OREANDA-NEWS. The Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and in Source Support (BAAINBw) has awarded Thales with the modernisation of the German Navy's tactical and procedural trainer (TVTM1) at the naval training centre (MOS) in Bremerhaven. After more than ten years of almost unmodified operation, the IT infrastructure has become outdated and is no longer sustainable. As a result, the regeneration of the simulators is scheduled to be completed by August 2018.

KEY POINTS

  • New contract signed for the modernisation of the German Navy’s tactical and procedural trainer.
  • With the regenerated trainer systems, the customer will have the future capability to maintain the training of navy operators at a very high level.
  • In addition, the capability to participate in networked simulation exercises on a national and international scale will be increased for the simulators.

“The order affirms our excellent relationship with the German Navy and their trust in our competence. We are pleased that with the modernisation of the trainers at TZM we are able to continue serving our national Navy and thus gain a valuable international reference”
Thomas Schwonke, Director of Above Water Systems at Thales in Germany

"With this project we solve the deterioration problems of existing systems and increase the capabilities of the tactical naval centre by participating in national and international simulated training and mission preparations", explained Brunhilde Henze, project manager at BAAINBw S6.3 in Wilhelmshaven.

In detail, the order covers the regeneration of the "VT-MOS2", "TVT" and "TacFloor3" tactical trainers last used in the TMZ4. A new reference system and a new software development environment will additionally be supplied for the simulators.

With the regenerated trainer systems, the tactical naval centre will also have the future capability to maintain the training of navy operators – covering a wide range of ranks – at a very high level. In addition, the capability to participate in networked simulation exercises on a national and international scale will be increased for the simulators. To this end, the replacement of the simulated training environment based on the HLA5 and DIS6 is essential. Within the modernised system, the tactical data exchange between the simulated and real participants takes place via Link 11, 16 and 22.

"With the current decision of Navy leaders concerning the future design of mission training, the education and training of crews and administrative officers using synthetic mission scenarios has become more important. In future, the TMZ will play a central role in this training network with the regenerated system", added Navy Captain Norbert Schatz, Commander of the TMZ at the naval training centre.

Notes to editors

TVTM1: The tactical and procedural naval trainer prepares officers in administration, commanders and command teams of warships for missions and exercises.
VT-MOS2: The procedural trainer predominantly prepares sergeants - with and without tassel - and young officers for practical operational service.
TacFloor3: On the TacFloor, situations, for example during operational map games, can be projected in a large format on the floor and/or a wall. This form of representation is particularly suited for larger course groups who need to jointly evaluate a tactical situation.
TMZ4: Taktikzentrum der Marine / Navy Tactics Centre
HLA5: High Level Architecture is an architecture for integrated and distributed simulation defined by the US Ministry of Defence. This concept became an international standard in the year 2000. It is based on the idea of dividing a total simulation into several individual small-scale simulations which exchange information with each other. Communication is via a computer network.
DIS6: Distributed Interactive Simulation represents a data exchange standard for the control of simulation systems. Using DIS, networked simulation systems can exchange simulated situation information in real-time and thereby enable the users of the networked systems to observe an identical environmental representation in their respective simulators.