From 21 to 27 February 2019, Isdefe’s headquarters hosted the 25th meeting of the S4 Group (SG/2 Shareable Software Suite) Programme Review. Isdefe’s Director of Development, Mr Jesús Alonso Martin, offered words of welcome to the various representatives and to the Land Capability Group of the NATO Army Armaments Group.

The meeting was attended by a total of 65 officials representing 18 countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Turkey and the United States. 

The S4 is part of the NAAG (NATO Army Armaments Group)-ICG-IF (Integrated Capability Group - Indirect Fire). Its purpose is to develop a series of ballistic control software projects, the best known being the NABK (NATO Armaments Ballistic Kernel), whose calculation algorithms provide external ballistics services, typically required by fire control systems.

These software projects are developed by NATO countries by means of a programme plan and a series of established roles.

Every year a full cycle of S4 products is released and the progress of the projects is reviewed at two annual meetings, one held in Europe in February, this year’s having been hosted by Spain, and the other held in the United States in September.

The national point of contact for this Group is an engineer belonging to JIMALE (Engineering Office for the Army Logistical Support Command), to which Isdefe provides technical support and that is actively engaged in work involving the S4.

In recent months, the JIMALE has finished certain tools (FCIGen) for the basic characterisation of UNASS (unassisted) munitions. These tools were developed, with technical support from Isdefe, in specialised areas such as the ballistic characterisation of munitions, products of the S4 suite and software programming languages, like ADA95, C++ and C Sharp. 

During the S4 meeting, Isdefe presented these tools to the great interest of those in attendance, mainly due to the benefits their use offers in terms of reducing the time and resources involved in work to characterise the ballistics of munitions. These tools are expected to be delivered to the S4 community in September 2019 as Spain’s contribution to the group.

Finally, it is worth noting that JIMALE, with Isdefe’s technical support, developed DLLs (dynamic libraries) for deployment in the munitions fire control system for field and coastal artillery units.

In the days before the S4 meeting, from 18 to 20 February, training sessions were held at Isdefe for companies and organisations that are already involved in or are starting to work with the various S4 products.

Representing Spain at these sessions were officials from industry companies, the La Marañosa Technical Institute (ITM) and the JIMALE. Isdefe took part in these sessions as an instructor and assistant, sharing its experiences and lessons learned.