Recently, the inaugural Australian Simulation Congress event was held, which brought together SimTecT, SimHealth and the International Simulation and Gaming Association (ISAGA), all under one event umbrella to open the doors to a wider public audience. It gives us the opportunity to look at the international use of live, virtual and constructive (LVC) uses. We asked Andrew Pryor, Government Systems Business Development Director for Rockwell Collins, Asia Pacific for his take on the event. Here is what he had to say:

Rockwell Collins demonstrated our live, virtual and constructive (LVC) credentials at the recent Australian Simulation Congress in Melbourne, Australia. Our presence established Rockwell Collins as the leading provider of fires solutions for the Australia Defence Force (ADF), and a provider of proven and secure live, virtual and constructive (LVC) training solutions.

Shawn Goodfellow presented a compelling technical paper on our approach to military science and military intelligence in training and range applications, while our team of Paul Basha, Enver Eyiam and Steve Goltz (pictured) led our participation in the Distributed Mission Training exercise ‘Virtual Pacific,’ which has engaged military and industry participants into an integrated technical demonstration of simulation capabilities based on a shared exercise scenario.

The exercise is purposely designed as a high-tempo fictional warfighting exercise to allow all participants to demonstrate their capabilities. Rockwell Collins delivered Vignette 7 in which a joint terminal attack controller (JTAC) observes enemy movement north-east of an airfield and visually identifies enemy anti-aircraft and vehicles. The targets are engaged with a group of Australian Army M777 and two RAAF F-18s. Their successful destruction clears the way for the seizure of the airfield.

In a true show of our LVC credentials, the RealFires system operated by JTACs located in Melbourne interacted with constructive (computer generated) participants and a team in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, flying a virtual F/A-18. The virtual Hornet could be seen in the scenario, flying alongside a constructive F/A-18 and the exercise went off without a hitch!

Special thanks goes to Adam Wolf, Jason Wenger and Scott Rediger of the ATC for their support and for flying the virtual Hornet at midnight in Cedar Rapids!