MilSim Asia: Stacks of simulation software in Singapore

[Asid]

MilSim Asia: Stacks of simulation software in Singapore

22nd January 2016 - 9:11 by Gordon Arthur in Singapore


There was a general consensus at MilSim Asia 2016 in Singapore that simulation still has a long way to go in terms of its utilisation within militaries around the world.

Pete Morrison, co-CEO of Bohemia Interactive Solutions (BISim), said in one conference session that the gaming industry in the US will be worth some US$20 billion by 2020. However, the military and simulation market will comprise just $1 billion, or about 10% of this figure.

MG Gus Gilmore, commander of Forces Command in the Australian Army, added, ‘We’re very much on a journey, but we haven’t made a leap forward yet.’

Morrison advised militaries that they need to educate users on how to effectively train using game-based technology. They also ‘need to educate the chain of command and procurement organisations on the importance of rapid procurement, agile development and rapid prototyping’.

He predicted that next-generation, game-based military technology will leverage modularity and cloud deployment. For that reason he said BISim’s well-known Virtual Battlespace 3 (VBS3) game-based simulation software might be the final all-in desktop training application. Correspondingly, VBS Blue will deliver cloud-enabled, whole-planet rendering and editing for BISim’s next-generation VBS framework.

Also present at MilSim Asia was Germany-based Trian3DBuilder, which released a maritime module for its software last December.

This module includes elements such as buoys, coastlines, shoreline construction and seabed contours and soundings that can be used for navigation of surface and underwater vessels. The software company already provides tools to customers to develop geo-specific scenery and terrain for simulations.

Military customers compose approximately two-thirds of Trian3DBuilder’s sales. The company was making its first foray into the Asia-Pacific by attending MilSim Asia 2016, and Stephan Kussmaul, the firm’s managing director, said it will soon have a reseller located in Singapore.

Masa is a French software company with 45 staff, and it commercialised its Sword constructive simulation software about five years ago. The French Army is its biggest customer, and Masa has also done particularly well in the Latin American market. Sword is used by 16 militaries worldwide, with Sword v6.3 being the latest version.

An Asia-Pacific success for Masa was the sale of an off-the-shelf configuration of Sword to the New Zealand Army in early 2015.

After a week of training, the Mission Command Training School at Linton Camp was able to utilise it for a major command post exercise. A New Zealand Army officer claimed Sword permitted part-time personnel savings of about 50%, as well as significant savings in the amount of computer hardware needed to support the exercise.

Other regional customers include the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) in Singapore and the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) in Australia.

Enrico Raue from Masa said Sword is affordable for smaller militaries, and it is quickly installed. Masa offers both warfighting and civil security versions, with the latter product known as Masa Synergy.

C4i Consultants also exhibited at the event in Singapore. Its blue-ribbon product MILSIM is designed for the military sector, while EDMSIM was introduced several years ago for emergency disaster simulations.

Michael Constantine, business development executive, said C4i Consultants was currently working with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and related agencies such as the Philippine National Police, which had recently purchased this software. This MILSIM software will be utilised in the upcoming bilateral Exercise Balikatan with the US.

Constantine commented that militaries are increasingly using EDMSIM, simply because they are a key agency in disaster relief missions. The US National Guard uses it, for example. Primes such as Saab, QinetiQ, Thales and General Dynamics are all users of C4i Consultant’s software.

Presagis, a Canadian subsidiary of CAE, also exhibited at MilSim Asia.

Dan Oller, international technical manager, introduced terrain generation software such as Terra Vista for building accurate correlated databases, and Vega Prime to develop and deploy 3-D visualisation software.


Original post: https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/training-simulation/milsim-asia-stacks-simulation-software-singapore/
Presagis also offers VAPS XT 4.1 to human-machine interface designers, with its multi-touch and gesture capabilities.