Munich, 15 May 2024 – As part of the comprehensive digitalization of the Bundeswehr, electronic knee boards are replacing conventional pilot manuals. The confidential documents and sensitive data are protected by Materna Virtual Solution’s SecurePIM container solution, which is designed for confidentiality.
Bundeswehr pilots carry out missions in highly complex environments all over the world. To ensure they can work ultra-mobile and effectively under the highest safety standards, the Bundeswehr relies on Electronic Knee Boards (EKB). The handy data carriers provide navigation data, aeronautical information or tactical content and contain documents that are essential for flight operations, such as checklists or manuals and flight logbooks. On the software side, the Bundeswehr opted for the highly secure container solution SecurePIM from Materna Virtual Solution, which, as a BSI-certified application in the VS-NfD area, has all the necessary requirements for storing sensitive data.
SecurePIM ensures a protected and encrypted area on the knee boards. In this secure environment, pilots have access to Office programs as well as functions such as e-mail, map services and the camera. Access to the Bundeswehr intranet is via protected interfaces, with end-to-end encryption preventing eavesdropping or unintentional leakage of sensitive data. SecurePIM also encrypts the information stored on the knee boards themselves.
The EKB are available for all aircraft types and branches of the Bundeswehr and digitize a large number of work steps that are relevant for pilots in the preparation, execution and follow-up of missions.
“After just under a year and a half of intensive collaboration, the electronic knee board project is now about to go live,” explains Marco Schrader, Director Sales & Senior Account Manager Defense at Materna Virtual Solution. “Together with the Bundeswehr, we were also able to roll out our software so quickly on the new data carriers because SecurePIM, as a stand-alone solution, already has the necessary licenses and meets all of our partner’s requirements. Together, we have thus taken a decisive step in the digitalization of the Bundeswehr.”