In our final education episode for this season, we are very pleased to welcome Len Granowetter, CTO for MAK Technologies. For those that don’t know Len, he has been at the forefront of some of the most demanding simulation challenges and applications on large scale projects. Most notably MAK’s software is integral to the UK Gladiator and Australian Army’s Land Sim Core projects (to name but two).There is a lot of discussion about common or ‘single’ synthetic environments these days. To understand this better, Len takes us through a short tour of the component parts of a simulation platform, talking about how interoperability is a different challenge from deployment (the infrastructure side). Semantic interoperability is the real challenge now - how to seamlessly integrate terrain for example. Finally, Len talks about some of the different approaches taken by real world projects, and the trade off taken between technology innovators and technology integrators. Not often are these the same sorts of organisations.Episode Sponsor: ConductrrVIDEO of Colin being put through his paces on Conductrr's crisis training platform can be found here: https://youtu.be/wrNEthnofm4Conducttr is a hybrid warfare/crisis simulation platform that supports a wide range of realistic command post and field exercises. Its synthetic Internet delivers a realistic virtual information environment ideal for exercising in information operations, media operations, social media, OSINT, cyber, CIMIC, and foreign affairs as well homeland security, counter-terrorism and humanitarian disaster relief.Conducttr can be used solo or with operational systems (as a “digital wrap”) during live exercises that can last from an hour to several weeks. Available on cloud, on premises with VMware and deployable on laptop as needed.Hosts:Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/Guest:Len Granowetter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/len-granowetter-615358/Links:Conductrr's Video: https://youtu.be/wrNEthnofm4Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtgTwitter: https://twitter.com/WarfighterPod

This episode we are very pleased to be joined by Luke Shabro, a former Intelligence Analyst and US Navy veteran, he is now the Deputy Director at Army Futures Command TRADOC and jointly runs the US Army Mad Scientist initiative. We don’t mind saying that the US Army Mad Scientist podcast provided quite a bit of inspiration for the Warfighter Podcast - so it was great to hear more from Luke about his experience of driving innovation and change through large organisations.Luke could speak on many subjects with authority and depth, but we were keen to learn from his experience of in Army Futures Command, and some of the techniques and approaches they used to inspire change across a sprawling organisation. As the title suggests - how do we disrupt without destroying current operations and the good parts.In this bold future, it’s about making more connections, spreading information, views and perspectives across a mesh rather than a strict hierarchy. Luke points out some of the things that can be blockers as well as the tricks that can work to drive change.As ever we are joined by our intrepid journalist Andy Fawkes from MS&T, who is fresh back from ITEC in Rotterdam (one of the largest training and simulation conferences in Europe). Andy provides us with a brief rundown of the main themes and news items of interest from the show floor. We can confirm he was seen for a brief moment cutting across the show floor to deliver his paper!Episode Sponsor: Improbable DefenceInterview 1: Unpicking the "Military Metaverse" - Joe RobinsonInterview 2: Horizontal Scaling of Synthetic Environments - Jason KennedyImprobable Defence is a mission focused technology company working to transform the national security of our nations and their allies in the face of increasing global competition and evolving threats.Today, national security is defined by technological superiority. We believe that software more than any other capability will redefine how war is fought and who will be on the winning side. Those entrusted with the preservation of our freedom, prosperity and safety deserve the best software-defined capabilities available.Since the end of the Cold War, the UK, US and their allies have been unchallenged in military technological dominance. Today, we are facing a different reality: our adversaries are seizing the technological edge.Improbable Defence chooses to stand up and not stand by. We are building cutting-edge software products to help our nations retake the technological advantage. We believe in defending our democratic values against those who seek to undermine them. Supporting those tasked with this mission is at the heart of all we do. We seek to radically transform the mission outcomes of those whose responsibility it is to keep us safe.Hosts:Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/Guest:Luke Shabro: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-shabro-6a012840/Links:Website:

Following on from our previous episode with Joe Robinson, we are joined by Jason Kennedy who is the VP of Engineering at Improbable. Jason has an impressive background in, having previously directed large teams of engineers to push the boundaries of simulation technology for defence and space applications.In a full and frank discussion, Jason describes the challenge for scaling simulation applications for serious training and decision support applications. Coining the term ‘Horizontal Scaling’.Jason covers the demand signal first, laying out the need for improved collaboration between government, academia and industry across simulation technologies. Partly to reduce costs, but more importantly to model and rehearse things that just can’t be done live due to the need for scale, complexity or things that are too dangerous to do in the real world on a live population.Jason goes on to describe what isn’t working and proposes some approaches for improved collaboration and argues the case that there may be some dominant platforms for our ecosystems (such as we see with Apple and Google) but that’s not necessarily a bad thing if it lifts the rest of the industry and academia to innovate. Like the rail network, some monopolies are just a reality we may have to live with, rather than a fragmented approach to developing our infrastructure.As ever we are joined by Andy Fawkes from MS&T, who has curated some of the best stories from the last two weeks across training and simulation. One story that doesn’t seem to go away is the problems with UK MFTS. Andy also covers initiatives to lower the environmental impact of flying training and of course next week is ITEC in Rotterdam, which no doubt will provide a whole host of more interesting news to come!Episode Sponsor: Improbable DefenceImprobable Defence is a mission focused technology company working to transform the national security of our nations and their allies in the face of increasing global competition and evolving threats.Today, national security is defined by technological superiority. We believe that software more than any other capability will redefine how war is fought and who will be on the winning side. Those entrusted with the preservation of our freedom, prosperity and safety deserve the best software-defined capabilities available.Since the end of the Cold War, the UK, US and their allies have been unchallenged in military technological dominance. Today, we are facing a different reality: our adversaries are seizing the technological edge.Improbable Defence chooses to stand up and not stand by. We are building cutting-edge software products to help our nations retake the technological advantage. We believe in defending our democratic values against those who seek to undermine them. Supporting those tasked with this mission is at the heart of all we do. We seek to radically transform the mission outcomes of those whose responsibility it is to keep us safe.Hosts:Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/Guest:Jason Kennedy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-kennedy-65611710a/Links:Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/LinkedIn:

Continuing our Education series we are very pleased to Welcome Björn Möller who, whilst serving as the President of Pitch Technologies, is also one of the leading authorities in distributed simulation standards. Bjorn has been deeply involved in shaping the HLA simulation standard for the past 30 years.Bjorn expertly breaks down what can be a complex subject into easily understandable concepts, during this fireside chat. From his lake cabin in Sweden. We hope you’re sitting comfortably.We cover some of the history behind the development of the HLA standard, and what it sets out to do along with some key terminology. Bjorn then goes on to describe some of the key features for the standard, above what legacy standards such as DIS can achieve. He also covers the use of FOMs across a number of use cases, from pilot training to C2 applications and space.To end we cover the future developments planned for HLA, which is an ever evolving standard that aims to support ambitious projects across the training and simulation spectrum.Episode Sponsor: ConductrrConducttr is a hybrid warfare/crisis simulation platform that supports a wide range of realistic command post and field exercises. Its synthetic Internet delivers a realistic virtual information environment ideal for exercising in information operations, media operations, social media, OSINT, cyber, CIMIC, and foreign affairs as well homeland security, counter-terrorism and humanitarian disaster relief.Conducttr can be used solo or with operational systems (as a “digital wrap”) during live exercises that can last from an hour to several weeks. Available on cloud, on premises with VMware and deployable on laptop as needed.Hosts:Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/Guest:Björn Möller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjornmoller/Links:Conductrr's Video: https://youtu.be/wrNEthnofm4Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtgTwitter: https://twitter.com/WarfighterPod

We know we talk a lot about innovation on this podcast, but this week we look into an interesting initiative to stimulate and grow ideas across all arms of the UK Armed Forces.The military relies on harnessing the latest technology in order to gain an advantage of it’s adversaries, however this is often hard won. The pace of technological change is only increasing all the while.These factors were part of the motivation behind the setting up of the UK Battlelab, and we are grateful for Ed Ebbern joining to tell us more about how it works, and some of the behind the scenes challenges and opportunities.Ed talks about the concept of ‘bottom up’ innovation, where those at the coal face (irrespective of rank) are often best placed not only to understand the problem but also to develop and implement novel solutions.The UK Battlelab is still in its infancy, however represents an incredible opportunity for inter-service and international collaboration with partners across defence, industry and academia.As ever we are joined by our intrepid journalist Andy Fawkes from MST, covering some of the latest stories internationally - from latest DOD investments in training and simulation, to under-the-hood developments from NVIDEA and Epic for game engines and graphics rendering. Of course we couldn’t go another week without mentioning AI!Episode Sponsor: Improbable DefenceImprobable Defence is a mission focused technology company working to transform the national security of our nations and their allies in the face of increasing global competition and evolving threats.Today, national security is defined by technological superiority. We believe that software more than any other capability will redefine how war is fought and who will be on the winning side. Those entrusted with the preservation of our freedom, prosperity and safety deserve the best software-defined capabilities available.Since the end of the Cold War, the UK, US and their allies have been unchallenged in military technological dominance. Today, we are facing a different reality: our adversaries are seizing the technological edge.Improbable Defence chooses to stand up and not stand by. We are building cutting-edge software products to help our nations retake the technological advantage. We believe in defending our democratic values against those who seek to undermine them. Supporting those tasked with this mission is at the heart of all we do. We seek to radically transform the mission outcomes of those whose responsibility it is to keep us safe.Hosts:Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/Guest:Edward Ebben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardebbern/Links:Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtgTwitter: