NZDF reaffirms commitment to BAE Systems’ VBS simulator

BEING one of the first users of the Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim) Virtual Battle Space (VBS), the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) announced that it would upgrade to the latest version of the simulator and will continue to fund further developments of it. BISim is a wholly owned subsidiary of BAE Systems at the forefront of simulation and training solutions for defence and civilian organisations.

A Bohemia Interactive Australia (BIA) statement read, “BIA is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a contract by the NZDF for an upgrade to VBS4, a virtual desktop simulation for collective tactical and mission rehearsal with support for over 100 training use cases. The award also includes an enterprise-wide license and supplementary development by BIA to ultimately deliver a customised simulation to the NZDF.”

The NZDF also contracted BIA to develop an improved representation of the New Zealand Light Armoured Vehicle, and for continued maintenance of its licence of Terratools, a terrain generation tool used to create high-fidelity, correlated terrain for simulation.

BIA managing director Ryan Stephenson added, “we are grateful for the trust the NZDF has placed in VBS for the last 15 years. Our commitment to deliver added value continues in our VBS4 release,” said “The NZ Army’s Command and Control Systems School are real power users of simulation tools and have developed considerable expertise in leveraging simulation as a multiplier to produce training effects for their service men and women. We are proud to continue supporting them in their work.”\

Globally, hundreds of thousands of military personnel are trained every year using BISim’s high-fidelity VBS software products. More than 60 NATO and NATO-friendly countries, and over 300 integrators/prime contractors use VBS technology, many making significant funding commitments to extend VBS product capabilities.

BISim’s customers include the United States Army, US Marine Corps, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, Canadian Armed Forces, French Army, German Bundeswehr, Swedish Armed Forces, Australian Defence Force, NZDF, and many major system integrators. The UK, France, Germany, Sweden, and other customers have already upgraded to the latest VBS4 which provides major improvements over previous versions including whole-Earth representation and a faster workflow for content generation. -shp/adj/dl (Pix:BISim)