"The preparation of this moment, although it does not seem like it, took many years," said Vojtěch Petráček, Rector of CTU, in his opening speech. "It is not only the development of military technology that CTU wants to contribute to, our goal is to make Czech society safer," he continued. He listed only some of the areas in which the university and the army will cooperate. For example, the transfer of collaborative knowledge transfers, which will strengthen the Czech Army's own resources, and the cooperation of experts from both spheres - academic and defence - in the field of quantum, cryptography, robotics, artificial intelligence, microreactors and medicine, where Rector Petráček mentioned remote monitoring of the physical and mental health of soldiers.
According to him, the use of technologies offered by CTU to the Czech Army testifies to a considerable degree of healthy patriotism of university scientists and researchers. "Presentation of all the possibilities of CTU and other joint meetings will follow in the coming months," concluded the rector Petraček at the beginning of the groundbreaking first working meeting.
"Russia's attack on Ukraine has dispelled illusions of perpetual peace or a long warning period. The military is adapting to this situation and preparing for a high-intensity conflict with a technologically advanced adversary. We perceive that emerging and breakthrough technologies are changing the nature of warfare and the speed at which it is being conducted. That is why we have included innovation and technology among the six strategic objectives for building the Army's capabilities for the next ten years," General Hlaváč opened the meeting on behalf of the Army.
Less than an hour after the start of the conference, General Karel Řehka came and said in his speech: "We are going through a huge change, literally a revolution. For the first time we have the resources, we are able to plan effectively and at the same time modernise the army. We can finally replace old equipment with new, but we also have to think beyond the horizon of how these systems will work. What future warfare will look like. We need to be able to fight in all warfare domains. What does that mean for us? Everyone agrees that new technologies are coming. Whoever can control and use these technologies will also have technological superiority on the battlefield. And we need to be able to do that. That's why cooperation between the military, the defence industry and academia is so important."
As it was also said at the plenary session, the cooperation between CTU and the Czech Army is currently planned for five to seven years, but in case of mutual satisfaction it can be considered as unlimited in time. The university is to help the army to achieve medium- and long-term goals, and the strategic goals of building the Army of the Czech Republic until 2035 were presented by the military speakers.
Present at the meeting with the army were CTU Vice-Rector for Development and Strategy Veronika Kramaříková, Vice-Rector for Quality Management Radek Holý and the deans of some faculties. "We are ready to meet the needs of the army and cooperate across faculties not only in developing what the army asks for, but also to recommend technologies for them to use," said Vice-Rector Kramaříková.
Experts from Faculty of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Faculty of Transportation Technology, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering and Faculty of Information Technology, as well as from Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics and the Institute of Technical and Experimental Physics participated in the working dialogues.
The Czech Army was represented by the directors of the following sections of the Ministry of Defence: the Capability Planning Section, the Force Development Section, the Logistics Section, the Communications and Information Systems Section, the Military Health Section, the Director of the ACR Intelligence Security Section and the Deputy Director of the ACR Special Forces.
Specific topics discussed included lightweight armor, industrial robots for repair and service operations, a field system for medical imaging, energy sources for field use, satellites and ultra high-power lasers, autonomous robotic systems in aviation, virtual terrain reconnaissance, and many more.
The opening ceremony of the Structured Scientific Research Dialogue between CTU and the General Staff of the Czech Army was attended by almost one hundred people.
Friday's event is a follow-up to the "Memorandum of Cooperation on the Development of Breakthrough Technologies for the Needs of the Army of the Czech Republic", which was signed between CTU and the Army of the Czech Republic in April this year.
