In 2010, within the framework of the LAND 75 and LAND 125 programs, the Australian Army had selected the Israeli Elbit to provide its Battle Management System or BMS, allowing to digitize the static and dynamic information of the field. battle and thus greatly improve the conduct of military operations. The system, including in particular a certain number of kits for equipping command vehicles, combat vehicles and infantry personnel, was gradually deployed in the years that followed, in order to remedy certain weaknesses observed in particular during deployments in Afghanistan. From 2019, however, questions and doubts began to be disclosed regarding the confidentiality of the mass of information and data reported by the system, and the fear that this sensitive data could be sent back to the Israeli service provider, Elbit System. , especially following an audit conducted by the Australian National Audit Office, or ANAO, which highlighted a contractual arrangement of immense opacity and great complexity, in order to reduce the invoice which amounted to A $ 1,4 billion, or a little over € 900 million.
However, the decision announced in early April 2021 by the Australian Army to stop using the BMS in full by mid-May appears extraordinarily brutal, and all the more so since no alternative is planned to replace the system to date, taking the Australian army back 15 years, when the coordination of forces on the ground was still carried out with maps papers, compasses and radios, even as regional tensions are high. Not only is the use of the BMS prohibited from May 15, 2021, but even connection to the system is prohibited. The decision has been served on Elbit Australia without appeal, with at least laminar communication to the public, that the current BMS-C2 system will cease to be used, and that work has been initiated to implement a solution. temp worker.
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