The prestigious 3 day ITEC Conference will cover a comprehensive array of subjects including training solutions, systems, methodologies and procurement.

"This year’s conference introduces 8 new themes including current engaging topics such as Counter IED training. The quality of papers has been outstanding, no one involved in military and civic training can afford to miss this conference"

Anne O'Reilly
ITEC 2010 Conference Chair
Managing Director, Mabway, UK.

“City” is a complex environment to represent (M&S) whether for its physical infrastructures (outside/inside), its population and activities (pedestrians, traffic), and its physics (communications, structural, fire, etc)  The “3D” representation depends also largely on its ‘operational’ focus: different Forces (Defence, HLS, Agencies) have different priorities of representation varying also with the intended use (training, mission planning, CD&E, etc)  The sessions of this theme will focus on two aspects of the City as a totality: What the M&S technology is able to achieve (visual and physical simulation, CGF, etc) and examples of best operational applications (training for urban crisis, emergencies, etc)

In this session you will gain an overview of the needs of the civic market for simulation and training to help plan and manage for emergencies and the consequences of unforeseen incidents; and to explore how planners and service providers can draw from the significant investment that has been made in the defence market into simulation, planning and training tools. 

This crossover market will appeal to local government, the Home office, transportation, emergency services and the police.

Mission planning is becoming a complex and multifaceted challenge given the change in nature of contemporary operations. We have seen a shift from ‘kinetic’ to a more ‘comprehensive’ approach.  This session will be addressing the use of M&S as a supporting tool in the long term mission planning process.

These two sessions will focus on ‘Evaluation in the Round, but concentrate on:

1. After Action Review: Lessons learned-the place of evaluation in the operational area.
2. Return on Investment: Case studies measuring the ‘worth’ and value of training.
3. Evaluation: The big picture - the ‘what’ and ‘why’.

This session Chaired by Alex Lever will be looking at the technologies and techniques involved in the training and support of maintainers throughout their career, in house and on-the-job.

A second session will feature both an introduction to Synthetic Maintenance Trainers; and will provide practical insight into the features and attributes of these trainers. It will include quick demonstrations of important trainer functions. The session will be chaired by Stan Jacobson, Business Development Manager, Lockheed Martin Canada.

The 21st century will see more international assignments of joint forces in out-of-country air operations, which will also require to be increasingly network-enabled.  Live-Virtual-Constructive integration and interoperability will play a major role in training simulations.
A major emphasis is put on the military implementation of training in the armed forces, on industrial solutions, the potential use of systems in various assignments and special operations and finally for training of operators/pilots.
These sessions will cover all aspects of Air Operations and Mission Training, training of network-enabled operations, military flying training, also looking at the role of simulation and will cover the following sub-themes:

• Air operations and flying training
• Unmanned (air) vehicles systems operations and training
• Networked-enabled capabilities

The value that Modelling and Simulation (M&S) plays in supporting training and education is quite clear...many other ITEC themes highlight these contributions; but the applicability of M&S can and does go far beyond training.  These M&S products and technologies cut across all functions of the military life cycle management process and have become extremely valuable decision-support tools.

The purpose of this theme is to highlight these other M&S applications to the weapon system life cycle management model, which include but are not limited to the following areas:

• Concept exploration and development
• Analysis
• Experimentation
• Design
• Research
• Development
• Acquisition
• Test and Evaluation
• Manufacturing
• Production
• Operations
• Logistics Support
  

Presentations at ITEC 2010, under this theme, will showcase these non-training applications of M&S, including ongoing activities and lessons learned.

This theme addresses innovations in the simulation of, and training for, triage and treatment of medical trauma.  The use of virtual environments, medical mannequins and live role players will be discussed along with the implication of integrating such tools into the wider training and readiness environment.

Many standardisation efforts have been undertaken since the origin of simulation aiming at fostering a reuse of Environment Database (DB) building efforts.  Countries know how much they spend in re-modelling the same critical operational area.  The reuse of environment DB is still as issue.

These sessions will provide descriptions of the state of the art in environment modelling, including sensor data exploitation, effects restitution (weather, artificial...) and trends in environment representation standardisation, relevant for re-usability of DB, and interoperability of applications.

As digitised command and control systems and NEC become increasingly important in the contemporary operational environment.  The defence of those systems is becoming more important both at home and when deployed.  A number of Nations have already set up, or are in the process of establishing a cyber defence capability. These sessions will look at the ‘threat’, ‘impact’, education and training.

Coalitions carry out combined and joint operations all around the world today.  To support these pre-deployment training is a significant requirement to ensure mission success.  This theme will not only highlight the challenges encountered but also address real operational training issues.

In the current economic climate, where cost effective learning is key, this theme will explore the integration of our understanding of people, how they behave and learn and the development of training systems.  It will appeal to the designers of hard and soft systems in support of operational capability who want to enhance the performance of their products through understanding in depth of how to work with human strengths and weaknesses.  How can we articulate better human-centred requirements so that systems deliver the correct performance by the war fighter?  How can Systems Engineering address the cultural, social and behavioural dimensions of human behaviour?   The theme will explore the discussions in cognitive science and advances in psychology that informs us about the role of the unconscious, about learning and the behaviour of trainees. Theme will also be covering the following sub-themes:

• New learning attitudes
• Training transformation
• Human Factors
• Psychology
• Cultural behaviour issues

IEDs have been identified as the chief threat to NATO personnel on current operations, particularly Afghanistan. The session will explore CIED training solutions related to key CIED operational activities [in UK nomenclature: Predict, Prevent, Detect, Neutralise, Mitigate and Exploit].

This theme aims to showcase new developments and ideas that fall outside the technology spectrums covered in the other themes.  It takes a strategic view about the needs of the operational communities and looks ahead to what will become mainstream thought but is currently conceptual.  It can also address those challenges driven by topical circumstances that have led to niche programmes that have a potential wider scope.

Previous speakers have address such topics as the analysis of human decision making, the application of risk modelling to training evaluation, the relevance of using subject matter experts in simulation procurement and how to adapt Training Needs Analysis to fit Urgent Operational Requirement procurements.

Since the end of the Cold War and in light of new global new evolving peace and security missions, military forces from all countries and alliances such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), its members nations and partners, have had to more toward a transformation of their military forces and capabilities to address these new conditions. The challenges associated with the transformation of any military are difficult, however, under the pressure of operational missions and force restructuring; these transformation challenges are even more difficult and critical.

The purpose of this theme is to highlight the progress, direction, activities and trends related to military transformation across the spectrum of national and alliance military organizations with particular emphasis on how transformation is being done, with what methods and by which organizations in the following areas:

• Training and Education
• Concept Development
• Experimentation
• Research and Technology
• Force Structure Redesign
• Doctrine Development

The session is addressing current ideas and initiatives to develop the scope of live training. The presentations describe the advances that have been made to date in order to meet new environments and training objectives.