Paris (France), 11th October 2019 – Antycip, the European leader for simulation software, has teamed up with Agueris, a subsidiary of John Cockerill (ex CMI Defence), to deliver new state of the art ground terrain and turret simulation solutions used by John Cockerill to train its customers. Those systems were successfully rolled out in France and the Middle East.
Agueris became a fully owned subsidiary of John Cockerill in 2016, prior to which the company was Agueris’ main customer. It designs, develops, delivers and supports armoured vehicle and turret training simulators, and was tasked by John Cockerill with providing generic training simulators for a large-scale international programme involving the shipping, delivery and deployment of hundreds of 30/40 mm and 105 mm turrets, and the deployment of training capacities within dedicated centres. The company took full responsibility for the development of the simulators, the training of its operators and the design of the training courses.
John Cockerill was looking for innovative and cost-effective training solutions for their range of products. Usually, in the modelling and simulation industry, a gunnery training simulator for armoured vehicles is a physical mock-up – large, costly and dedicated to only one system. John Cockerill wanted to replace this outdated approach with a generic and versatile system, so that one simulator could be used on various turrets. They also wanted to use embedded simulation in each turret: a revolutionary concept whereby the operational system becomes the trainer, using real environment commands and controls – allowing for training anytime, anywhere.
In order to successfully deliver such a progressive project, Agueris turned to Antycip to help design the required bespoke simulation solutions. Commenting on why Antycip was engaged by Agueris, Johan Besnainou, France and Spain director at ST Engineering Antycip, said: “We are widely recognised in the defence simulation community as an expert provider of COTS solutions, with a depth of project knowledge and experience that dates back over 20 years. Together with the support we have from our broad range of software and hardware partners, we add considerable value through inputs, insights and solutions that help the project deliver in a cost and time-effective manner - while also meeting the goals for simulation, training and analysis.”
Antycip stands out in this industry as one of the main and most trusted partners – a quality of paramount importance in the highly sensitive military simulation business. The French company is also a reseller of VT MAK and CM Labs products in France. After a competitive review, Agueris selected Antycip based on technical and functional requirements. The company also has a long-established relationship with Antycip, which has laid the foundations for a strong, ongoing relationship built on mutual understanding and trust.
The simulators are designed to train the turret and vehicle crews to operate the weapons system from basic gunnery training to crew-level training and tactical training at platoon-level. Each system includes a virtual interactive cockpit allowing the simulation of the operator’s environment, coupled with a tactical simulation. The crew can perform technical and tactical training up to platoon level. A specifically designed instructor operating station allows animation and supervision, exercise creation and control, after action review and student monitoring. The system is mobile and can be deployed in a classroom, in a shelter, or in specific mobile trailers. Thanks to the virtual cockpit concept, a single simulator can be used to train on various weapon systems, through dynamic software reconfiguration.
The VT MAK and CM Labs solutions used in the simulators are recognised as leading-edge COTS products. They can easily combine together to give both the broad scope and high fidelity elements needed in a simulation solution by their adherence to industry integration standards (DIS/HLA) and they can be readily and effectively networked into other simulations, with no concern over compromising the efficacy of the simulation and training activities.
Discussing the product selection, Besnainou remarks: “The VT MAK suite of products is recognised for its comprehensiveness – from visualising the terrain to simulating enemy or friendly entities, to enabling effective training scenario generation. CM Labs meanwhile is renowned for providing the best high fidelity physics engine, which can model and simulate physical activities accurately – ranging from specific land or water vehicles handling in various terrain or sea states, through to accurately simulating the behaviour of load cables on construction sites.”
“Quite simply, they offered the best solutions for this particular project. The unique combination of our product knowledge, close working style with clients and experience garnered over the last two decades means we are more than qualified to identify and tailor the right simulation solution in this kind of scenario. This is clearly evident in this project, where we recommended products that deliver the very best in simulation and training experience, but also found solutions which provided cost savings and kept the project in budget on time, while making no compromise on the end capabilities.”
Several of the systems have already been deployed for John Cockerill – both 30-40-105 mm turrets and for LCTS90 systems (90 mm turrets) – in a dedicated training centre in Commercy (France), and a mobile, shelter-based version was also delivered to one of John Cockerill’s customers. In each case, the training was a success and allowed the crews to work on their technical and tactical skills. The feedback from the customer was excellent – both from the trainees and from the instructors.
According to John Cockerill, the support from Antycip and its international partners was unwavering, helping John Cockerill establish direct contact with the most skilled experts on the products. The cooperation with Antycip was seamless, allowing John Cockerill to integrate the technological components within a complex architecture and ensure a high level of quality in the end product. John Cockerill commented that they were extremely happy with the result.
Concludes Besnainou: “We are thrilled that Agueris and John Cockerill are so pleased with the product we created together and the impact the solution has had – helping to improve the skills and abilities of the teams that use it. The fact that John Cockerill is using the products as a point of differentiation and as a way to showcase its technological innovation versus its competitors is a testament to how ground-breaking the solutions we devised have been. We look forward to successful ongoing cooperation.”
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Since 1996, ST Engineering Antycip (formerly Antycip Simulation) has supported customers across the globe, in defence, academia, commerce and industry, to become better at what they do. As an expert provider of simulation, analysis, modelling, display and virtual reality solutions, ST Engineering Antycip combines its in-house technical expertise with an unrivalled range of products from software and hardware providers. ST Engineering Antycip is a subsidiary of ST Engineering’s electronics sector. For more information, visit https://steantycip.com.
