In this day and age, continuous improvements and interoperability are key to success in multinational operations. For decades, the tactical forces of the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps and the United Kingdom Royal Marines have successfully operated together. The New Integrated Marines Communications and Information System (NIMCIS) 4.0 programme will deliver improvements that contribute highly to this ambition and moreover, take user experience and ease of use to the next level.

The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps and General Dynamics UK will continue their collaboration on the NIMCIS 4.0 programme, with improvements focused on user experience, training and hardware upgrades. The programme equips the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps with the Bowman 5.6 system, which is currently being rolled out to the UK Armed Forces by General Dynamics UK.

NIMCIS 4.0 provides upgraded technology that aligns with that used by the UK armed forces, to deliver a low risk solution for tactical communication and faster information transfer. The NIMCIS tactical communications equipment receives a series of enhancements and upgrades, including the roll-out of new data terminals and an updated version of the Battle Management System.

Major of Marines Menno van der Schaaf, representing the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps users emphasises

“It is key for us to continuously improve and develop in order to stay in line with the latest technologies and that is what NIMCIS 4.0 will enable. We’ll be able to act faster and fully integrate with our colleagues in the United Kingdom, whilst evolving our current system and providing an easy-to-use system.”

The improvements take user experience and ease of use to a next level, with the soldier at the centre of these developments able to act faster and collaborate more efficiently, to ensure that they are able to be effective and fulfil their complex and difficult tasks in a secure, interoperable manner. The General Dynamics UK system will be at the heart of interoperability between the UK and Netherlands armed forces.

“Secure interoperability and acting swiftly is a key success factor for the missions of our men and women at the tactical edge“ confirms Lt Col of Marines Robert Langeveld responsible for operations in the German-Dutch TEN programme and initiator of the NIMCIS upgrade.

Craig Jansen, Vice President of UK TacCIS at General Dynamics, commented:

“With this continued collaboration the Netherlands Marines have access to the best tactical communications. Building on our partnership, first established in 2005, we are delighted to continue to work together, delivering world-class secure tactical communications to the Netherlands Armed Forces.”

General Dynamics UK has provided the NIMCIS system to Royal Netherland Marine Corps for the past 14 years. The system provides a secure voice and data communications infrastructure capable of supporting a range of network-enabled command, control, communications, computing and intelligence systems.