Conduit #4

CONDUIT

SERAPIS SIMULATION AND SYNTHETIC ENVIRONMENTS NEWSLETTER

ISSUE FOUR, SUMMER 2022

A FLIGHT OF FANCY? Picture: Andres Dallimonti/unsplash

Serapis SSE turns its eyes to the skies in search of training solutions

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With vaccines in arms and places of work becoming increasingly populated, the UK is feeling distinctly more normal than it did the last time we brought you an edition of Conduit.

Rewind 18 months and concerns over coronavirus continued to dominate

established itself as the new normal and our most recent community event on May 18th was suitably on-trend.

Such a format does present challenges in respect of ensuring that those who attended virtually felt engaged, but the benefits of being able to involve colleagues unable

discussions during virtual water-cooler moments and the Prime Minister was on the cusp of announcing a second lockdown in England. Thankfully, the socially-distanced winter that followed did little to derail the momentum of Lot 5 of Dstl’s Serapis framework, which remains focused on finding science and technology-based solutions to challenges within the spheres of Simulation and Synthetic Environments (SSE).

Indeed, a great deal was achieved and by this spring – when most readers had received their thirds jabs and Serapis SSE was on the brink of turning three – a total of £7.24 million of research had been delivered and the community of practice had almost doubled in size to 102 members.

Hybrid working has since firmly

to be there in person – due to distance or isolation – far outweighed the drawbacks.

As evidenced by the experience of lockdown, the option to log on draws greater attendances and is particularly valued by our international colleagues and those located in the far reaches of the UK. Whether opting for the real-world or the remote, there was certainly much to mull over given the busyness of the last six months of the last financial year, which saw the conclusion of a number of tasks and studies supporting the end of Dstl’s research mandate in March 2022.

We are, of course, not the only organisation to have seen no let up in activity during the pandemic’s economic disruption. Across the globe, games companies posted proverbial high scores

as stay-at-home rules saw people take to their consoles and computers in search of

9 £7,246,332

OF RESEARCH DELIVERED QINETIQ TRAINING & SIMULATION – SERAPIS SSE LEAD Email: message@nsc.co.uk Tel: +44 1276 678 867 Write: Cody Technology Park, Old Ively Road, Farnborough, Hants. GU14 0LX

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NUMBER OF ACADEMIA STRONG MEMBERSHIP ON FRAMEWORK PUBLISHED BY TYLERBALE COMMUNICATIONS Email: info@tylerbale.co.uk Tel: 01252 714 870 Write: 10 Borelli Yard, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7NU Content © QinetiQ Training & Simulation 2022. All rights reserved.

Picture: rawpixel.com/freepik.com

IMMUNITY FROM A WINTER OF DISCONTENT

synthetic skies for Royal Air Force pilots, who have long been accustomed to doing so as part of their military training. That is not to say that there are not opportunities to further exploit emerging technologies and a study featured in this issue has focused on possibilities over the immediate horizon (see pages 10-13).

One constant from last year is the variety of work being undertaken by Serapis SSE project teams and we are delighted to report that diversity will also be a defining factor in the make up of our community of practice (see pages 4-5).

Aside from being absolutely the right

among you will have noticed that although NSC changed its logo and branding in 2020 following its acquisition and incorporation into the QinetiQ Group of Companies, we have now also changed our company name. The entity that was NSC is now officially known as QinetiQ Training & Simulation Ltd. Nothing else about how we operate has changed, it’s very much business as usual.

Enjoy the issue and, as ever, thank you for your continued endeavours in the Serapis SSE success story. – Steve Yates, Serapis SSE Programme Director (QinetiQ Training & Simulation)

THE MOST COMMONLY REFERENCED AREAS OF EXPERTISE IN EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST ARE:

VIRTUAL SIMULATION

ENVIRONMENTAL AND PHYSICAL MODELLING

TACTICAL SIMULATION

Led by simulation specialist NSC, part of the QinetiQ Group of Companies, Serapis SSE welcomes members from industry and academia and is open for taskings. To join our community of practice or discuss placing a task, email SERAPIS_SSE@nsc.co.uk 4C Strategies; aditerna GmbH; Agility3 Limited; AI Redefined (AIR); Aleph Insights; Arctic Shores Limited; Arke; ATLAS ELEKTRONIK UK Ltd; BAE Maritime Services; BMT; Bright HF; C3 Systems Consulting Ltd; C3IA Solutions Limited; CACI Ltd; CAE; CENTRIC; Cervus Defence; CGI Cineon Training; Collins Aerospace; Committed Software; Cordillera; CU Services; Cyber-Human Lab; D3A Defence; Daden Limited; Deep Blue C Technology Ltd; Devstars; Dudley Consulting; Durham University; Elbit Systems UK Ltd; Epic Games; Ferranti Technologies; Fleetonomy.ai; Helyx; HuSys; IDS International;Inzpire; iTrinegy; LiMETOOLS; Lockheed Martin UK; Mass Consultants Ltd; Modux Ltd; Montvieux Limited; Myriad Global Media; Nova Systems UK; Pitch Technologies Ltd; PLEXSYS UK; Polystream (Elektraglide T/A); Pulse Power & Measurement Ltd; Raytheon UK; Red Scientific; Riskaware Ltd; Rowden Technologies; SEA; Sim155; SimCentric; Simutec Systems; Slitherine; Telespazio VEGA UK Ltd; THALES UK; Turbulent FS; University of Exeter; University of Newcastle upon Tyne; Varjo; Vedette Consulting; VRAI; Xewli

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thing to do from a “community” perspective, in the field of science and technology embracing diversity and inclusion brings obvious benefits.

Diverse thinking demands a mix of minds and the more voices that are heard – regardless of the gender, sexuality, race or thought processes of their owners – the more thorough the investigation of a problem.

We believe this is another positive stride forwards in our drive to continually improve Serapis SSE, but as ever we welcome any feedback.

Finally, the observant

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alternative ways to socialise and fill their free time.

In the UK alone, £4.2 billion was banked by the sector in 2020 and such growth has seen significant advancements in the industry’s associated technologies – a trend which makes it an area more than worthy of Serapis SSE investigation (see pages 6-9).

Former frequent flyers are perhaps among those to have plugged in to play over the past year, with desktop simulators and digital dogfights providing a means to scratch an aviation itch.

There is, however, little novelty value in taking to

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DIVERSE =

Diversity and inclusion have always been dominant strands of Serapis SSE’s DNA. They are demonstrated by the make-up of the programme’s community of practice, which was created to capture the collective talents of as broad a spectrum of suppliers as possible, and the collaborative approach adopted by its project teams.

However, despite being attributes that have been organically embraced by member organisations and shown in abundance since 2019, the principles of diversity and inclusion are set

to become cemented in Serapis SSE’s future.

As this issue of Conduit went to press, the i’s were being dotted and t’s crossed on a supplier code of conduct that will ensure the community of practice continues to pull together to best effect.

“Diversity and inclusion are important because they allow everyone to feel accepted,” explained the document’s author Hannah Cowley, the supply chain lead for sustainable procurement at QinetiQ. “Authenticity – being able to be who you are – is a key component of this because if

Hannah Cowley QinetiQ

someone has to expend energy on hiding their true self then they are not going to be the most efficient, capable person that they can be. The use of gender pronouns is one way to encourage togetherness as they enable people to more easily share who they are, and this helps to strengthen companies and teams.”

In addition to being a societally sound step, Hannah was quick to impress the dividends delivered by an openminded attitude to diversity and inclusion. Citing the importance of collaboration to innovation, she added: “Serapis SSE is

operating in an industry where creativity is championed and the more types of people that you have looking at a problem, the better.

“Somebody who is neurodiverse, for example, may think differently to others and in turn arrive at different solutions.

By working together, problems tend to get solved quicker or more efficiently and with better resolutions. Having a diverse workforce allows you to throw lateral thinking at an issue and you get effective analysis. In contrast, if you just have a generic group of people thinking the same way, then

you are likely to get similar solutions being suggested.

“The same is true for supply chain diversity – different suppliers will have different experiences and ways of doing things. A code of conduct helps to create an environment where people feel safe and there is no victimisation or discrimination. Individuals and companies should be picked on their capabilities and skill sets – everything else should be inclusive.”

Hannah also stressed that the decision to set parameters for expected behaviours was not in itself an effort to exclude.

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DYNAMISM

INDIVIDUALS AND COMPANIES SHOULD BE PICKED ON THEIR CAPABILITIES AND SKILL SETS – EVERYTHING ELSE SHOULD BE INCLUSIVE Hannah Cowley QinetiQ

“It’s about making people welcome,” she concluded.

“I hope the code of conduct is written in a way that is inclusive rather than exclusive; and will only deter the kind of people who do not want to share the same ethics and morals as the rest of the Serapis SSE community.”

Steve Yates – Serapis SSE programme director – said: “In line with QinetiQ’s D&I action plan we have added this amendment to the working practices agreement as part of a supplier information refresh, and we expect organisations to sign up to it.”

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FEATURE

LEVEL UP Vedette Consulting complete a gaming tour of duty to discover if the world of V-Bucks can add more bang to military modelling and simulation’s buck Words: Andy Simms, TylerBale Pictures: Crown copyright, courtesy of Soldier / Graeme Main

FROM sneaking into pubs to wage war on intergalactic invaders during the late 1970s to training cross hairs on console combatants locked in online battle, Andy Fawkes’ lived experience of gaming technology is complete.

A veteran of the coinoperated era, the associate at Vedette Consulting has long had his fingers and thumbs pressed firmly to the buttons of an industry that continues to evolve at an electrifying pace.

Andy’s enduring interest in pixels, power-ups and processors is, however, professional as well as personal.

Andy Fawkes Vedette Consulting

The simulation and training consultant’s achievements include establishing an MoD-funded unit to evaluate gaming technologies for military use in the 2000s; a six-year spell working with the creators of VBS – the Operation Flashpoint-inspired software behind the Defence Virtual Simulation tool; and reporting as a specialist journalist on the gaming sector’s impact on military training.

It is a resume which made him the character of choice for SERAPIS SSE’s recent examination of the video game ecosystem – an expansive

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$175 billion estate now home to more than 2.8 billion gamers worldwide. The study, commissioned by Serapis as part of the Mastering Architectures and Artificial Intelligence for Training and Education Efficiency (MAAITEE) research programme, sought to better understand where gaming’s technologies and approaches could be used to ‘level up’ current and future military modelling and simulation.

MAPPING A METAVERSE “When you stop and consider what gaming has become, the brief for this project was huge,” Andy, who co-authored the report with his Vedette colleague Matthew Hemsley and through close liaison with Dstl and Serapis, told Conduit.

“Simulation technology is being driven by the gaming world now, whereas that was much less the case 20 years ago, and it is a world which is changing every day, including while we were conducting the study.

“However, we didn’t want to rule anything out too early and so we embraced an approach of not just looking at games or the technology but all the things around them; the whole experience and ecosystem.”

The solution to homing in on potential areas of exploitation for defence came in the form of a heat map of activity that presented the study team with four distinct areas for targeted investigations – game engines, cloud gaming, data and analytics, and community.

DIGITALLY DEXTEROUS That the research, which has since been accepted as a paper and presented to the Nato

Modelling and Simulation Group, suggested several clear opportunities for the military to explore will come as a surprise to few in uniform, according to Andy whose CV includes a succession of roles within the Ministry of Defence.

“Everyone joining the Forces today is from a digital and gaming generation,” he said, highlighting how Service personnel were already plugging into environments created using Unreal, the game engine behind Fortnite, and Unity to “walkthrough” different scenarios.

“Crucially, they have also now lived through a pandemic and probably spent a lot of time interacting with others in games and seen the power of network gaming first-hand.”

The rapid rise of the triService UK Fight Club, an online community using conflict-based games to remotely convene with each other to practise battlefield tactics, is testament to this view. The bottomup initiative has attracted hundreds of members and seen titles such as Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 used as a forum in which to play through scenarios – some custom-built to reflect real-world operations, conduct collective debriefs and discuss alternative courses of action.

A TEAM GAME “For all that gaming technology has advanced over the years, the biggest changes have happened this century,” added Andy. “People no longer simply go to a shop, buy a game, play it a few times and then perhaps have a chat with their friends about it.

“There might have been an element of networking in the

GAMING USED TO BE A SOLITARY EXPERIENCE BUT THAT STEREOTYPE OF A GAMER SITTING ON THEIR OWN IN A BEDROOM DOESN’T EXIST ANYMORE Andy Fawkes Vedette Consulting

past but today people join online games to socialise.

Gaming used to be a solitary experience but that stereotype of a gamer sitting on their own in a bedroom doesn’t exist anymore. Gaming is now community driven to the extent that people even enjoy watching other people play; esports is a thing and is already taking a grip in the military with all three Services now boasting their own clubs.”

Cloud gaming – or the “Netflixisation” of gaming – is at the spearhead of this revolution and,

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FEATURE

a capability is interesting as it opens the possibilities of conducting training in locations where you don’t want a lot of complex, expensive hardware and you would actually prefer the technology to be pretty dumb. It would allow you to turn off a computer in a barracks at the end of a day knowing there would be nothing left security wise.”

KEEPING SCORE

if a Future Defence Simulation Network (see issue #1) can be realised, has the potential to be a proverbial game changer in the field of military simulation and training.

“All of the big tech companies are now offering such a service as part of their business,” continued Andy. “Consoles have not gone away but cloud capabilities mean you can access games libraries, discover content more easily and – in principle – play a triple AAA game on a rubbish laptop. From a defence perspective, such

IT OPENS THE POSSIBILITIES OF CONDUCTING TRAINING IN LOCATIONS WHERE YOU DON’T WANT A LOT OF COMPLEX, EXPENSIVE HARDWARE Andy Fawkes Vedette Consulting

In contrast, there are aspects of gaming that may appeal to the military because they leave discernible digital footprints.

“Data and the capturing of it for analysis is a huge theme in the training and simulation community, where there is a drive to help move defence from a qualitative assessment of training to a more quantitative assessment,” Andy concluded.

“Having more data to back up what is good training and accurately record what has been achieved has to be a good thing.

“Gaming companies are getting better and better at this because they want to know which games are successful and

why, and gamers themselves want to know how good they are compared to other players. For example, online gambling and esports are using eye-tracking technologies to monitor the behaviours of players and it will be intriguing to see how such methods mature.”

Whatever comes next in terms of pioneering data measurement techniques, the author of SERAPIS SSE’s study of the sector will be able to reflect on the advancements with a sense of nostalgia having been among the first to pursue gaming glory.

Hard as it is to believe now but there was a time when video games did not chart players’ button bashing prowess as the microprocessors powering them simply did not have the storage to do so. Space Invaders, the arcade machine that ignited Andy’s interest in gaming and prompted his teenage visits to the pub more than four decades ago, settled this score when it became the first game to rank players’ performances. vedetteconsulting.com

Words: Andy Simms, TylerBale Pictures: Crown copyright

FEATURE

HIGH EXPECTATIONS through synthetic skies is not a new phenomenon.

Simulators have long been a staple of their Service life, with the majority of training for the UK military’s most expensive weapon system taking place in computer-driven cockpits on terra firma.

It is a trend set to continue as a result of simulation technology repeatedly proving itself as a means of landing significant cost, time, sustainability and safety benefits.

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For the Royal Air Force’s current crop of Typhoon pilots, flying sorties

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The future of military flying training or a Typhoon in a technological teacup?

Serapis SSE study team explores the advantages XR affords aviation

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Indeed, the next chapter of Typhoon training is already being written following the Ministry of Defence’s commitment to a £220 million project that will see BAE Systems deliver ten high fidelity, immersive simulators to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire and RAF Lossiemouth in Moray.

While the associated contracts provide pilots with an unobstructed view of their near future, what lies over the distant horizon is less clear.

The afterburners firing advancements in computing are showing no signs of faltering and emerging Extended Reality technologies – commonly referred to as XR – are heightening the prospect of unshackling training from tethered systems.

Whether XR, which encompasses all forms of computer-altered reality – augmented, mixed and virtual, has the wings to take off in the field of defence aviation is explored in a recent Serapis SSE report compiled by Inzpire Ltd on behalf of Dstl.

Although an analysis of the potential advantages nextgeneration systems can afford those focused on performing at altitude, it is a study grounded in the realities of military flying.

The former Serviceman said that he applied an equally open-minded approach to the Serapis SSE investigation, which was supported by specialists from QinetiQ, who provided a systematic review of critical technical and human factors to be aware of for those procuring systems.

The lead author, Al Allsop, is

the air defence of the Falkland Islands. He has also served as an instructor to Hawk, Harrier and Typhoon pilots, immersed himself in trials work and completed a PhD in Simulation in 2017, for which he produced a thesis on the extent simulation can be used to train RAF pilots to fly – and fight in – the Typhoon.

“What led me into simulation in a research capacity was that it seemed inevitable that flying hours would be reduced given the time and resource costs associated with just one hour of having a pilot in the air and that greater simulation was therefore necessary,” Al told Conduit. “I wasn’t really

certainly more qualified than most to assess the application of technologies to training.

Inzpire’s Combat Air subject matter expert spent 23-years in uniform as a fighter pilot and officer – a career which featured a host of operational tours, including flying missions over Iraq in 2003, and saw him responsible for overseeing

pro or anti simulation as from my own training I had seen some bits that had been really good and others that weren’t.

It snowballed from there as I wanted to see some hardhitting evidence that simulation was the way to go and some proof that simulators do what they say they do before relying on them with people’s lives.”

to developing weaponeering skillsets, but there are also opportunities that look enticing but aren’t.

“Take VR, for example. If you pull on some goggles and enter a virtual world, your first instinct is that it will be great training and for the majority of cases it may be. However, in the pilot world the tactile effect – to be

TOP GUN

Al Allsop Combat Air SME, Inzpire Ltd

EXAMINATION OF XR “The paper is intended to show areas where XR could be advantageous to flying training in terms of both effectiveness and delivering a resource saving,” he added.

“There are lots of places it could be utilised, from safety procedures through

COLLECTIVE BENEFIT One area Al believes XR could already have a significant impact is in the field of in-flight situational awareness, with distributed, networked systems enabling greater interaction between those training.

“When you hit a certain level of experience flying becomes less about what’s happening inside the cockpit and more about what’s going on outside it,” he explained. “How long will it take that threat over there to get to me? Do I need to go back and refuel before facing it or who is it I need to call to get information on the targets on the ground?

“If XR can replicate interactions with other people and agencies it will help to improve pilots’ understanding of their operating environment.

It would be amazing if, during training, you could get to a certain point, pause the action and be able to virtually sit alongside other pilots and see the information that they see.

To see what that data looks like when it leaves their cockpit and is sent to mine or to go to join an Army commander and view whatever it is happening in their world would be a game changer.

“It would give pilots the ability to absorb all of those experiences rather than just have a more limited view of a mission, when information is given and taken from you without a full understanding

IT WILL BE A CASE OF TRUSTING XR WHEN IT CAN BE TRUSTED AND PUTTING PEOPLE IN THE AIR WHEN IT CAN’T AND THE ONLY WAY OF ESTABLISHING THAT TRUST IS THROUGH EXPERIMENTATION, WHICH WILL TAKE TIME Al Allsop Combat Air SME, Inzpire Ltd

of why. Whenever a mistake is made there is usually someone, somewhere with the information needed to avoid it – they just don’t necessarily know who to give it to or why it’s important. By giving an appreciation of different roles to people in a controlled fashion, performance levels will go up and that way our Armed Forces will get better, quicker.”

Regardless of how – or if – XR becomes integrated into RAF training, Al stressed that the Service should have no reservations about pilots treating gaming-style headsets and associated paraphernalia as play things.

Drawing on his first-hand experiences as an instructor and conducting trials, he said: “Having trained students I know that they are only focused on completing their course and any black mark, whether in the air or simulator, delays their progression and prevents them from getting to the end.

“Pilots tend to be so

conditioned to their training that there is no game playing – they just want to prove they are up to standard.”

Similarly, the Op Telic veteran believes that any future application of XR need not be viewed as a second choice to airborne hours.

“People used to say being in a simulator was not the same as flying, but I have always countered ‘it’s not the same as what?’,” Al concluded.

“You are training when you fly but that’s not the same as going to war, which is what these pilots are being trained for and you can get closer to conflict in a synthetic environment than you can in the air.

“It will be a case of trusting XR when it can be trusted and putting people in the air when it can’t and the only way of establishing that trust is through experimentation, which will take time.” inzpire.com

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able to touch stuff and interact with displays – is important and until we can learn how best to use the technology, it doesn’t quite work for aviation. It is worth pursuing though because the financial savings it would deliver would be phenomenal.”

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such as metaverses and next generation digital twins.

“Trying to establish what a military metaverse might look like and determining the tools and technologies needed to create one is a significant undertaking.”

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EDUCATION EVOLUTION The Generation After Next studies, which were supported by representatives from across Serapis SSE’s community of

TOMORROW’S WORLD

IN a relatively short

space of time, society has grown to trust – and take for granted – technologies once considered to be at the cuttingedge of innovation.

Take, for example, the satellite-navigation systems found in most modern vehicles.

In the not-too-distant past, route planners were regarded with a high degree of scepticism by drivers, who – unconvinced by their gadget’s credentials – would often double check advice against a physical map or even simply dismiss any directions and diversions delivered in a digital voice.

Over time, however, there has been a U-turn in attitudes. Humans have learned to cherish their in-car companions, appreciating their ability to avoid lengthy delays caused by accidents ahead and up-to-date knowledge of city centre congestion.

More often than not, people now pop in a postcode and blindly trust their sat-nav to get them to where they need to

be. This journey to acceptance has been swift and is mirrored by the global embrace of the smartphone.

Doubts over the fidelity of Siri’s weather forecasting have long since evaporated and, more significantly, people expect to be able to ask their phone a question and have it respond.

A happy convergence of a multitude of technological developments, these portable rectangles accompany us to work, on evenings out and even ‘coach’ us through sporting activities.

The proliferation of such devices highlights Defence’s need to do some tracking of its own. What advancements have the potential to supercharge the fields of simulation and synthetic environments? And how and when can technologies be exploited to ensure defence can hit the ground running or better still keep a stride ahead of its adversaries?

FUTURE DIRECTION Attempting to answer these

questions has been a key focus of Serapis SSE’s Generation After Next task.

Jon Lloyd, a senior principal advisor at Dstl, was quick to stress that the efforts to establish how the military could effectively and most efficiently push the technological envelope were grounded in scientific vigour rather than reliant on acts of prophecy.

“Our research assessed the technical building blocks available, their functionality and how they might be plugged into capabilities to best serve defence outcomes,” he told Conduit. “We mapped the advancements in Extended Reality, AI and automation and charted the evolution of learning and core simulation technologies and asked what they might mean for the military.

“We also explored the different means of representing future and complex environments in training and listened closely to the hype coming from the commercial sector about novel concepts

practice, will supplement Dstl’s Transforming Training Education and Preparation (TTEP) programme.

Accepting that the nature of future operating environments must shape the military, TTEP has been focused on defining who will be training, what they are training for and how they should be trained.

While forecasting what the world and warfighting will look like is difficult, there is substantial evidence from which to draw educated assessments and set the conditions for success.

Leaps in technology, for example, will continue to change the equipment used – and faced – by our Forces as well as the domains in which they are deployed. Cyber and space represent new battlegrounds and Defence will need to continue to grow its capabilities to ensure the UK retains a competitive advantage over its adversaries.

The specifics may not be known but TTEP is striving to identify and develop evidencebased assets and approaches to represent the operating environments, tools and infrastructures of tomorrow within the MoD’s future training systems.