Strengthened cooperation ISL-WTD 91
In mid-August, the Bundeswehr Technical Centre for Weapons and Ammunition (WTD 91) in Meppen and the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis (ISL) signed an agreement to strengthen their cooperation.
There has already been a productive exchange between the two institutions for many years.
Complementary activities
A major advantage of this enhanced cooperation lies in the close relationship between ISL’s scientific capacities and research work and WTD 91’s application-related and practice-oriented activities.
The range of competences of WTD 91 allows ISL to adjust its scientific work to the current demand of WTD 91 and future users.
As a result of the direct access to ISL, WTD 91 is able to expand its technology and research capacities.
Increased networking potential
Both institutions have promising contacts that each party can benefit from.
ISL is part of a strong network of international universities, Bundeswehr universities and renowned academic research institutions. WTD 91 is strongly involved in the analysis, implementation and use of armament projects and has numerous contacts with the armed forces and the industry.
Thanks to this enhanced cooperation, both partners will benefit from the increasing number of contacts.
By cooperating with WTD 91, ISL is able to increase its knowledge about the future user requirements, which could facilitate the timely transfer of emerging technologies towards the defence industry. The cooperation is also an advantage for WTD 91 since it benefits from the PhD students at ISL or ISL’s partner universities.
Pooling of resources
Both ISL and WTD 91 have their own research, experimental and testing facilities. In the case of overlapping topics, ISL and WTD 91 can use each other’s resources in a complementary manner. This could decrease the overall work load for both partners.
In concrete terms, activities carried out by WTD 91 could be tested on ISL’s proving ground. Likewise, advanced experiments designed by ISL requiring a user-oriented approach could be tested on the proving ground of WTD 91.
About ISL
ISL is a binational research institute jointly operated by the German Federal Ministry of Defence and the French “Agence de l’Innovation de Défense” (AID), which is part of the French Ministry of Defence. Its mission is to create cost-efficient technologies to be used by the land armed forces of both countries even in the toughest areas of military confrontation.
Having implemented a multidisciplinary approach which is unique in Europe, ISL develops technologies in response to five scientific challenges to protect soldiers and military platforms and to deliver destructive energy in the target.
More than 200 scientists and engineers as well as around 50 PhD students work in ISL’s scientific groups. They benefit from state-of-the-art equipment. In addition, they are part of an academic network and are in direct contact with the armed forces. The highly innovative capacities of ISL’s researchers are used both before industrial implementation and during joint development.
About WTD 91
The WTD 91 Technical Centre is the main competence centre of the German Forces for weapons, ammunition, protection and reconnaissance. It also manages one of Europe’s largest test firing ranges. WTD 91 has a staff of approximately 900. It provides technical expertise in all matters around weapons and ammunition, carries out testing of new military material and evaluates the possibilities to use current innovations in defence applications (for example: laser weapons, counter-UAV or Virtual Reality).
