ITEC, the international forum for the military and civil security simulation, training and education communities, is pleased to announce that the 2019 event will feature a special show floor exhibition experience and conference panel dedicated to the Swedish Armed Forces and Exercise Viking.
Organised by the Swedish Armed Forces in cooperation with Sweden’s Folke Bernadotte Academy, Exercise Viking is the world’s largest multinational collective training event. It brings together military forces, police and representatives from civilian and humanitarian organisations from across NATO, the United Nations and the European Union to train in a joint, distributed environment.
Attendees at ITEC 2019 will have the opportunity to get the Swedish military’s perspective on the exercise. In a dedicated, dynamic Swedish Armed Forces Zone on the show floor, there will be a team representing Exercise Viking along with simulators from different branches of the Swedish Armed Forces. The Swedish Air Force will be represented by a simulator from the air combat simulation centre and a helicopter door gunner trainer, while the Swedish Army will have both live and virtual simulators on the show floor.
“Exercise Viking is one of the few exercises that sees civilian and military organisations from 60 nations train together within a NATO architecture and design framework on command and control operations, and is a good example of the importance of standards based interoperability,” Stefan Sandberg, Simulation Specialist at GEISTT and advisor to the Swedish Armed Forces, said. “The Swedish Armed Forces Zone will demonstrate how the Swedish Armed Forces use their current simulation training aids within a NATO architecture to create joint, virtual exercises.
“Exercise Viking provides a platform to test interoperability techniques being developed by NATO working groups, so being able to engage with the personnel putting these techniques into practice will be a unique opportunity for attendees at ITEC 2019.”
A further opportunity to gain insight into lessons learned from Sweden’s experience training with civil and military organisation within broad, international standards will take place on Day 2 of the ITEC conference. A panel discussion between representatives from the Swedish Armed Forces’ Exercise Viking team will consider the value of joint exercises, the rationale behind the Swedish Air Force Combat Simulation Centre’s Live, Virtual and Constructive 2025 vision, the importance of being able to utilise gaming technology in a military training environment, and the new Swedish armed forces-wide strategy on simulation.
The panel will feature speakers including:
– Captain Anders Jakobsson, Responsible for VBS-based StrisimPC system – Swedish Army Ground Combat School;
– Lt Col Carl-Fredrik Kleman, Head of Swedish Armed Forces Joint Training Centre – Swedish Armed Forces HQ;
– Lt Col Stefan Ungerth, Head of Swedish Air Force Combat Simulation Centre – FOI;
– SGM Mikael Svensson, Tactics Officer, Helicopter Operations – Swedish Armed Forces;
– Colonel Lars Karlsson, Head of the Swedish Armed Forces Exercise Department – Swedish Armed Forces.
“A big focus of the discussion will be the importance of being more strategic when acquiring simulation-based training equipment,” Sandberg said. “That primarily means buying them as part of greater systems that can be combined into large, joint exercises, rather than the previous approach which has largely been the acquisition of stand-alone systems in an isolated, stove-piped process.
“This ties in nicely to the overarching theme of the ITEC 2019 conference – ‘Interoperable by design: connecting people, technology and nations’; the Swedish Armed Forces are very interested in sharing ideas with attendees and industry participants, communicating across national borders, and mitigating the build-up of stand-alone training systems in favour of widely distributed joint exercises.”
“The Swedish Armed Forces Zone and the Day 2 panel discussion fit together well and will give attendees a chance to get a top-down view of the equipment being used by different branches of the Swedish forces to train their personnel, and how they are using it in new and innovative ways to undertake joint, distributed training,” Tracy Bebbington, Event Director, Clarion Defence & Security, added.“We are sure these features will be valuable addition to ITEC 2019, and look forward to strong engagement between the Swedish Armed Forces representatives and conference delegates.”
The full conference agenda can be viewed and downloaded at https://www.itec.co.uk/agenda
