Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/901315
systems heralding a new era in the defense industry was TOPAZ followed by FONET. Of course, these systems have been modified to a great extent over these 20 years, but what is crucial is that throughout all these years, the core idea of their performance and their extensive functionality backed by the experience of their users in real battlefield environments have made them proven in tough- est conditions and earned them excellent feedback. When we were working on the concept of these solutions, we were undoubtedly the pioneers of network-centric systems, not only in Poland. Piotr Wojciechowski: That's true, although the story of FONET, I mean not only how it made its way to the Polish army, but as a system in general, is a textbook real-life example of the proverb saying that necessity is the mother of invention. In the early 1990s, the army announced an order for an artillery fire control system – TOPAZ. We, electronic engineers, graduates of Warsaw University of Technology, considered it an interesting challenge. Before that, we had already designed the UKART Universal Artillery Calculator, which automated all the necessary computational processes for artillery purposes. But the introduction of the system to frontline units resulted in a necessity to ensure effective communication between vehicle crew members. There occurred paradoxes where a commander would give the command to open fire by striking the armor plate with a hammer because the gunner would not hear him otherwise. And that was when we realized that the army doesn't need ballistic data computing systems only, but a whole system of communication and data transmission. And that's how the idea of FONET was born. Adam Bartosiewicz: FONET paved the way for such type of sys- tems, and many manufacturers across the world tend to refer to our solution when developing their own products. When it came to establishment of a communication network inside vehicles, the system set the global standards and became one of the most often purchased systems of such type in the world. During these 20 years of business, we have had a few success stories where a solution developed from scratch has had a great influence on the military in- dustry – these include Topaz, the FlyEye drone, or the revolutionary Warmate loitering munnition. And I can assure you that there are more very innovative solutions to come, with some of them to be showcased at MSPO 2017 and other forthcoming shows abroad. Piotr Chełchowski: As I'm listening to you, I have the impression that the founding story of WB Electronics is like a story from the Silicon Valley. First, a small start-up launched by enthusiasts designing prototypes nobody would even consider manufacturable, and then, a few dozen years later, a global giant like Apple or Google. Adam Bartosiewicz & Piotr Wojciechowski: (laughter) Piotr Wojciechowski: Well, we're nowhere near tycoons like Apple, Google, or, talking more about the industry we operate in, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems or Thales since we're still working our way up. But after 20 years of constant development we have surely reached a position that in the case of areas like e.g. the said internal com- munication systems or unmanned systems lets us claim a place among the top global manufacturers of such solutions, and lets us compete with them effectively in tendering procedures. Adam Bartosiewicz: Sorry to interrupt you, Piotr, but it is actually possible to notice certain similarities. They started out as start-ups, like we did. But we took our first steps in an attic, and they – in a garage. And like them, we haven't lost a bit of our initial enthusiasm, and we've managed to instill a sense of full identification with WB Group in a team of 800, which is best manifested in the currently launched new corporate identity for the whole WB Group. And most importantly, we've built a brand that is well known across the whole defense industry. Our clients and other industry manufacturers know that the brand is Polish. Piotr Chełchowski redaktor: So it's fair to say that Fonet is the iPhone of the defense industry, which, to some extent, has revo- lutionized the area of internal communication systems for military vehicles just like Apple's product has revolutionized the way we communicate and, basically, live? Adam Bartosiewicz: There's a bit of an exaggeration in the com- parison, I'd say, but we can say that Fonet was a kind of techno- logical breakthrough in in-vehicle communication systems. The best evidence is the fact that soon after Fonet was launched and adopted by the Polish Armed Forces, we were contacted by Harris Corporation, a leading American manufacturer of communication systems, who asked us for a license to use the system. In the first decade of the 21st century it was already obvious that the future armed conflicts would take place largely in the information environ- ment. Which meant that the significance of all sorts of IT systems used in the scope of data transmission to database management would grow. And in order for armed forces to be able to face the challenges of today's IT-enabled battlefield, they needed new inno- vative solutions. interview