This is how brigade command must remain in war

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Increased survivability: Hans Flagstad, head of the materiel department at the Hærens väpenskole samband, shows Sisu, which has been converted into a mobile command post.

Photo: Christer Sorbo, Defense Forum

ALTA (Armed Forces Forum): New threats on the battlefield of Ukraine are forcing the armed forces to think differently if they are to survive on the modern battlefield.

Short version:

The Army Weapons School is testing mobile command centers in vehicles to increase survivability on the battlefield in the future.

The experience of the war in Ukraine shows that fixed command posts are vulnerable, and that dispersion is necessary to avoid enemy detection.

The summary is generated by artificial intelligence, but read by a journalist.

– The idea is to increase the survivability on tomorrow's battlefield for staff members and officers, says Hans Flagestad, head of the materiel department at the Army Weapons School.

Today, the military command center is larger and has large tents and barbed wire. Not only are they fixed and require time and resources to set up, pack and move, but they also mean that management elements are often collected in one place. It makes them vulnerable.

During the Nordic Responses program, the Army Weapons School is testing how to transfer the command center to a vehicle and perform the same function.

Flagstad says that today it is possible to put the same technical solutions into the car, as in the command center. This means that you can spread management abroad. This way, they become harder to find and harder for the enemy to hit. At the same time, you can move quickly.

– All of these factors help significantly increase the survival rate, he says.

Mobility: According to the head of the Army Weapons School's materiel division, mobile command centers will be able to significantly increase the survivability of department elements in a war facing an enemy well-armed with weapons and technology.

Photo: Christer Sorbo, Defense Forum

Hard-earned experience

Flagestad highlights the war in Ukraine as an example, where valuable experience was gained around fixed command posts, which became easy targets for enemy long-range precision fire, drones and other types of sensor capabilities.

-There are no longer any noticeably safe areas behind the front. The enemy is likely to reach the entire country, and can find targets in large parts of the country. He says we see this on both sides of the war in Ukraine.

To address this challenge, the command center must be deployed so that it is not visible to the enemy.

– We have to assume that the Russians will learn from this. Then we have to be prepared because tomorrow's battlefield will be a further development of what we see in Ukraine.

Hidden: Sisu can be easily camouflaged and hidden.

5G and satellites

According to Flagstad, today's high-bandwidth technology and modern ICT will make mobile command centers possible in the coming years. As he sees it, the biggest challenge is modifying the information systems used by the armed forces today, so that they work optimally when spread over larger areas, in addition to having to change the method of operation and structure.

– What is the biggest weakness of a mobile command center?

The vulnerability exists in the electromagnetic spectrum. Depending on the technology you have chosen, there is higher or higher visibility for the adversary who will try to detect you.

Flagestad also points out that coverage can be a challenge. Infrastructure is particularly variable in Finnmark, but there are solutions for this, including the use of SATCOM, satellite communication, and 5G where available.

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