Dassault Aviation contracts consultants for Mission Preparation System
Aeronautics firm Dassault Aviation has appointed Altran and Luciad to develop the Mission Preparation System, for its multipurpose fighter jets. The system will support both training and combat operations by integrating a wide array of mission specific information into an intuitive interface.
Based in France, Dassault Aviation is a developer and producer of private jets, fighter planes and drone systems. The types of plane produced by the company include the Falcon family of business jets and the Rafale and Mirage multirole fighter jet. Around 2,100 of the company’s Falcon jets and around 1,000 fighter jets are in service. The company saw revenues of approximately €3.6 billion in 2016, and employs almost 12,000 personnel, with almost 80% stationed in France itself.
Dassault recently announced that it had turned to engineering consultancies Altran and Luciad for the development of OPERA, its Mission Preparation System. High performance visualisation specialists Luciad will assist Altran by providing analytics that allows them to implement scalable solutions. Founded in 1999, Luciad serves global clients including such as Airbus Defence and Space, Lufthansa Systems and NATO.
Altran has been experiencing a period of rapid growth of late. In 2016 their revenues grew by 9% to €2.1 billion, while their staff count surpassed 30,000. Last year the firm also won a stake in the £40 million National Aerospace Technology Exploitation Programme, an area in which it is seeing increasing demand for its services.
OPERA is used to provide pilots with a broad range of tactical geographic information as a basis for their later judgement when on training or combat missions. The analytics AI take in aerial photographs, satellite coverage of terrain, aeronautical charts, 2D/3D topography, targets, allied and enemy troop movements and fortifications. Aside from providing the background data for later tactical choices, the OPERA system is also to be designed to be used across multiple interfaces, through data conversion for mission calculation. As part of the task, the professional service firms Altran and Luciad will create an intuitive user interface.
Salvador Lopez, Head of OPERA programme at Dassault Aviation, commented on the new interface, “Its performance, precision, and handling of data in real time are features that Dassault Aviation found compelling. Its intuitive user interface made it possible to quickly deploy it among our development teams with the expertise of Altran ’s aeronautics consultants.
Altran France’s Director of Program Management & Innovation, Fabrice Mariaud, added, “The complementarity between Altran and Luciad was a determining factor in this project. By offering Dassault Aviation a product with great added value that was tailored to their environment and needs, we were able to stand out together,” added Altran France.
Jérôme Lutz, Director of Luciad France meanwhile reflected, “We are now partners with Altran. Together, we are able to tackle our client’s most crucial projects, which require both a tool at the cutting - edge of technology that is tailored to their needs, while simultaneously managing its integration and adaptation within their existing software ecology.”
