Ricardo Technology Used in Navy Prototyping, Experimentation Exercise

LONDON — Ricardo Defense’s Mobile Fuel and Energy Management (MFEM) system has successfully completed its participation in Phase 1 of the U.S. Navy’s Fight the Naval Force Forward Advanced Naval Technology Exercise, the company announced July 22.

The Ricardo MFEM provides dynamic visibility and management of liquid fuel to help ensure that forces in the field have the resources needed to attain their objectives. The Ricardo MFEM provides the tools and information needed to understand fuel usage, distribution and availability in the theater of operations.

Manual procedures for fuel management — measuring, collecting, aggregating, calculating usage and projecting needs — are replaced with fully automated processes, significantly improving the commander’s ability to plan and monitor fuel use and status with the speed, accuracy and efficiency needed for field operations. MFEM offers commanders with insight into fuel status that can be incorporated into a battlefield “common operating picture.”

Ricardo Defense demonstrated the capabilities of the MFEM system during Phase 1 of the Fight the Naval Force Forward Experimentation Campaign, a multimonth exploration phase that allowed for the detailed assessment of technologies integrated into actual mission scenarios. Technologies were examined in live, virtual or constructive simulation demonstrations as a part of the Advanced Naval Technology Exercise over a two-week period that ended on July 18. 

The collaboration with a variety of system stakeholders during the exercise positions Ricardo Defense for future development and fielding of these capabilities. The Ricardo MFEM is being assessed for a follow-on Phase 2 project that would include a six- to 18-month prototyping period, limited use in the field and experimentation, as part of Fleet/Force Experiments and/or Rapid Fielding. “We are very excited to have had the Ricardo MFEM included in this year’s Advanced Naval Technology Exercise,” Ricardo Defense President Chet Gryczan said. “MFEM helps improve military personnel decision-making through an accurate, up-to-date shared view of fuel resources. The award of a Phase 2 effort, if granted, will validate the value of MFEM and pave the way for maturation of the capabilities it provides.”

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