Indra Group demonstrates its new flight test capability to the Spanish Armed Forces, conducting one of Europe's first tests with a combat cloud

Indra Group has shown for the first time its new experimentation and flight test capabilities to the Spanish Air and Space Force and has carried out, with its Nimbus combat cloud, one of the first tests performed in Europe with this technology, key to the collaborative combat of the future.

The Chief of Staff of the Spanish Air and Space Force, General Francisco Braco, accompanied by Indra Group CEO, Ángel Escribano, visited yesterday the Flight Test Center in Rozas (Lugo) and witnessed the tests carried out with this and other cutting-edge technologies.

The Indra Group CEO said that "the new flight test capability allows us to control the entire life cycle in the development of systems, from design and integration into the aircraft to validation, speeding up their delivery". He added that, thanks to these capabilities, "Indra is preparing to respond to the present and future needs of the Spanish Air and Space Force by delivering more robust, secure and optimized systems".

During the visit, Indra carried out what has been a trailblazing flight demonstration in Europe with the combat cloud concept, a critical element to intervene in increasingly complex scenarios.

Indra's new NIMBUS combat cloud is ready to be implemented incrementally, integrating next-generation sensors with others already in service. The company is working on developing a collaborative sensor system (NSDAS), which makes it possible to integrate a wide range of such systems into a network to generate a 'supersensor'.

The complexity and realism of the tests carried out with NIMBUS were also taken to a whole new level by using Life-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) technology, which the company is also working on and which merges the real environment, in which the aircraft fly, with the virtual one, in which simulators and entities generated by artificial intelligence operate.

All the data collected was immediately received at Indra's Operational Analysis Center of Excellence, located in Madrid, which processed the information to carry out an in-depth analysis and draw key conclusions for its evolution. Indra Group thereby goes a step further in its capabilities by combining live experimentation with operational analysis.

In addition to this demonstration, Indra presented the latest flight tests carried out with the VALERO weapon system, based on a multipurpose air vehicle of national technology, prepared, among other things, for electronic warfare missions, to act as a decoy or even as a weapons system. With the development of this advanced system, which the company has been working on for two years and which has already undergone several tests, Indra has anticipated customer and market needs.

Greater agility and more robust systems

The flight test capabilities of Indra's center in Rozas add tremendous value to Indra and its leadership in the development of sensors, electronic warfare systems, radars and aircraft-borne communications across the continent.

These facilities have a permanent workforce of professionals, which is strengthened every time the specialized staff of each of the products under testing relocates. At the airfield, Indra has a telemetry and mission analysis room and a large hangar with two Tecnam aircraft and an Optionally Piloted Aircraft (OPV), ready to be controlled from a ground control station. In addition, there is another transportable control station, as well as a cockpit for training and interface testing.

The center also has an annex to incorporate an antenna, communications and mission control tower. This spectacular deployment of resources will also be strengthened by the Tarsis family of drones to provide support in this type of tests.

Another important advantage of the Rozas airbase is that it is located away from commercial air routes, which facilitates the use of the airspace for testing. The National Institute of Aerospace Technologies' Rozas Airborne Research Center (CIAR), with which Indra collaborates closely, is also located there.