Episodes

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...

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 Simul...

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 ...

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 under...

This episode we are very pleased to be joined by Luke Shabro, a former Intelligence Analyst and US Navy veteran, he is now the Deputy Director at Army Futures Command TRADOC and jointly runs the US Army Mad Scientist initiative. We don’t mind saying that the US Army Mad Scientist podcast provided quite a bit of inspiration for the Warfighter Podcast - so it was great to hear more from Luke about his experience of driving innovation and change through large organisations. Luke could speak o...

Following on from our previous episode with Joe Robinson, we are joined by Jason Kennedy who is the VP of Engineering at Improbable. Jason has an impressive background in, having previously directed large teams of engineers to push the boundaries of simulation technology for defence and space applications. In a full and frank discussion, Jason describes the challenge for scaling simulation applications for serious training and decision support applications. Coining the term ‘Horizontal Scalin...

Continuing our Education series we are very pleased to Welcome Björn Möller who, whilst serving as the President of Pitch Technologies, is also one of the leading authorities in distributed simulation standards. Bjorn has been deeply involved in shaping the HLA simulation standard for the past 30 years. Bjorn expertly breaks down what can be a complex subject into easily understandable concepts, during this fireside chat. From his lake cabin in Sweden. We hope you’re sitting comfortably. W...

We know we talk a lot about innovation on this podcast, but this week we look into an interesting initiative to stimulate and grow ideas across all arms of the UK Armed Forces. The military relies on harnessing the latest technology in order to gain an advantage of it’s adversaries, however this is often hard won. The pace of technological change is only increasing all the while. These factors were part of the motivation behind the setting up of the UK Battlelab, and we are grateful for Ed...

This episode is a different take to our normal subjects. We are joined by Christina Balis, Global Campaign Director for QinetiQ, who looks at the non-technological aspects to tackling the challenges of Training Transformation. Christina brings broad experience to this problem, from outside defence as well as within. Christina argues that the challenges in training for a multi-domain battlespace are predominantly NOT a technological challenge. Rather one around the people, processes and instit...

We are joined by the CEO of Conductrr, Robert Pratten, who takes the time to provide us with a masterclass in the development of virtual copies of the internet - or synthetic internet. While not necessarily a new idea, Robert explains some of the more recent approaches and applications for this type of technology, which is especially relevant to multi-domain operations and the ‘grey zone’. Robert explains typical use cases, the need for a digital twin of the internet, the advantages for su...

In a long anticipated episode, we are joined by Joe Robinson who is the CEO of Improbable Defence. In a wide ranging discussion, Joe kicks off by tackling the Metaverse question, defining what it means to Defence, and providing his own personal views on how it might be implemented over the coming years. Joe also provides a short update on some internal developments within Improbable as the organisation matures its service delivery offerings. We also take the time to discuss with Joe some o...

For this episode we are pleased to be joined by Lon Bartel, who offers his insights from the perspective of Law Enforcement training. Lon is the VP of Training & Curriculum at VirTra, based in Arizona. He is a former police officer with over 25 years of experience, qualified as a range and tactical instructor and a published author. He is currently embarking on a PhD in Performance Psychology. Lon describes some of the systems in use across law enforcement, including the 360 degree system dev...

For this episode we are very lucky to be joined by John Hoggard from Cranfield University based at the Defence Academy of the UK, in Shrivenham. John is a full time lecturer in Defence Simulation and Modelling, and teaches on a number of courses delivered to civilian and military personnel who go on to work on major simulation projects across industry, defence and the civil service. We invited John to speak about anything he wants, and his particular passion is real time graphics, which leads...

This week Colin has been finding all the rust holes on his Landrover chassis, whilst Tom was playing with ChatGPT, and some other AI tools. The results are revealed later in the episode. This week the format changes slightly as we are joined by two guests from the UK Defence & Security Accelerator (DASA) - Stacey Crump and Tom Adamson. Our guests give us an introduction to the work of the organisation and how they seek to foster innovation and technology that can not only be used to support d...

Tom has Starlink problems and Colin is wondering if it was wise to install AI to control his garage door. Lots of exciting episodes planned, not least from our sponsor, Improbable. This week the Warfighter Podcast is joined by Al Roan who is Managing Director of Cervus - a company which delivers data insights for Defence and Security. Al, an ex-Army officer turned data entrepreneur, started on this journey after a poignant event when he was tasked to look into information related to the death o...

This episode, continuing our Education series, Tom and Colin are joined by Ian Ferguson who is a QGI working at the Royal School of Artillery, teaching and advising on simulation and training matters for the British Army. Ian has spent the last 3 years working in the Simulation Wing of the RSA, trialling and experimenting with a range of XR technologies. (We would like to note that the views expressed on this podcast are from Ian’s personal experience, and do not necessarily reflect the position...

Tom is recovering from the usual bout of seasonal flu, but still finds time to reflect on what a fascinating time it is for the M&S world. As this is the penultimate episode for the year it was a chance to look back on what’s gone on as well as think about what might be in store for 2023. Our guest for this episode is none other than Robert Seigfried who has spent a large part of his career supporting the NATO Modelling and Simulation Group (NMSG). Robert provides us with an overview of what ...

Tom & Colin provide an update on their preview of the Improbable Defence Skyral platform, at their HQ in London. Colin has returned from I/ITSEC in Orlando and was able to see the Improbable Defence demo and provides a summary of the main discussion themes from the show. We discuss how there is a greater demand for realism and scale across simulation and training, which is being supported across a number of UK, US and Nato projects in the coming years. Our guest on this show is Chris Covert, ...

Tom & Colin introduce the first episode of Season 1's education episodes. This episode is designed to be referred to when you (the listener!) have a need to 'gen up' on 3D modeling. Specifically related to the defence industry. 3D Modeling Topics Covered: 1. Scoping the work/Design A careful process that can take several discussions with a new client. Setting expectations; defining deliverables. Most projects succeed or fail in the planning phase, and it happens all the time (e.g., rece...

Tom & Colin discuss the forthcoming demo of the new Improbable platform that is scheduled for an early demonstration this week. Also some comments about the international breadth of listeners and guests scheduled for later episodes - please keep the suggestions coming. Our guest on this show is Steen Bisgaard who heads up an Australian startup developing robotic targets for training, as well as decoys and robots for use in offensive actions in the real battlefield. Steen discusses the latest ...

For our first episode, the Warfighter Podcast was honoured to host a real live, all-American Warfighter - Col Arnel David, US Army. Arnel speaks about what it means to be a Warfighter, and the importance of exercising the decision making process for leaders and how this can be enabled through wargaming techniques. Through the Fight Club initiative that Arnel is heavily involved in, he aims to increase understanding of Wargaming amongst commanders and how these techniques can be integrated ...