Future Rapid Effect System

The Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) was the name for the overarching British Ministry of Defence (MOD) programme to deliver a fleet of more than 4,000 armoured fighting vehicles for the British Army. The vehicles were to be rapidly deployable, network-enabled, capable of operating across the spectrum of operations, and protected against current threats. The programme has now been split into two separate procurement projects for a reconnaissance Specialist Vehicle (SV) and an aspiration for a future Utility Vehicle (UV). The ASCOD SV vehicle has been selected to fulfill the SV requirement.

The total FRES fleet was to be divided into two main parts, the Utility Variant (FRES UV) and the Specialist Variant (FRES SV). These types were further broken down into various families of vehicles: The Utility Variant comprises protected mobility, command and control, light armoured support, repair and recovery and medical; the Specialist Variant comprises RECCE Block 1 (Scout, armoured personnel carrier, repair, recovery and Common Base Platform) and RECCE Block 2 (Joint Fires Direction, Command Post and Engineer Recce).

Despite long delays in the procurement process, exacerbated by a budget shortfall at the MoD, the FRES programme is moving ahead with the award of the Specialist Vehicle contract to General Dynamics for the ASCOD AFV tracked vehicle in March 2010.

Due to the complexity of the FRES programme, a "System of Systems" Integrator (SOSI) was appointed to assist the MoD in selection of the vehicles and cross-vehicle electronic architecture. In October 2007, the FRES SOSI contract was awarded to a joint team of Thales and Boeing.

The SOSI team was contracted to act as an independent, honest broker between industry and the MoD to co-ordinate the procurement of more than 3,000 vehicles which were expected to be acquired under FRES.

Six main elements of the SOSI role were: programme management; systems of systems engineering and integration; alliance development and management; development of the MoD's SOSI competence; through-life capability management; and through-life technology management.

The SOSI role was scrapped when the programme was restructured following the failure to progress with the UV procurement.

The first family of vehicles, known as the Utility Vehicles (UV) were expected to enter service in the 2010s. FRES UV was to have replaced the Army's Saxon wheeled APC, tracked FV432, and some of the CVR(T) vehicle family. The design is planned to follow the philosophy of "medium weight" forces that balance ease of transportability ("light") with armour ("heavy").

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