Virtual Simulation to Deliver Training "Without Constraints"

NSC will continue to provide virtual training to the British Army until at least 2020 after being awarded a major contract by the UK Ministry of Defence.

Having been competitively selected to deliver the Army's Unit Based Virtual Training (UBVT) capability, the simulation specialist will manage a diverse range of exercises designed to prepare regular and reserve personnel for future operations.

The contract, which is worth circa £4 million and will run for up to five years, is the successor to the UK MOD's highly-successful Joint Combat Operations Virtual Environment (Op JCOVE) programme previously delivered by NSC.

Complementing rather than replacing field exercises, UBVT will enable units to collectively practice fire and manoeuvre, command and control, and tactics, techniques and procedures in a realistic synthetic environment and consequently get greater benefit from live training opportunities.

NSC's new hi-tech system can be adapted to meet specific training objectives and immerses soldiers in high-fidelity terrains featuring authentic vehicles and weaponry and intelligent non-combatants and hostile forces.

UBVT exploits the MOD's Defence Virtual Simulation, which is provided through Bohemia Interactive's Virtual Battlespace 3, and is run on a network of laptop computers.

Thanks to a teaming agreement between NSC and 4C Strategies, UBVT will benefit from Exonaut™, a comprehensive training progression and exercise management tool already employed by the British Army. Exonaut will be used to book and modify UBVT events, manage and track collective training achievements, provide objective evidence for after-action review activities and present a transparent view of a unit's progression to better prepare for future training opportunities.

Under the terms of the contract, NSC will also establish a physical and virtual UBVT Centre of Excellence to track training trends and share best practice across the Army, ensuring continuous improvement in collective training techniques.