We’re mere weeks away from I/ITSEC 2018 and the defense industry is anxiously awaiting the world’s largest modeling, simulation, and training event. Experts in this industry look forward to exploring this year’s theme of “Launching Innovation in Learning: Ready, Set, Disrupt.”

In an effort to help prepare attendees for this year’s show and really mark how far the industry has come in just one year, the Modern Military Training team is sharing a glance back at what was covered at I/ITSEC 2017. Here are some of our top stories from last year’s event, covering key trends and advancements in the training and simulation community for 2017.

I/ITSEC 2017 Readiness Without Borders: Q&A with Nick Gibbs

In preparation for last year’s show, we sat down with Rockwell Collins Vice President and General Manager of Simulation and Training Solutions (STS) Nick Gibbs to learn about trends and updates in the training and simulation community. He spoke to trends like the rising adoption of gaming technology in the defense space, as well as challenges like achieving interoperability and strapped budgets in the public sector.

In the discussion, he stated, “While we are in an exciting time where training solutions are pushing the limits, bringing in a blended style of training that allows soldiers increased realism to ‘train like they fight’ from more places, requires greater interoperability of systems.”

Read the entire discussion here.

VIDEO: Integrated LVC is Critical for Training in a Multi-Dimensional Environment

At last year’s show, Rockwell Collins and CAE partnered to demonstrate their integrated LVC capability. The mission training exercise involved both air-to-air and air-to-ground scenarios, followed by a battle damage assessment. This partnership captured the importance of industry collaboration highlighted at I/ITSEC 2017.

As stated in our initial coverage, “The Holy Grail for military simulation and training, and specifically for LVC, is to integrate multiple components together along with a live component, to allow war fighters to train in an environment that has the magnitude and can capture the essence of a significant in-theater event.”

Watch a video of the demonstration here.

I/ITSEC Promotes Collaboration, Cooperation, and Interoperability for Future of Training

Gen. David Perkins, Commanding General for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), one of the keynote speakers from last year, spoke to another pressing topic in the training and simulation community: how the approach to military training needs to be modernized and refreshed. Specifically, he urged attendees to remember that training should be seen as a tool, not a task.

In the same vein, CEO and Co-founder of Raydon Don Ariel emphasized the need for cooperation among industry leaders in order to truly progress in his industry keynote address. We originally reported, “‘We cooperate or we die,’ he stated bluntly in his address this morning. This approach of standardization and open platforms is how industry will help pull the military out of the industrial age and into the age of information.”

Read more about these keynote addresses here.

I/ITSEC 2017: Collaboration, STE, Operation Blended Warrior and other Important Takeaways

As we previously mentioned, collaboration was a key component of I/ITSEC 2017 discussions. In our recap following the show last year, we captured some of the top takeaways. We had the pleasure of hearing from industry leaders like Rockwell Collins, Booz Allen Hamilton, and the team behind Operation Blended Warrior about growth in VR, AR, and MR training programs.

Topics like acquisition reform and machine learning were also top of mind for attendees. Our coverage originally stated, “Industry and service experts discussed quite a bit about how and why adoption at the government level is slower and what important needs those technologies would address with regards to more personalized, optimized training.”

Read a high-level recap from last year’s show here.

We look forward to closely covering I/ITSEC 2018. To stay updated on coverage of this year’s event, subscribe to our newsletter.