Ep. 013: Beyond Technology, Rethinking Defence Training - Christina Balis

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 institutions.

Christina goes on to cover how we need to think about how we attract and train our people, whilst growing future commanders. We need to train for adaptability, decision making skills and with the Whole Force in mind.

We end the discussion on how we might rethink how we procure these future systems (which are a long way from merely buying military hardware. More importantly how we integrate and evolve the training capability.

As ever we are joined by Andy Fawkes from MS&T, bringing us an update on the latest happenings within modelling and simulation. This week we discuss fully immersive suits, the crossover of technologies from F1 simulation and ongoing developments in international training and collaboration.

Episode Sponsor: Improbable

Improbable Defence is a mission focused technology company working to transform the national security of our nations and their allies in the face of increasing global competition and evolving threats.

Today, national security is defined by technological superiority. We believe that software more than any other capability will redefine how war is fought and who will be on the winning side. Those entrusted with the preservation of our freedom, prosperity and safety deserve the best software-defined capabilities available.

Since the end of the Cold War, the UK, US and their allies have been unchallenged in military technological dominance. Today, we are facing a different reality: our adversaries are seizing the technological edge.

Improbable Defence chooses to stand up and not stand by. We are building cutting-edge software products to help our nations retake the technological advantage. We believe in defending our democratic values against those who seek to undermine them. Supporting those tasked with this mission is at the heart of all we do. We seek to radically transform the mission outcomes of those whose responsibility it is to keep us safe.

Hosts:

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

Guest:

• Christina Balis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-balis/

Links:

• 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

News Stories Related Links:

1 March - "As Real As It Gets" - Canada company IFTech - ARAIG: As Real As It Gets Battle Suit - fully immersive gaming suit - Interview by Ian Mccrudden from ETSA

https://www.halldale.com/articles/20828-mst-as-real-as-it-gets

The suit has tactile and auditory stimuli. Founder and CEO Brodie Stanfield quote “Commanders can give orders, but when, how and if they are carried out well is determined by those in stressful situations who are possibly facing death. This type of stress is the ‘Z’ factor. And if the Z factor cannot be trained for, then task objectives are at risk and can be labelled with greater unpredictability values as stress increases. This stress therefore needs to be applied and mitigated through learning. All value-added virtual and live simulation training must consider what has been missed in the past and train their personnel to mitigate the stress affect. ”