After winning a five-year contract to provide the British Army with training services in Kenya, Ravenswood has been awarded additional contracts to support live fire training as part of the Tactical Engagement System In Kenya (TESIK) programme.
Ravenswood said on 12 August that it will provide a mortar training solution with a very high degree of realism for the crew and accurate representation into the simulated and live training environments.
“Created in partnership with Cole Engineering Systems Inc, the realistic mortar system is based on a training barrel that fires simulated rounds a short distance. These components communicate into the TESIK system and kill instrumented entities in the simulated impact area. The mortar simulates the 81 mm mortar by matching in-service size and weight, assembles quickly and requires no alteration to tactical employment to create the most realistic combined training possible with no unnecessary or difficult artificial drills,” the company stated.
For instrumented live fire, Ravenswood will capture key data points to provide more analysis of collective live fire events. Ravenswood, working with Cervus Defence and Security Limited, will measure rates of fire, capture use of dead ground, identify exposure to unsuppressed targets and other data points allowing better understanding of success in live fire as well as comparison of marksmanship to training standards. In combination with the instrumented mortar, the TESIK system will now integrate simulated indirect fire with platoon and company live fire. Observer and mortar lines can now fully participate in CALFEX (combined arms live fire exercise), with effect captured for AAR (after-action review), Ravenswood said.
“These notable capabilities will add significant training value at every level. Progressive enhancements such as these demonstrate the benefits of forward leaning, proactive partnerships. We look forward to fielding both capabilities in just a few short weeks,” said David Cullen, General Manager of Ravenswood Technologies Kenya Limited.
Ravenswood was awarded the five-year £31.6 million TESIK contract in March 2020. At the time, Ravenswood Solutions said it would provide British troops training in Kenya and other locations with instrumentation, weapon simulators, battlefield effects, and instrumented after-action reviews (I-AARs) in collaboration with Swiss-based laser engagement systems provider RUAG, global logistics provider Agility, and UK-based engineering and technical services corporation QinetiQ.
RUAG’s laser-based, live-simulation system (known as Gladiator) would be interfaced with Ravenswood’s instrumentation system (known as the Mobile Ground Truth System) to generate high-fidelity exercise data, track troops and vehicles over a large, remote training area, and produce I-AARs to improve training.
The five-year contract has two optional one-year extensions. The contract runs from1 September 2020 to 31 August 2025.
The British Army has for many years held training in Kenya under the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK), with up to six British infantry battalions per year carrying out two month-long exercises in Kenya where they can train in rugged and hot conditions.
BATUK is a permanent training support unit based mainly in Nanyuki, 200 km north of Nairobi, but with a small element in Nairobi. BATUK provides demanding training to exercising units preparing to deploy on operations or assume high-readiness tasks. BATUK consists of around 100 permanent staff and reinforcing short tour cohort of another 280 personnel.
