EDA’s project on Prediction Models for the Implementation of Munition Health Management (PREMIUM), launched in May of this year with Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands as participating countries, has gained traction last week with three additional Member States joining: Germany, Poland and Portugal have become full members of the 4-year project which aims to improve Member States’ Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) based management of munition by developing models for the estimation of remaining life and health status.
The project is meant to tackle the problem of inadequate models used by Member States to predict the life cycle and functional reliability of materials used in munitions and missiles, or of newly developed materials. A better assessment and prediction of the materials’ ageing status and process can be achieved through accurate prediction models and corresponding sensors to measure the environment and change of material.
More concretely, the objectives of the project are to:
- collect information, develop know-how and predictive models about the health status of munition for an efficient life cycle management;
- develop more reliable ageing models at material (energetic and non-energetic) or component level to customise and integrate them into improved HUMS units;
- harmonise the management approach across Europe and develop in Member States a common method for the surveillance of munitions and missiles.
The project is expected to perform analyses of ammunition life-cycle stored in mainland depots, on board of a ship, a fighter jet and an armoured vehicle, both in Europe and outside in operations.
The expected military benefits of the project are improved missiles and munitions reliability and safety and reduced costs.
The project is implemented by a consortium composed by 13 European organisations, namely: MBDA Italy, Italian National Research Council (CNR), The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), The Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI), BAE Systems Bofors AB, Polish Military Institute of Armament Technology (MIAT), Polish Military University of Technology (MUT), Research Network Łukasiewicz - Institute of Aviation (Ł-IoA), MESKO SA, Portugal LAETA-ADAI, CINAV, CINAMIL and CIAFA.
Background
The PREMIUM Project started in May 2021 and builds upon previous project called Munition Life Management or MLM (2015-2018), developed by EDA Capability and Technology group on Missiles and Munitions technologies.
MLM aimed to quantify and predict the influence of extreme conditions during Out of Area operations on safe and reliable use of ammunition. The participating Member States exchanged information concerning experiences of logistical and operational use of ammunition in Out of Area operations, on whole-life-assessment (incl. analysis on returned ammunition), data monitoring during storage and operational use, selection or development of models for predicting the environmental impact on safety and reliability.
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