Indra has launched an advanced laboratory to further refine the Spanish Army’s 8×8 Dragon armored vehicle’s newly developed mission system.
The center will facilitate the development, evolution, and training of the Maestre mission system, replicating the vehicle and operating environment.
Additionally, it will support training, maintenance, and tests on different configurations of Dragon wheeled and tracked vehicles and study their interoperability with new sensors.
Transportable Working Positions
The laboratory features working positions allowing simulated management of the mission system by a driver, vehicle commander, or gunner.
The working positions are designed for transportation via containers or shelters for deployment in chosen army units.
According to the Spanish developer, the laboratory will allow the continuous update of both the Dragon and the Maestre throughout their lifecycle, providing a “familiarization environment prior to training on the simulators and the vehicles themselves.”
“With this laboratory and the work we have conducted in recent years with the Ministry of Defense, we are globally at the forefront in the digitization of military vehicles,” the head of Ground Mission Systems at Indra, Vigara Zaera, added.
The Maestre
The mission system controls all the vehicle subsystems, including weapons controls, warning, self-protection, situational awareness, communications and navigation systems, as well as the battlefield management system.
It collects and processes all the information and presents it as an integrated image to the crew for informed, quick decisions.
Overall, it enables “vehicle safety, survivability, fire effectiveness and collaborative combat capability,” Indra said.