FIST AND THE INFANTRY TRIALS AND
DEVELOPMENT UNIT

Infantry Trials and Development Unit. ITDU is established to provide User advice on the suitability, benefits and limitations of equipment to Equipment Capability Managers, the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA), the Director General of Equipment Support (Army) (DGES(A), Defence Ordanance Safety Group (DOSG) and other agencies involved in the procurement process. ITDU has five sections; Small Arms, Support Weapons, Digitization and Personal Equipment, Mobility, and Electronics and Special Equipment. It is a tri service organization and it caters for the Royal marines and the RAF Regiment. The unit also provides military advice to industry regarding the development and design of military equipment.

Location and Facilities. ITDU is based at the Warminster Training Centre in Warminster, Wiltshire. It is on the western edge of Salisbury Plain Training Area with access to live ranges and dry training areas. ITDU has its own workshop facilities and is able to adapt equipment for military use on site. The troops that take part in the various trials that ITDU run, come from a wide range of operational infantry units and are not purely allocated to trial duties.

Electronics and Special Equipment Section. Electronics and Special Equipment Section is the section responsible for the ITDU input into the Future Integrated Soldier Technology program. To date, it has organized the trial facilities, troops and military advice to DERA and the FIST industry consortium. The Section carries out a range of other trials and is not solely devoted to the FIST project.

FIST Trial History. The first ITDU associated FIST trial was in 1995 and was part of the Night Stalker trial, which primarily examined surveillance equipment, but also looked at the first generation of FIST equipment. The FIST Applied Research Programme sponsored by DEC (DBE) and managed by DERA Fort Halstead then organized a set of Technology Demonstrator equipment trials. At each stage of this programme, DERA has sought the assistance of ITDU in trialing and assessing the equipment. The first set of FIST trials was conducted at Warminster in 1998. A series of small Technology Demonstrator trials took place from April to June with a larger trial in November. The next major trial on the full range of FIST equipment was a two month trial of the FIST 2000 Technical Demonstrator equipment, which was held at SPTA in September/October 1999. ITDU has worked alongside DERA and the industry consortium of Pilkington Optronics and BAE Systems in support of FIST. ITDU and DERA have also ran a month long FIST C4I trial in Cyprus in May 2000 and plan a further C4I trial in November 2000.

ITDU Trial Conduct. Trials are usually a series of battle handling exercises based on a realistic operational scenario. Military officers, NCOs and civilian scientists observe each BHE and the trial troops are debriefed in depth. The findings of each trial are carefully recorded and analysed. A comprehensive trial report is compiled by ITDU in conjunction with DERA after each set of trials.

ITDU e-mail address, address and personnel details

ITDU@aol.com

Infantry Trials and Development Unit
Warminster Training Centre
Warminster
Wiltshire
BA12 0DJ

Phone: 0044 (0)1985 222194
Fax: 0044 (0)1985 222134

Comdt Infantry Trials and Development Unit - Lt Col A W Thornburm MBE DandD

SO2 Electronics and Special Equipment Section - Maj SA Orr A&SH

SO3 Electronics and Special Equipment Section - Flt Lt JT Armstrong RAF

Last Updated - February 2001