TURMA: A project dedicated to the armed forces, meeting European standards in terms of ethics and good governance

GTD is participating in the TURMA consortium, an innovative and disruptive project of a network of manned and unmanned land vehicles will be presented as part of the call for projects of the European Commission's new program (EDIDP) prior to the emergence of a European Defense Fund. In concrete terms, TURMA aims to limit the exposure to hazards and to collateral damage in theaters of operations, thereby allowing a better civilian acceptance of military forces. As for the military, they will possess a solution that allows maintaining their freedom of action and execute their mission either in a conventional manner or with the support of unmanned vehicles in order to remain at a safe stand-off distance. At the origin of this project, twenty companies recognized for their expertise, innovation excellence and agility teamed up with the Belgian Coordinator, John Cockerill Defense, manufacturer of turrets for armored military vehicles, to form a consortium. This consortium represents nine European countries and brings together the best specialists in land platforms, sensors, effectors and artificial intelligence-based solutions, including many SMEs. This European dimension also aims at a common approach and enhanced cooperation. TURMA meets all of EDIDP's capability requirements, in particular the ethical DNA of the European Union geared towards human protection or the development of cost-effective solutions widely accepted and deployed on the EU market. If TURMA is based on a unique and innovative approach, it is due to its versatility. Indeed, it allows existing vehicles to operate with or without crew, according to operational requirements, while leaving the man at the heart of the decision-making process. All existing and future vehicles can be equipped with this technology, which provides the project a unifying capability likely to interest all European armies. Bernard Clermont, Innovation Director at John Cockerill Defense says: "The main goal is to preserve lives, protect the soldiers during operations and avoid collateral damage, without compromising the missions’ efficiency and accuracy, due to more advanced technologies that offer increased situational awareness ". By designing an innovative heuristics that goes beyond an autonomous towed platform and by offering innovations with a strong civilian-military dual-use, the TURMA project offers the European Union the opportunity to rapidly acquire a strategic autonomy on the defense markets of unmanned terrestrial systems but also on the civilian autonomous vehicle markets. The experience of GTD in some of the main technologies that are going to be improved during the development of the project has promoted us as the leader of “Environment Understanding” and “Manned-Unmanned Machine Teaming” Work Packages that are going to be part of the axis of the TURMA system. The TURMA consortium is revealing itself as a legitimate contender to be one of the leaders on the MUGS project and as a trusted player, providing concrete solutions, as well as a tested and proven expertise and added value.