ADF renews game-based simulation software agreement

Bohemia Interactive Australia (BIA) has announced that the Australian Army has renewed the Australian Defence Force (ADF) VBS3 enterprise software support agreement with BIA for the 12th consecutive year. The ADF uses VBS to prepare for operations through serious gaming that supplements and extends live training through the immersion of trainees in a richly detailed virtual environment.

BIA is a Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim) company, wholly owned by BAE Systems.

“Once again, we’re honoured that the ADF and the Australian Army have chosen to continue and strengthen this close and ongoing relationship with us,” said Ryan Stephenson, BIA Managing Director. “BIA has proudly supplied the ADF with the best commercial-off-the-shelf game-based simulation software for over a decade.”

The agreement enables ADF organisations to download and use the latest version of VBS3 and access BIA support teams in Australia and other worldwide locations. A second contract provides for continued support and maintenance of BISim’s highly capable Image Generator (IG) software on all the ADF’s Weapon Training Simulation Systems and Mobile Weapon Training Systems.

“The ADF agreement is part of a larger simulation ecosystem stemming from a strong partnership between allied nations,” said Rahul Thakkar, BISim President.

BISim’s VBS4 and TerraTools software are increasingly used in Australia and New Zealand. In addition, VBS4 supports the US Army’s Synthetic Training Environment program and the UK Ministry of Defence’s Common Virtual Simulation 2.0 project.