Page 55 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2021

OCTOBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
SIMULATION & TRAINING 55
IN LOCK-STEP with the Chief of Army’s ‘Accelerated Warfare’ and ‘Army in Motion’ guiding principles Army is planning an almost complete upgrade of its warfighting capabilities. The Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle (CRV) is now entering service and Army will introduce high-technology platforms such as the Apache attack helicopter, AS9/AS10 Self-Propelled Howitzer system (SPH), upgraded M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank (MBT), a tracked Infantry Fight- ing Vehicle (IFV) and a Short-Range Ground Based Air De- fence system over the coming decade.
To integrate all of these highly capable platforms and systems together within an aspirational digital Battlefield Management System (BMS), and to then integrate these capabilities with those from other services or armed forc- es, such as F-35A joint strike fighters and ISR assets, and Navy’s Aegis-equipped surface combatants, will be a sig- nificant challenge.
These cutting-edge capabilities are also becoming more difficult to exercise to their limits in the live environment, either because training areas are now too small or inad-
equate to deliver the desired outcomes, or because the ADF may not wish to demonstrate their high-end capabilities to exercise partners or observers. As a result, the uptake of high-fidelity simulation, and the networking of it is increas- ingly critical to achieving the desired training outcomes.
The delivery of these outcomes cannot be achieved by Army alone however, and defence industry is an important partner on the journey. Two examples of the collaboration underway between Defence and Industry which underpin this work are Joint Project 9711 Phase 1, Core Simulation Capability (CSimC) and Army’s Land Simulation Core 2.0 programs.
ARMY SIMULATION CENTRES
Army is establishing simulation centres at several bases around the country to provide home-station training across many of its platforms and capabilities.
In February for example, Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price announced a $31 million head contract with St Hilliers for the delivery of a $235 million purpose built, three- storey Armoured Vehicle Simulation Centre at Lavarack Bar- racks in Townsville. The work is expected to be completed in mid-2022 and will support training at 3 Brigade on the Army’s upgraded tanks and armoured fighting vehicles.
“The Land 400 Phase 2 Boxer CRVs and Phase 3 IFVs will represent a generational leap in the Australian Army’s warf- ighting capability. Together with the upgraded M1 tank and its armoured engineering variants, these vehicles will deliver a world-class close combat capability for Australia,” Price said. “These new vehicles will employ networked, high-fidel- ity training simulators in new, future ready training centres.”
Other works under Stage 1 of the Armoured Fighting Vehicle Facilities Program will deliver facilities at Pucka- punyal Military Area in Victoria and Edinburgh Defence Precinct in South Australia under separate contracts.
CORE SIMULATION CAPABILITY
Lockheed Martin Australia is partnered with NEC Austra- lia and Australian SME Calytrix Technologies for JP9711, having signed the $282 million contract in March 2019. The CSimC capability will deliver simulation-enabled col- lective training across the ADF and provide a roadmap to the establishment of baseline software architecture that will link the Live, Virtual and Constructive (LVC) elements of training events.
Speaking at the contract signature in 2019, then Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said that the program will form the nucleus of future ADF collective training. “Defence’s current simulation capability allows for roughly ten simula- tion events per year,” Reynolds said. “Under JP9711 this will see 50 events hosted by the end of 2020 and over 200 by Final Operational Capability (FOC) in 2025.”
Despite the restrictions imposed by COVID-19 Lockheed Martin Australia announced the successful completion of Preliminary Design Review (PDR) activities in July 2020.
LEFT: An Australian Army M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank (MBT) rendered in BISim’s VBS4 software.
BOHEMIA INTERACTIVE