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across air, space, land, cyber and the country and beyond. “We are excited that a SSE will
sea,” said Air Chief Marshal Sir provide the environment for real-
Mike Wigston, Chief of the Air Staff. Stuart Lafferty, Flight Simulation istic, credible but also affordable
and Synthetic Trainers (FsAST)
Through incremental acquisition, team leader, said: “With Gladiator planning, training and mission
Gladiator will evolve allowing the we can fly a large number of rehearsal to meet the challenges
UK to undertake synthetic training aircraft together at any one time, of modern warfare complexities.
for air, land and maritime forces, all which in real-life training would be Our aim is to foster the innovation
on a secure network and safe in the almost impossible and not cost which will underpin defence trans-
knowledge that the training cannot effective. Gladiator is about allow- formation, and an investigation of
be observed by adversaries. ing pilots to do things they couldn’t the technical viability and potential
utility of an SSE is an ambitious
Typhoon and Lightning II pilots normally practice in the real world. and ground-breaking project which
based out of RAF Coningsby, RAF In addition, pilots won’t be ageing supports that aim,” observed Major
Lossiemouth and RAF Marham aircraft, burning jet fuel or firing General Jim Morris, Director of Joint
will be the first to fly virtual mis- expensive weapons – these are Warfare at UK Strategic Command,
sions using Gladiator. There are important environmental and the major organisation of the British
opportunities for maritime and financial benefits to the Ministry of Armed Forces responsible for lead-
land platforms to use the system Defence (MoD).” ing integration across all domains
with Protector, Type 45, Type 26, Gladiator is provided by Boeing - cyber, space, maritime, land and
Apache, Crowsnest, Poseidon, Defence UK and operated on an air.
E-7 Wedgetail and other platforms MoD network. SSEs provide a safe virtual proving
expected to join. UK pilots will also ground to create and test all sorts
use Gladiator to conduct synthetic of ideas, from policy choices about
training exercises with the US and UK Means Business the size and shape of the armed
NATO. forces, to design of new systems
Recently the UK Strategic and technologies and exploring how
Command asked Improbable, a UK
Viable Alternative metaverse technology company to best to use them. The SSE being
jointly developed by Improbable and
Synthetic training complements supply its synthetic environment UK Strategic Command delivers
live training opportunities and platform to deliver multi-domain vir- a simulation demonstrator which
enables delivery of effective combat tual world for operational planning models the conventional physical
forces. But a number of factors and decision support. domains (maritime, land and air) as
impact the UK’s ability to complete CAE had helped the Strategic well as aspects of space, cyber and
all necessary training in a live envi- Command establish the project in the information environment.
ronment. These include airspace the first year to create a prototype
constraints, environmental con- Single Synthetic Environment (SSE) “In an increasingly complex world,
siderations, cost, and operational that supported a detailed simulation where threats to national security
security. Gladiator will overcome of a part of the real world. CAE will demand a rapid and coordinated
these limitations by safeguarding continue to support in the second response, we continue to demon-
highly classified information while year as a key technology partner in strate that the SSE is a unique and
linking together simulators across the SSE ecosystem. powerful capability with the potential
to give Britain a truly competitive
edge over its adversaries,” Joe
Robinson, CEO of Improbable’s
Defence business, said.

The Ministry of Defence’s
Training and Simulation Systems
Programme (TSSP) will also be
rolling out VBS4 and VBS Blue IG
to support the UK’s training, exper-
imentation and mission rehearsal
needs. VBS4 is whole-earth virtual
and constructive desktop trainer
and simulation host that allows
users to create and run a vast
range of military training scenar-
© RAF ios anywhere on Earth. It provides
a virtual training environment for

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