Warfighter Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

We are pleased to invite two heavyweight guests for our final episode of the season.

Coming out of the shadows, we speak to Matt Chuter - our sponsor at Babcock. We were keen to learn more about how the latest evolutions in the battlefield are shaping the Crucible Teams thinking about the future design for Army collective training. 

Matt also reflected on some of his personal highlights from this season, including Jenny McArdle on the future of Land Training, Andy Gales discussing TES, and Ethan Wilson on the Grey Zone. (Links to the episodes below)

And who better to invite back than Col Arnel David. Now in a new post, and overachieve as per usual, we were keen to hear about his latest challenge and works.

The discussion is wide ranging, and we couldn’t do the subject of his PhD justice in a short time, but we do cover the following:

• Exploration of ‘Prototyping Warfare’ and its benefits over traditional strategies.
• The impact of clinging to comfortable but outdated assumptions on military effectiveness.
• How militaries cling to comfortable assumptions.
• How do we make a case for change in the absence of a significant credible threat?
• What role government procurement plays in facilitating the rapid conversion of new ideas into capabilities.
• Key recommendations for military leaders and policymakers to ensure their strategies are adaptable and effective in a fast-changing strategic landscape.

We suggest listening to this on ¾ or ½ speed, as Col Arnel likes to talk at the speed of his thinking!

• Tom Constable: www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/ 
• Colin Hillier: www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/

• Col Arnel David: www.linkedin.com/in/arnel-david/
• Matt Chuter: www.linkedin.com/in/matt-chuter-7bb1878/

• Episode with Jenny McArdle: www.warfighterpodcast.com/s2-e1-the-future-of-land-training/
• Episode with Andy Gales: www.warfighterpodcast.com/s2-e8-tesmiles-definitely-not-laser-tag/
• Episode with Ethan Wilson: www.warfighterpodcast.com/s2-e9-grey-zone-conflict/
• Website: www.warfighterpodcast.com/
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtg
• Twitter: twitter.com/WarfighterPod

Babcock has always operated hand in hand with our customers because their mission is our mission. Our people support the British Army by contributing to front-line support, delivering the capability they need, available to them wherever,...

Strap in. For our penultimate episode of the season we tackle what might seem like a simple question, but proves to be expansive - What does it mean to deliver realism in Training? 

We are joined by Anthony Pittman who, as well having a lengthy service in the British Army where he lived and breathed training, is currently the Director for Development & Optimisation at Babcock.

Always a contentious subject, (which we’re sure is the start of some mess brawls), we don’t hold back from the difficult questions. Anthony deals with each point elegantly, tackling diverse subjects such as:

• What is Realism anyway?
• Is there an optimum level for Realism?
• Could we cope with greater Realism?
• Doesn’t adding Realism always cost more money?
• Do we have enough scientific rigour to understand training effectiveness vs Realism?

We knew 40 minutes wouldn’t be enough for this subject, so no doubt we will return to it in the future. Anthony wraps up the discussion with his vision for what improved realism means for the future of collective training.

Excellent food for thought and very topical with all the work going on in this area at the moment.

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/ 
• Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/

• Anthony Pittman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajpittman/

• Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtg
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WarfighterPod

Babcock has always operated hand in hand with our customers because their mission is our mission. Our people support the British Army by contributing to front-line support, delivering the capability they need, available to them wherever, whenever and however they need it. We ensure the British Army can focus on their missions safely by supporting their vehicles, both armoured and white fleet with skilled engineers and capability backed by long-term through-life engineering expertise.

We enable our defence and emergency services customers to do their job with our technical training programmes. We combine deep understanding and long-term commitment with constructive challenge. An embedded partner, focussed on outcomes. Globally, new defence and resilience equipment programmes and asset modernisation programmes are seeing a resurgence. Training personnel is a critical component to support these programmes.

Whether it’s applying engineering excellence or the latest technology, we combine our expertise with a practical mindset. Alongside our deep engineering experience, digital and data technologies will allow us to better understand, predict and enhance the performance of the assets we manage, make better engineering decisions to reduce risk and improve service delivery.

While Tom has been battling an annual occurrence of “Flymageddon” on his farm, the team have been busily lining up exciting guests for Season 2. We plan to pick up on many of the themes from Season 1 and start pulling those threads!

This episode is no different, and we are pleased to be joined by Winston Chang from Snowflake who is their CTO for Global Public Sector and so has a special interest in dealing with large data problems across government and defence. Winston is himself a West Point graduate, so brings a perspective from both civil and military angles.

We start by asking Winston how we got here, providing a potted history of the movement from Data Warehouses to deal with ‘Big Data’, Data Lakes and Platforms. Of particular note is the move from fixed infrastructure to cloud deployment of data, which fosters improved collaboration and data sharing.

Of course no episode is complete without mention of AI, and Winston goes on to explain how these developments have helped to enable deployment of machine learning and LLMs, which require large amounts of storage and compute resource. Without which the current crop of generative AI applications would not be possible.

While covering many topics in a short session, Winston makes an interesting point about how we should view data like a water ecosystem. We need to learn how to cultivate and curate this resource, and it doesn’t need to always be in a perfect state to gain benefits from it. Like a natural ecosystem, it supports a wide range of sources, users and consumers.

Last but not least, we speak of the challenge to build a common understanding of how we should manage data, as well as build a workforce with the necessary skills and experience to properly exploit it.

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/ 
• Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/

• Winston Chang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/winstonwchang/

• Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtg
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WarfighterPod

Babcock has always operated hand in hand with our customers because their mission is our mission. Our people support the British Army by contributing to front-line support, delivering the capability they need, available to them wherever, whenever and however they need it. We ensure the British Army can focus on their missions safely by supporting their vehicles, both armoured and white fleet with skilled engineers and capability backed by long-term through-life engineering expertise.

We enable our defence and emergency services customers to do their job with our technical training programmes. We combine deep understanding and long-term commitment with constructive challenge. An embedded partner, focussed on outcomes. Globally, new defence and resilience equipment programmes and asset modernisation programmes are...

Well, we said we’d come back to the topic of AI and do a deeper dive into the subject. Since Generative AI sprung into our collective consciousness earlier this year, the hype hasn’t really died down. So we are pleased to explore the impact of the technology with someone who has direct experience of implementing AI into defence projects - Rob Albritton from OctoLab, which was recently acquired by IBM.

Rob provides an explanation of what generative AI means, and how it differs from other machine learning technologies, and why it matters to defence. He then talks us through his experience in deploying generative AI on defence projects, sharing his views on where it can add value as well as some of the pitfalls.

We wrap up the discussion with some real insights into some of the challenges and risks of deploying this technology - such as the problem of model ‘drift’ and the challenge of applying it to safety critical applications. 

This episode is a must if you're still confused by a lot of the buzzwords and terms surrounding generative AI.

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/ 
• Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/

• Rob Albritton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robalbritton/

• Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtg
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WarfighterPod

Babcock has always operated hand in hand with our customers because their mission is our mission. Our people support the British Army by contributing to front-line support, delivering the capability they need, available to them wherever, whenever and however they need it. We ensure the British Army can focus on their missions safely by supporting their vehicles, both armoured and white fleet with skilled engineers and capability backed by long-term through-life engineering expertise.

We enable our defence and emergency services customers to do their job with our technical training programmes. We combine deep understanding and long-term commitment with constructive challenge. An embedded partner, focussed on outcomes. Globally, new defence and resilience equipment programmes and asset modernisation programmes are seeing a resurgence. Training personnel is a critical component to support these programmes.

Whether it’s applying engineering excellence or the latest technology, we combine our expertise with a practical mindset. Alongside our deep engineering experience, digital and data technologies will allow us to better understand, predict and enhance the performance of the assets we manage, make better engineering decisions to reduce risk and improve service delivery.

Today’s the day the Warfighter Podcast get to announce its new Sponsor - Babcock International, who have very kindly agreed to back our exciting schedule for the Season 2.

To kick things off we are joined by Matthew Chuter who’s the Campaign Director for CTTP at Babcock. We start the discussion around the CTTP Programme recently launched in the UK and what it means for transforming Army Training. Matt also reveals the members of Team Crucible and describes what they each add to the training delivery proposition. We look forward to digging into some of these interesting areas during this season.

For the second half we are joined by Jennifer McArdle PhD who is the Senior Director of Defense Programmes at CAE. Jennifer’s reputation precedes her, and she kindly shares with us her quick take on the main challenges for the future of Land Training, particularly in the light of the recent war in Ukraine. We discuss the impact of the Urban Battle and how that’s still a huge challenge, as well as how current training systems need to evolve from their Cold War origins.

A great primer for the new season as we plan to dig into some of these topics in future episodes.

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/ 
• Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/

• Matthew Chuter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-chuter-7bb1878/
• Jennifer McArdle PhD: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-mcardle-ph-d-a7404a36/

• Team Crucible: https://www.team-crucible.co.uk/
• Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtg
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WarfighterPod

Babcock has always operated hand in hand with our customers because their mission is our mission. Our people support the British Army by contributing to front-line support, delivering the capability they need, available to them wherever, whenever and however they need it. We ensure the British Army can focus on their missions safely by supporting their vehicles, both armoured and white fleet with skilled engineers and capability backed by long-term through-life engineering expertise.

We enable our defence and emergency services customers to do their job with our technical training programmes. We combine deep understanding and long-term commitment with constructive challenge. An embedded partner, focussed on outcomes. Globally, new defence and resilience equipment programmes and asset modernisation programmes are seeing a resurgence. Training personnel is a critical component to support these programmes.

Whether it’s applying engineering excellence or the latest technology, we combine our expertise with a practical mindset....

You thought you’d heard the last of The Warfighter Podcast? We’ve been taking a short break - Tom’s been working hard on the farm and Colin has been off sailing (OK, not much sailing but the fish weren’t going to snorkel themselves).

We are now pleased to be able to say that Season 2 is GO, and we have a shiny new sponsor and exciting lineup of guests. We might even try another Live event or two. All will be revealed in the next episode.

Last season we had a couple of guests that we couldn’t fit into the schedule. So we are very pleased to be able to release this interview as a bonus episode. We are joined by Fahad ‘Sunny’ Masood who provides us with his perspectives on international collaboration by the Armed Forces during his time flying for the Pakistani Air Force. This is the type of work carried out by our Armed Forces, quietly in the background that delivers huge returns in terms of strengthening partner nations and building important links. 

Sunny describes some of the cultural challenges of working with these training teams and reflects on the impact they had on his career and how it shaped his thinking as an aviator.

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/ 
• Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/

• Fahad ibne Masood: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fahadibnemasood/

1. Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/
2. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/
3. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtg
4. Twitter: https://twitter.com/WarfighterPod
5. Tom's Podcast interview with Lt Gen Richard Nugee: https://www.grangeproject.co.uk/wilder-podcast/ep-003-the-rising-tide-of-climate-insecurity-with-lt-gen-richard-nugee

In another first, the Warfighter Podcast are very pleased to be able to work with NATO Modelling and Simulation Working Group to cover their latest initiative - the MSaaS Jam, hosted at the Tech Grove, Orlando, Florida. For those that don’t know this is the spiritual home for Modelling & Simulation across the US DoD.

Over a weekend in June, teams were invited to a ‘hackathon’ style event, fed pizzas and Mountain Dew, and asked to develop a novel simulation service that is scalable, agile, and suitable for training or experimentation.

Teams could take part in person, or remotely as either a participant, SME or observer with the chance for teams to win $5,000. The top three teams were invited to present their solutions to the NATO MSaaS Working Group, as well as be featured at I/ITSEC 2023.

This interview was recorded in two parts, featuring Robert Seigfried (Co-Chair NATO Distributed Simulation Training), Chris J McGroarty from US Army DEVCOM and the winning team (AKA The Topography Troopers) from SimBlocks.io and ARA. Jordan Dauble from SimBlocks joins us in the second half to talk about the experience, and what it took to make the winning solution.

A fascinating initiative from NATO NMSG that sought to break down some of the innovation barriers and introduce new approaches and thinking to distributed simulation. We look forward to covering this event in the future!

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/ 
• Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/

• Robert Seigfried: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-siegfried-aditerna/
• Chris J McGroarty: US Army DEVCOM
• Jordan Dauble: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-dauble/

• Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtg
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WarfighterPod

NATO and nations use simulation environments for various purposes, such as training, capability development, mission rehearsal, and decision support in acquisition processes or in operations..  Consequently, Modelling and Simulation (M&S) has become a critical capability for the Alliance. M&S products are highly valuable resources and it is essential that M&S products, data, and processes are conveniently accessible to a large number of users as often as possible. However, achieving interoperability between simulation systems and ensuring the credibility of results currently requires large efforts with regard to time, personnel, and budget.

Recent developments in cloud computing technology and service-oriented architectures offer opportunities to better utilise M&S capabilities in order to satisfy NATO's critical needs.

M&S as a Service (MSaaS) is a concept that includes service orientation and the provision of M&S applications via the as-a-service model of cloud computing to enable more composable...

Our first foray into the real world, Warfighter Live hosted its first panel discussion at DSET in Bristol and kindly sponsored by VRAI - more about them below. We were joined by a highly experienced guests that brought a diverse range of views to the discussion:

• Lucy Walton - Head of Training at BAE Systems
• Neil Curren - R&D Lead at VRAI
• Adam Easton - CEO of SimCentric
• Wim Huiskamp - Scientific Advisor at NATO Modelling & Simulation Group

There is currently lots of discussion in the Simulation & Training community about the role of Platforms. But what does this word even mean?

We posed a few questions to our panellists to gain some better perspectives and understanding of this complex topic:

• What does the word ‘Platform’ mean to you?
• How can a platform approach improve interoperability for training?
• Can platforms drive the adoption of standards?
• Are ecosystems important for a platform? 
• Who is best placed to run a platform - industry or government?
• What are the dangers of a platform approach?
• How do we avoid ‘Platform’ just becoming just a marketing term?
• If you had to replace the world platform with any other word or phrase for defence simulation, what would it be?

An animated discussion ensued, with lots of good points made by all…plus questions from our live event audience!

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/ 
• Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/

• Lucy Walton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-walton-9b0332239/
• Neil Curran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-curran1/
• Wim Huiskamp: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wimhuiskamp/
• Adam Easton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-easton-b5a3542b/

• Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtg
• Twitter:

In advance of the very first Warfighter Live event at DSET Bristol, we speak to Tess Butler (CEO of Ruddy Nice Ltd), who has been delivering DSET with her team since 2016 - so now in its 8th year.

For those that haven’t heard of DSET it is one of the fastest growing Defence Training & Simulation events in Europe, with attendees from over 41 countries and well over 1,000 attendees registered so far. It is held at the Ashton Gate Stadium in Bristol, and features exhibitors from virtually all the leading organisations across defence.

The conference programme hosts a wide range of workshops, talks and panel discussions debating all of the current issues across Training & Simulation. This year for the first time the Wargaming sessions will be streamed live. Also watch out for the first European Serious Games Showcase with some innovative training applications from military, industry and academia.

It’s not too late to register to attend on the link below, remember that military, government and academia get in free. If you can’t attend in person there are virtual tickets available for free, kindly sponsored by LuxCarta.

Tickets: https://hopin.com/events/dset-2023

DSET Website: https://dset.co.uk/

In our final education episode for this season, we are very pleased to welcome Len Granowetter, CTO for MAK Technologies. For those that don’t know Len, he has been at the forefront of some of the most demanding simulation challenges and applications on large scale projects. Most notably MAK’s software is integral to the UK Gladiator and Australian Army’s Land Sim Core projects (to name but two).

There is a lot of discussion about common or ‘single’ synthetic environments these days. To understand this better, Len takes us through a short tour of the component parts of a simulation platform, talking about how interoperability is a different challenge from deployment (the infrastructure side). Semantic interoperability is the real challenge now - how to seamlessly integrate terrain for example. 

Finally, Len talks about some of the different approaches taken by real world projects, and the trade off taken between technology innovators and technology integrators. Not often are these the same sorts of organisations.

• VIDEO of Colin being put through his paces on Conductrr's crisis training platform can be found here: https://youtu.be/wrNEthnofm4

Conducttr is a hybrid warfare/crisis simulation platform that supports a wide range of realistic command post and field exercises. Its synthetic Internet delivers a realistic virtual information environment ideal for exercising in information operations, media operations, social media, OSINT, cyber, CIMIC, and foreign affairs as well homeland security, counter-terrorism and humanitarian disaster relief.

Conducttr can be used solo or with operational systems (as a “digital wrap”) during live exercises that can last from an hour to several weeks. Available on cloud, on premises with VMware and deployable on laptop as needed.

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/
• Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/

• Len Granowetter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/len-granowetter-615358/

• Conductrr's Video: https://youtu.be/wrNEthnofm4
• Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtg
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WarfighterPod