Heavy Metal Meets Simulation and Training

The focus of the biennial defence and security trade exhibition, DSEI, has traditionally been on equipment and systems with real ships, tanks and aircraft, but there was also much to see this year for the military simulation and training community. MS&T Special Correspondent Andy Fawkes was at the event.

Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) has a strong standing with the UK Armed Forces, attracting very senior speakers and personnel. It is far from being UK-only however, with many international stands and attendees, and in spite of pandemic travel restrictions most of the nations were able to be represented. It was perhaps a little smaller than 2019 but nevertheless there was a palpable feeling of people wanting to interact in person and explore the physical exhibits with the show floor busy through the week.

Companies I spoke with felt that the dialogue they were having was more “meaningful” than before with potential customers having a better understanding of their requirements and how they might be fulfilled.

There was no shortage of topics for discussion at the four-day exhibition and conference together with its associated virtual show (DSEI Connect), including the recent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The show theme was “Integrated Response to Future Threats and Multi-Domain Integration” and this was reflected in the exhibition floor with space and medical theme areas and a “Future Tech Hub” being added to the joint, land, sea and air areas.

Simulation and training were well represented across the exhibition space, either as dedicated S&T companies or as S&T providers among other products and services. The smaller companies welcomed the opportunity to speak to the larger companies and OEMs that they might not meet at dedicated S&T events. Issues such as data, artificial intelligence, and energy sustainability were common themes across many of the stands and the conference streams.

Opportunities Abound

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace spoke to the show’s multi-domain theme but of note for MS&T readers was that he told his DSEI audience “we have a raft of competitions and programmes coming up, ranging from Skynet satellites to Single Synthetic environments… “. Chief of the General Staff General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith also highlighted S&T in his speech and how the Army wants to work closely with industry through “Prototype Warfare: getting after a combination of synthetics, simulation and the rapid incubation and adoption of cutting-edge defence technologies”. Second Sea Lord Vice-Admiral Nicholas Hine emphasised the need for the RN to respond to a digital age and “gain the most from all our people”. Hine highlighted RN initiatives such as the Percy Hobart Fellowship “to promote digital innovation throughout all levels of the Service” and building a “tool to capture the hidden skills of our people – a true digital profile”. The joint perspective was provided by UK Strategic Commander General Sir Patrick Sanders, who called for “synthetic environments where we can practice, to wargame, experiment, to plug and play” and “ensure lessons (from current operations) are fed into an interactive learning domain, and we must integrate this with our longer-term conceptual development through the creation of digital twins and synthetic environments”. It was certainly impressive that such senior leaders are recognising the strategic importance of S&T and they were doing so at an equipment-focused show.

Aviators, Synthetic First, and XR-Tested

The show organisers set up some impressive S&T-focused forums, although sadly some were held at the same time and not available online later. The RAF ran an entire afternoon of panels covering skills and S&T. Chief of Staff Personnel Air Vice Marshal Maria Byford looked to the future and the trend towards more autonomous systems which will drive the need for more “system managers” and fewer pilots. The intention is to call all RAF personnel “aviators” in future to recognise this trend. The AVM discussed careers with the panel and they foresaw more “zig zag” careers with aviators moving in and out of the RAF to build their digital skills. Although leadership will remain essential in a military organisation, there may be a flatter and more agile hierarchy together with 360 reporting.

The “Synthetic First” ambitions of the RAF were discussed by the panel led by Air Commodore David Bradshaw, Assistant Chief of Staff Combat Air. A key enabler for more Typhoon training in simulation is the Typhoon Future Synthetic Training (TFST) programme which will push the live/synthetic balance to 30/70. The panel believed this could rise to as much as 10/90, especially for collective and team training. Improved use of data and new ways of training had the potential to have a “simulation to learn, live to confirm” philosophy. The RAF Gladiator programme is planned to open up more opportunities for synthetic training, including joint and coalition.

The final panel was “Training the Digital Generation”, which revealed some important XR research of the RAF Central Flying School. Twenty students had been training in domes or in XR and the XR students were found to be at disadvantage. The differences were “not huge” but down to the poorer field of view in XR and the physical cockpit interaction, although these differences would reduce as XR improves. The panel led by Air Commodore Jamie Hunter, Director Flight Training No 22 Group also reiterated the importance of exploiting training data and how XR was opening up many new opportunities to train in different ways. The panel rounded off the discussion on the continuing need for live training to provide the feeling of “jeopardy” that aviators can only experience whilst in the air.

Vibrancy and Innovation

It was good to see that the S&T companies were not tucked away; indeed, some took centre stage on the massive show floor. There were many new products and announcements demonstrating that the S&T industry is very much meeting the evolving needs of its customers. Just prior to the show, BAE were awarded a £220m contract for the UK’s TFST capability, and notable is the TFST’s contribution to reducing “the current carbon footprint of live training” for the RAF. On the stand, I was shown how BAE are looking to take a more integrated approach to a pilot’s training all the way through to mission rehearsal, underpinned by improved data management and exploiting new training technologies.

BAE Systems' vision of future integrated data-drive pilot training. Image credit: BAE Systems.

Building on their success as part of the winning consortium for the Royal Navy’s Selborne project, Raytheon told me they are focusing on the transformation of training, exploiting new digital technologies and approaches to training. Raytheon will play a key role in modernising and transforming the Royal Navy's training capabilities.

The veteran-run, UK-based company 4GD announced that they will be delivering their second “SmartFacility” live urban fighting skills training facility to the British Army at Catterick in 2022. They also showed their ACIES IntegratedRealities capability that links live and virtual simulation capabilities; on display was a simulated tactical UAS feed of their live mini-close quarters battle lane.

MS&T readers will be aware of CAE’s work on a “Single Synthetic Environment”, and this has now advanced to CAE’s “Counterpart” product that was demonstrated. For use across the complete operational cycle, Counterpart can run in real or faster-than-real time and replicate a complete operating environment, integrating data from many sources.

On the same theme, Improbable exhibited their multi-domain decision tool technology developed with the UK’s Strategic Command together with a digital twin of a network. In terms of actual networks, I spoke to Andrea Donà, Chief Network Officer at Vodafone. The telecoms giant is placing more emphasis on the defence market and foresees the rollout of 5G, especially private standalone systems, potentially enhancing many aspects of both operations and S&T, including XR and instrumented live training.

Data is of ever-increasing interest to the S&T community and there was much to see. VRAI demonstrated a VR-based flight simulator that they had developed with the RAF. The VR headset captures data, and through the application of machine learning insights on the pilot activity can be gained and codified. The company is also seeing strong interest in their technology beyond pilot training.

Also exhibiting was Cervus.ai who had products on display including “XCALIBR”, which has taken an innovative approach to the capture and exploitation of live-fire tactical training data. At the Babcock stand they also are looking to training data to help better manage and optimise their training service delivery. QinetiQ too explained how they are exploiting data across their training and test and evaluation capabilities.

At the Inzpire stand, the UK company provided an update on its helicopter training academy for the European Defence Agency (EDA) at Sintra Airbase in Portugal, including two targeted fidelity simulators. Also on display were a number of training devices, including a Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) training platform using an XR headset. ST Engineering showed me their digital twin capabilities which were a fitting contrast with the actual “heavy metal” on display across DSEI.

The next DSEI will be 12-15 September 2023 at ExCeL London.