Epic show report
ITEC 2004
Defence - Training - Simulation
Venue: ExCel Conference Centre, Docklands, London
ITEC 2004, “Europe’s only annual defence conference
and exhibition for training and simulation”, was held in London
this year at the ExCel exhibition centre in Docklands – a
suitably hi-tech venue for a hi-tech industry. With over 2,700 attendees
from 53 countries, two key messages to come away with were the global
integration of military operations, including training, and the
continued growth in technology-enabled learning within the defence
sector, to support the exponential growth in the use of sophisticated
technology in the military arena.
The former was in evidence with the first of the ‘themes’
running through the conference - ‘Country Briefings’.
Experience and knowledge is shared between European, Canadian and
the US defence forces. For senior ranks, this type of co-operation
is part of working life and officers from different nationalities
often attend training courses together. Unlike private sector companies,
the military are open to sharing their ideas and experiences, at
least with their allies.
Technology-enabled learning was omnipresent in the exhibition arena,
as well as in the conference themes of ‘e-learning’
and ‘Multi-Level Training’. I was spoilt for choice
for e-learning presentations, as it was the only theme with a full
programme on all three days. The armed forces make extensive use
of simulators and the exhibition was full to bursting with companies
demonstrating advanced visual systems and virtual reality experiences.
The MOD has made extensive use of CBT for decades but e-learning
is a relatively new concept for the British MOD and much of the
talk was about SCORM and reusability rather than the demonstration
of e-learning solutions. Odd then that only a few e-learning suppliers
were exhibiting as distributed, connected learning is a growing
requirement, necessary to support the new ways of working - almost,
but not quite, as big as the Networked Enabled battlespace, the
last major theme of the conference.
A third message, which the MOD wanted to actively promote through
the conference, was to ‘help industry engage with the military’.
In UK terms, that means the Defence Procurement Agency working to
build better relationships with suppliers to ensure the MOD can
define clearly what they need and get it, without the sorts of massive
overruns in schedules and budgets that were slammed by the Commons
Defence Committee yet again on 28th July. DPA is hanging its hat
on PPP/PFI (Public Private Partnerships and Private Finance Initiatives)
in IPTs (Integrated Project Teams) as being the vehicle for delivering
what’s needed, including training and education, and a whole
day was devoted to presentations on how to make them work better.
The immediate aim for UK military training is still to deliver
the DTR (Defence Training Review). This involves rationalisation
of training and education supply within the MOD - providing one
course on the same subject to all three armed forces, or ‘purplisation’.
The strategists believe in it, and in the USA they do it. European
armed services are following.
John Thrower, Leader of the Defence Training Rationalisation IPT,
spoke clearly on the goals and challenges they face. Like all of
the MOD speakers I saw, he was better prepared and spoke with more
clarity, enthusiasm and authority than many of the suppliers - their
leadership qualities shone through. John started by acknowledging
that the MOD is “good at supplying training, less good at
calculating and calibrating the demand”. With poor infrastructure,
out of date and duplicated facilities, too much capacity at too
many and little scope for modernisation of the current estate, the
scale of the DTR requirement is huge. In addition, the IPT has to
deal with an uncertain future in terms of force levels, equipment
and training methods. The MOD is open to being informed and learning
from their potential partners and they do know that they need blended
learning solutions and innovation from partners who provide not
just courses but training that develops competence. They also need
partners who can deliver to fast but achievable timescales.
On the ground, there is still resistance to purplisation, with
the men and women of the RAF, Royal Navy and British Army each fiercely
loyal to their own identity and culture. Events and the strategists
are overtaking them. The MOD must achieve the savings set out in
DTR and provide training that supports the network-enabled military
of the future.
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