Halldale Group Editor Marty Kauchak is back with another clip from MS&T's 'Delving into Defence' podcast, this time Marty and the team are joined by VRAI Founder and Managing Director Niall Campion to talk analytics and data in the defence simulation training industry.

They were joined by MS&T Correspondent Andy Fawkes, who highlighted other trends and challenges in the emerging data space.

“We’re on the beginning of the journey in many ways," he said. "And while the value of data isn’t new…it hasn’t been treated as a strategic asset in defense. This current interest is driving it forward, whether it is for individual training all the way up through team and collective training.”

The panel agreed that while heretofore the focus in data use has been on individual training, more collaborative work between the defense-industry team needs to occur to elevate data use into: unit and staff training; emerging, training constructs, such as for multi-domain operations; and even wargaming.

Campion, an award-winning editor, director and visual effects artist in the film and television industry before setting up VRAI in 2017, closed out this section by noting" “until you start capturing it and storing it, you can’t do the fancy AI stuff.” And while some of VRAI’s customers request an AI capability up-front, the executive emphasized: “You can’t have AI until you have good data! This is a journey you have to go on.”

Marty, a former US Navy Captain, who served for more than 23 years in the surface warfare community, was also joined in this episode by Halldale CEO and founder Andy Smith.