The British Army has awarded a contract to Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim) to demonstrate the art of using virtual reality, machine learning and cloud computing for the Army’s Collective Training Transformation Programme (CTTP). The pilot programme has been made available through the Defence Innovation Fund, MOD investment into innovation.
BISim will work under the VR In-Land Training (VRLT) Pilot Programme, a British Army CTTP initiative charged with exploring the use of VR for collective land warfare training and identifying the potential benefits and effectiveness of VR for military training and simulation. The VRLT Programme will help make recommendations on the impact, affordability, innovation and exploitation of VR for U.K. defence training.
BISim will help deliver a series of training events for the pilot programme demonstrating VR and MR (mixed reality) capabilities using BISim products. The training events will use VBS3, BISim’s flagship desktop training software; VBS Blue IG, the company’s high-performance whole-earth image generation software; and VBS STE, a prototype whole-earth desktop trainer that combines the power of the VBS3 simulation engine with high-fidelity VBS Blue IG visuals.
BISim has subcontracted Cervus Defence and Security Ltd, a U.K. company with expertise in capturing and leveraging defence training data, to illustrate the potential benefits of data capture and machine learning-driven analytics for military training. BISim will also demonstrate technology to show how the cloud can be used and how BISim products and Army training systems can work from the cloud.
Cervus Defence’s HIVE Insight Engine will be configured to receive collective training data from VBS3, VBS Blue IG and VBS STE. HIVE is a COTS Training Measurement and Evaluation (TM&E) service that harvests and categorizes a large variety of individual and collective training data, processing this information and analyzing it before delivering insights using machine learning and visual reporting tools.