ORLANDO, Fla. — “Everything is a joint fight.”
That message, from Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was the overarching theme of the 2024 Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference, which brings together all branches of the military, industry and academia to what has become the largest modeling, simulation and training conference in the world.
The landscape of warfare is changing at an unprecedented pace, with current global conflicts being at the forefront of discussion for this year’s event. Future conflicts will be fought under a joint commander and will require substantial changes at echelon, from training to combat.
“The human cost from lack of training is something we cannot afford,” said Lt. Gen. Benjamin Watson, commanding general for the Marine Corps’ Training and Education Command, during a fireside chat of senior leaders from all branches of service and global military allies.
That scope of innovation and expertise and how it can solve real-time challenges for the Warfighter is a hallmark of I/ITSEC, now in its 58th year.
“It is hard to find this kind of synergy anywhere else,” said Brian Harris, technical deputy for the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center’s Software, Simulation, Systems Engineering and Integration Directorate, longtime participants of I/ITSEC.
Joining its fellow centers under the DEVCOM umbrella, DEVCOM AvMC showcased its Cockpit Academic Procedural Tool - Enhanced Visual Control System, or CAPT-EVCS, a classroom enhancer for pilots that is designed to look, feel and even smell like a helicopter. The simulation software is UH-60M Aircraft Avionics Procedural Software, a high-fidelity emulation of an operational flight program, aircraft systems and flight dynamics. It also features the Army Game Studio’s Rocket IG software, a government-owned graphics rendering engine designed for virtual simulations.
“Because the joint force is here, we are making everyone aware of our current technology efforts,” said S3I’s Jacob Vaughn.
But that information transfer goes both ways as I/ITSEC also provides an opportunity for S3I to connect with other experts in the field. The center’s Joint Technology Center Systems Integration Laboratory, or JSIL, team also was on hand to discuss their ongoing work with Gray Eagle (MQ-IC) aircraft models and ground control station simulation software, its 3D model and terrain database, the Multiple Unified Simulation Environment Air Force Synthetic Environment for Reconnaissance & Surveillance — or MUSE/AFSERS — and their JSIL product library, a suite of software products that simulates an unmanned aerial system.
For S3I’s Matthew Pellegrino, I/ITSEC is also an opportunity to connect with people across the services who might be facing similar challenges as technology — and threats — evolve.
“What I like to see are what solutions others have come up with,” he said.
It is all-hands on deck when it comes to those threats and for Secretary of the Navy Carlos del Toro, who served as the keynote speaker for the conference, that will require a coalition across the military industrial complex.
“There is a lot more that needs to be done and we will be looking to you in this room to do it.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
As part of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, a subordinate of the U.S. Army Futures Command, DEVCOM Aviation & Missile Center serves as the Army’s primary center for developing, integrating, demonstrating and sustaining Army aviation and missile systems. For more than six decades, DEVCOM AvMC has delivered cutting-edge aviation and missile technologies and it continues to drive the advancement of future capabilities to ensure war-winning future readiness and battlefield dominance.
Social Sharing