On the heels of the NATO Summit in Chicago where the future of NATO capabilities were discussed, ACT participated in the Defence Training Simulation and Education Conference commonly called ITEC in London, England.

Opening the conference as part of the Senior Officers Panel was NATO ACT's Assistant Chief of Staff for Capability Engineering, Brigadier General Giovanni Fungo. As this conference followed fast on the heels of the Chicago Summit, Fungo spoke firstly about the impact the summit may have on NATO's relationship with industry and then gave a perspective on ACT's role in delivering the training and education to its operators that fulfill the capability development mission of the command.

The senior NATO officer at ITEC this year is Lieutenant Karlheinz Viereck, German Air Force, who stated, "NATO participates in ITEC because it is the premier simulation and training event in Europe. It attracts the best of industry, academia and government. Allied Command Transformation considers ITEC to be a shaping event that successfully brings together trainers and technologists to discuss and demonstrate solutions. The event requires a strong international military presence."

Building on participation in previous years, ACT increased its presence at the event to include a larger exhibition - demonstrating NATO's various efforts in Modeling and Simulation, as well as coordinated engagement with Industry representatives by several NATO senior officers, including the Commander of the Joint Warfare Centre in Stavanger, Norway, the Chief Scientist of the NATO Undersea Research Centre in La Spezia, Italy and the Commander of the Joint Force Training Centre in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

One of the goals of NATO ACT's participation in ITEC is to share with Industry some of the important advances that NATO is making in the area of Serious Gaming. A second goal is for NATO to learn from the activities of Industry, ways in which modeling and simulation can better support the approach to training and building capabilities.

"ACT understands that modeling and simulation is a key enabler to build a collaborative network that allows Nations and partners to test their systems against agreed standards of tactics, techniques and procedures prior to deployment in real world operations," said Fungo.

Also during the event, NATO ACT, in cooperation with NATO Research and Technology Organization, provided briefings and demonstrations on the ways in which NATO is using Modeling and Simulation to meet the Alliance training objectives and enhance the capabilities of NATO Nations. These demonstrations were carried out at the NATO booth and were deemed a great success by the organisers.

"I truly believe that M&S is more than a flight simulator or a first person shooter game. It is about preparing NATO troops for a new operational paradigm—one that will cover a vast spectrum of missions and tactical realities," said Fungo.

Related Articles:

NATO VIP Day at ITEC in London

Simulation: THE Topic for ACT Panel at ITEC