a much more difficult task than operating various slower and smaller vehicles, and the driver’s perception of physical feedback plays an equal role to that of the field of vision.

The strength of Patria’s remote control and autonomous driving solutions also takes into an account needed measures to protect against Electronic warfare threats.

“Today, it is relatively easy to interfere unmanned vehicles by using electronic warfare capabilities such EMP and HPEM weapons of RF jamming. Patria has been developing technologies that protect against these threats for decades, and our solutions have proven their reliability in the equipment of armoured vehicles of various defence forces,” he concluded.

Reference Text/Photo: www.patriagroup.com

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