What’s Going On in Europe?

There are 123 training systems companies in Europe. Some of the larger European companies have produced training devices for more than one of the land, sea and air environments. The amount of simulation and training technology available on the “eastern side of the pond” should not be underestimated.
By Ian Strachan

The annual I/ITSEC conference and exhibition in Orlando is the world’s largest event devoted to simulation and training. There is also a smaller European equivalent, the International Training Equipment Conference (ITEC) that has been running annually for 23 years. This year, ITEC is from 10-12 June in Stockholm, Sweden. But how significant is ITEC in the world simulation and training scene? In the opinion of the author, very. The Orlando event is U.S.-centric and in 2007, 88 percent of attendees were from the U.S. and 84 percent of the exhibitors. At ITEC in Europe, although many U.S. companies exhibit, the balance turns in favor of the European industry and attendees come from many nations not represented in Orlando. This article shows why this is important.
Population and Technology

In 2008, the U.S. has a population of 304 million and is the world’s only military superpower. Although the land area of the European Union (EU) is less than that of the U.S., it has nearly 62 percent more people (491 million). However, the military power and common foreign policy of the U.S. show the advantage of being a single nation compared to the 27 member states of the EU. The European states are far more independent, and therefore less coordinated in military and foreign affairs, than the 50 states of the U.S. with their common federal regime. The other side of the coin is that the economies of the EU are doing well, as is its principal currency, the Euro, particularly compared to the U.S. dollar. With this background, the amount of simulation and training technology available on “the eastern side of the pond” should not be underestimated.
Simulators and Trainers

I have identified 118 companies based in Europe that produce complete simulators and trainers rather than components and systems for them. They are led by the U.K. (25), Germany (20), France (13), Switzerland (eight), Netherlands and Sweden (seven each). If you include 13 companies from Israel and European Russia, the grand total is 123. This is more than my equivalent figure for the U.S. which is 114 companies making complete simulation devices, although it has to be said that many U.S. companies are larger than the European ones. Some of the larger European companies have produced training devices for more than one of the land, sea and air environments. These include BAE Systems Insyte (U.K.); CAE GmbH (Germany); E-COM (Czech Republic); ETC-PZL (Poland); Rheinmetall Defence Electronics (RDE) (Germany); RUAG (Switzerland) and Thales (France and U.K.).
Research Organizations

Those with a significant simulation capacity in Europe include IABG (Germany), NLR and TNO (Netherlands), TsAGI (Russia) and QinetiQ (U.K.). QinetiQ used to be called the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), an uncharismatic but more understandable name, before it was privatized in 2001 under the new name that is pronounced “kinetic.”

As this article cannot cover all areas of activity, I now look at the building blocks that go to make up many types of simulators and other training systems.
Image Generation (IG) Systems

RDE produces the DISI range of image generators (IG), mainly for maritime applications. Sogitec, a subsidiary of Dassault Aviation (France), produces the Apogée image generator, that was assessed highly enough to be adopted and developed by CAE (Canada) under the name Medallion. Thales produces the ThalesView system and xPI (U.K.) produces a low cost, PC-based range of products (Fabriano etc.). Transas (Russia, Ireland, U.K.) has produced impressive imagery, mainly maritime, and programming being carried out in St Petersburg, Russia. These are generalized IGs for many visual scenes, but Bionatics (France) specializes in modeling natural features such as trees and plants that can be added to other systems to add realism. Other European companies producing imaging systems include the Czech-based company E-COM and OKTAL (France). German companies include Awaron, KMW, Princess Interactive, Vires and Wetzel. There is also Alenia Aero (Italy); Kongsberg Maritime (KMSS) (Norway); Simultec (Romania); Computer Visual Systems and Penza (Russia); Saab Training Systems (Sweden); Elite, RUAG and ViewTec (Switzerland); and Aerobel, BAE Insyte and Equipe (U.K.).
Visual Display

The cross-cockpit collimated display (CCCD) system that uses a large curved mirror surface to obtain distant focus and a large undistorted viewing volume was a European invention. It started in the early 1980s as Rediffusion’s wide-angle infinity display equipment (WIDE), developed at Crawley, U.K. This facility is now part of Thales which still offers developed WIDE display systems. Also in the U.K., SEOS specializes in the display field and has been highly successful, selling domes and their Panorama CCCD system worldwide, including to the U.S. military, a difficult market to break in to from abroad. Other significant European display system products include the RDE Avior laser projected system and the large display range from BARCO (Belgium). BARCO (formerly Belgian-American Radio Corporation) was founded in 1934. Having survived World War II, it began to specialize in visual display systems in 1980 and is now a major world player. In 1997, BARCO acquired Electronic Imaging Systems of Xenia, Ohio, and so has a presence in the U.S. Similarly, SEOS (originally Specialist Electro-Optical Systems) acquired a U.S. base by purchasing 3D Structures of Pennsylvania in 1996. Other European players include 3D Perception (Norway), cueSIM and Equipe (U.K.). Finally, domes and semi-domes for visual display are made by many of the above companies and also by CAE GmbH and EADS Dornier (Germany), Sogitec (France) and Wittenstein (Germany).
Motion Platforms

Specialist companies in the motion field include Moog-FCS (ex-Fokker Controls) and Rexroth-Hydraudyne, both in the Netherlands. Moog-FCS specializes in electric motion platforms with their E-Cue product line and also manufactures control loading devices for aircraft and land vehicles. Other companies making complete simulators also make their own motion platforms, including cueSIM, ETC-PZL, E-COM, Simultec and Thales. Large-throw platforms have been made by AMST (Austria), Rexroth and Thales. One of the largest electric six-axis platforms in service in regular training is the Moog-FCS E-Cue 636 design with jacks of 60-inch stroke. This is fitted to the full flight simulator (FFS) for the Longbow Apache helicopter at the British Army base at Middle Wallop near Salisbury. The general platform design from all of these companies is the Stewart hexapod with six jacks of equal length, allowing motion in all six degree-of-freedom (6-DoF). However, a couple of designs are optimized for the stop-and-start motion of ground vehicles and these include the Moog FCS E-Cue 508 5-DoF cascaded design from the Netherlands and a 5-DoF platform by Transurb Technirail (Belgium), designed for rail locomotive simulators. An innovation is the asymmetric hexapod design by Dr. Sunjoo Advani, president of IDT (Netherlands). This is fitted to the horizontal beam on the NASA Ames Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) in Silicon Valley. The concept, briefly, is to analyze the motion envelope required for a given role, and optimize the platform geometry for that envelope, rather than simply having six identical jacks and fitting the role envelope as best as can be done into the equal-jack design.
Centrifuges

Man-carrying training centrifuges are made by Austria Metall System Technik (AMST), complementing U.S. companies such as ETC and Wyle in this field. For instance, AMST supplied a centrifuge to the Russian research establishment at Zhukovsky (southeast of Moscow) and is involved in the Desdemona motion project for the TNO Human Factors laboratory.
Battlefield Simulation

CAE GmbH and Thales make battlefield systems for exercising command and control of formations up to brigade level. BAE Systems Insyte made the vehicle-specific simulators for the UK-CATT (combined arms tactical trainer) under prime contractor Lockheed Martin Simulation Training and Support, Orlando. The CAE system for the German army is called GESI and the Thales system for the French Army, Centaure. RDE makes the ELTAM and GüZ systems, the latter together with Dornier and Diehl. Other organizations in this field include IABG in Germany; Cap Gemini and TNO; BAES C-ITS and Saab Training Systems; Oerlikon Contraves and Siemens Schweitz (Switzerland); BCD, CAE (U.K.) and QinetiQ.
Tactical Engagement Systems (TES)

Most TES systems are laser-based, using stimulated Gallium Arsenide at a wavelength of 904 nanometers (nm) in the near-Infra-red range instead of bullets or larger rounds. Saab Training Systems and RUAG COEL (Germany and Switzerland) are in this field. Other players include GDI (France), ESW-Extel (Germany), Lockheed Martin UK and Noptel Oy (Finland). Most current European laser-based systems conform to the U.S. MILES 2000 standard and several are in service in the Americas in countries as wide apart as Chile and the U.S. For instance, Saab Training Systems is supplying urban deployable instrumented training systems to U.S. Marine Corps bases at Camp Lejeune, Camp Pendleton and Quantico. In addition, Saab Training USA has recently gained a special security agreement with the U.S. government that is said to “mitigate” its overseas ownership and makes it eligible for further U.S. contracts. Similar arrangements exist for U.S. companies owned outside the country, such as by BAE Systems, CAE and Thales.
Flight Simulation

Companies capable of making full flight simulators, particularly those to the military equivalent of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) level-D regulatory standard, automatically have expertise in image generation, visual display, motion platform cueing, precise flight-path control and the integration of all these with other complex systems including failure and emergency cases. As well as the multi-role players listed above, such companies include Letov (Czech Republic); Sogitec; Alenia and Galileo (Italy); Simultec; Elbit Group (Israel), Penza and TsAGI (Russia), VRM (Slovakia); INDRA (Spain); and Saab Aerospace (Sweden). In the U.K., the entrants are ATIL, cueSIM and Merlin Simulation, although BAE Systems Insyte and Quadrant have made flight simulators in the past.

This brief summary of select simulation and training capabilities in Europe shows there is plenty of expertise available, some in unexpected places. Fruitful co-operation between companies and customers on both sides of the Atlantic can only be a good thing for the future and may bring benefits to both sides, both technical and financial.