Next-Generation Synthetic Environments in Prospect
BAE Systems and distributed computing specialists Hadean will work together to explore developing next-generation training options.
The companies signed an MoU at this week’s IT2EC 2022 that sees both parties agreeing to explore opportunities to combine BAE Systems’ expertise in military training with Hadean’s technology to power a single synthetic environment. The aim of this initiative is to “enable air, land, sea, space and cyber forces to plug in and train together”.
Hadean has already had a number of successes in the defence sector, most notably working on the UK MoD’s Single Synthetic Environment (SSE) programme. The company says that it “brings together data and computation at scale, providing a unified platform for single synthetic environments, situational awareness and decision support.”
BAE Systems said that this collaborative association will “allow military forces to regularly and securely train in a virtual world gaining crucial battlefield experiences without the challenges and constraints of live collective training and its limited warfare scenarios.” To achieve that, Hadean will bring its expertise working on technologies to support the metaverse, such as digital twinning.
“We are really excited to collaborate with Hadean, which is a world leader in harnessing the power of computing technology for immersive synthetic training environments,” said Andy Kendall, Director of Training Strategy for BAE Systems’ Air sector. “The aim is to combine Hadean’s computing expertise with our intimate understanding of our customers’ needs, built on decades of working with the world’s leading militaries to provide bespoke simulation environments and scenarios. The battlespace our customers are operating in is changing rapidly, so we are adapting to stay ahead of the curve by partnering with cutting-edge companies like Hadean to meet this challenge.”
BAE Systems said that the initial proof of concept to be delivered by the partners will see them integrate multi-domain synthetic environments to enable complex collective training scenarios to be undertaken in a secure environment, while leveraging data analytics and insights to improve the training capability and output.
There is no doubt that single synthetic environments have a huge part to play in future collective training but, as the US Army is finding with its Synthetic Training Environment (STE), the adoption of new, cutting-edge technologies needs to be undertaken in such a way that all stakeholders see and agree on the benefits.
The phrase ‘to enable air, land, sea, space and cyber forces to plug-in and train together’ is easy to say – but much more difficult to achieve in practise.
Edward Soden reporting from London for MON
