The Engine for Training Transformation
The British Army’s Collective Training Transformation Programme calls for the delivery of an integrated, expeditionary and digitalised Army Collective Training Service (ACTS).
For the delivery of ACTS, the British Army needs a strategic training partner that can transform on the move and continue to innovate – keeping pace with both advances in technology and an ever-evolving threat.
Alliance, a consortium under prime contractor Lockheed Martin, is focused on delivering exactly that.
Smart Training
4GD has been providing British armed forces with dismounted tactical urban training facilities for over five years.
Their SmartFacility – a system of rapidly reconfigurable modular panels combined with unique special effects and a video monitoring system – is an instrumented, immersive physical / virtual training environment that merges live training with a synthetic environment.
Despite its sophistication, the SmartFacility remains easy to set up and reconfigure, minimising set-up times and maximising time on the range.
A key strength of 4GD’s technology is that it already collects extensive volumes of high-fidelity data from the individual, the SimStriker targets and the environment, providing unrivalled opportunities for this data to be exploited by other Alliance partners. And, as an agile SME, 4GD can be extremely responsive in delivering what its customers need: a quality crucial to delivering on the ACTS requirement.
Effective Effects
Having developed and installed the British Army’s Area Weapons Effects Simulator (AWES) in 1998, Cubic Defence UK will continue to provide this key capability.
AWES and its integrated tactical engagement systems simulate large-scale, force-on-force combat engagements, including the effects of direct and indirect fire, mines, air-delivered munitions and even chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear effects. AWES also tracks and monitors the actions and positions of more than 1,400 individual soldiers and 250 vehicles using GPS technology.
Cubic also offers a turnkey Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT) live training solution that replicates the tactical complexities unique to urban terrain, while its synthetic wrap technology adds virtual and constructive training layers, allowing troops to train with platforms and deliver effects that would otherwise be precluded by cost, scarcity or safety.
Expeditionary Instrumentation
For 20 years, Ravenswood Solutions has been a leading provider of mobile instrumented training, testing and performance assessment for the U.S. military.
The Ravenswood-developed Mobile Ground Truth System (MGTS) – a rapidly deployable, GPS-based, ruggedly extensible, instrumented live training system – has been deployed in 26 locations worldwide. MGTS tracks vehicles and participants at the individual level, allowing exercise leaders to monitor events in real time and replay scenarios in instrumented after-action reviews. The system can be scaled to specific needs, while Ravenwood’s state-of-the-art exercise control software, ORION, is capable of integrating any sensor inputs across the live, virtual, and constructive domains, tracking up to 65,000 entities with unrivalled fidelity.
Intrinsic to the Ravenwood ethos – and a vital asset for delivering ACTS – is the company’s ability to look beyond the application of technology to understand precisely how that technology can transform training to a whole new level.
No Project Too Large
From the decade-long project to redevelop Battersea Power Station to its work on more than 20 international airports, Turner & Townsend has project-managed some of the world’s most complex capital investment programmes and projects.
With 75 years of programme, project and cost management experience across the full spectrum of industries, Turner & Townsend knows well enough that – beyond technology, digitalisation and its exploitation – it’s people, processes and culture that drive innovation, delivery and excellence. It is this experience that the company is increasingly bringing to the world of defence – and in particular provides Alliance with the solid foundation for its success.
The Power of Data
Through KX and Splunk, Alliance has two companies that excel at the art of data exploitation.
KX’s mission is to accelerate the speed of data and AI-driven innovation, enabling its customers to transform into real-time, intelligent enterprises.
Splunk is a powerful platform that uses machine learning and AI to create insights that have previously never been possible.
A Prime Among Equals
As one of the world’s largest defence companies, Lockheed Martin’s most obvious calling card is its prime role in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme: the largest-ever international combat aircraft programme, which has already delivered more than 980 F-35s to the air forces of 17 countries, including the UK’s own Joint Force Lightning.
The soldiers of the British Army, meanwhile, will already be familiar with Lockheed Martin equipment, from the Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (CATT) to the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System.
Lockheed Martin’s role as the overall integrator provides true freedom and flexibility Alliance requires to deliver its best solutions.
Alliance has the currency, the expertise and the vision to transform the British Army’s collective training – and to keep transforming it – as the army modernises to face challenges beyond the horizon.