Industry consortium offers British Army training that meets the demands of the future battlefield

Brought to you in partnership with Omnia Training

Raytheon UK has announced the formation of Omnia Training, a new industry consortium that will bid for the British Army’s Collective Training Transformation Programme (CTTP).

The CTTP will deliver a new, technology-driven training capability to the army: the Future Collective Training System. The concept will exploit such technologies as synthetic training environments and data and connectivity systems. The winning team would work with the British Army as part of a £1.2 billion, 15-year contract, expected to begin in 2025.

Raytheon UK-led Omnia Training will also comprise Capita, Cervus, Improbable Defence and Rheinmetall. According to Raytheon UK, the team brings expertise in complex programme management, collective synthetic training, enterprise transformation, and digital platforms and data exploitation.

Omnia Training offers skills in live, virtual and collective training, with the ability to deliver technology such as synthetic training platforms, said Jeff Lewis, chief executive of Raytheon UK.

He said a key tenet of Omnia Training is bringing together ‘a team that would be very collaborative, have a very open and engaging culture, and that could work with the army to transform its training as it moves forward through the next 15 years’.

Omnia Training will begin by executing existing contracts, which it will then begin to transform.

‘They’ll see a change in the approach … we’ll start to use much more data, we’ll start to exploit new technologies to ensure that people can be trained more effectively and in a faster and more expedient way.’

Data and digitisation are at the core of the bid, Lewis emphasised. ‘The ability to look at what training people have executed, the level of ability that they’ve got … will allow us to work with that data to ensure we give the right training to the right person at the right time.’

James Gray, managing director for cyberspace and training at Raytheon UK, explained that the five companies involved have ‘got the best expertise in data analytics, in simulation, in synthetic environments, and bringing together those elements to deliver new efficiencies, new insights, and new ways of working for army training’.

Capita has worked closely with different elements of the British Armed Forces in delivering training: for example, through Team Fisher, in which it has worked to modernise the Royal Navy’s shore-based training, a project that also involves Raytheon UK.

Richard Holroyd, managing director of Capita Defence, Fire and Security, also pointed to the company’s work in other elements of the public sector, from smart meters to traffic management. Combined with its defence work, this offers a range of skills the company believes can deliver for Omnia Training.

For Holbroyd, Team Omnia’s aim is to offer the British Army ‘a much higher quality, collective training experience by pulling together the power of data analytics, by pulling together those things that come from synthetics, as well as the ability to train in the most modern way using the latest techniques’.

Alan Roan, managing director of Cervus, said the blend of the different companies makes Omnia Training unique, from large firms accustomed to handling complexity to those that specialise in computing and software.

‘The key differences are a more collaborative approach to the way in which industry is going to deliver that kind of training,’ he said. ‘It’s that very interactive and agile response to the training need … it’ll be more immersive.’

Improbable Defence will provide the bid with its expertise, synthetic solutions and integration services, said CEO Joe Robinson. He said digitisation and data exploitation must sit at the forefront of the training design as part of the Future Collective Training System.

‘Data-based decision making is absolutely pivotal and paramount to ensure a better training experience for our soldiers,’ Robinson said, along with ‘systems design that fundamentally utilises modern technologies and modern capabilities to leverage that data to deliver a better training experience for our soldiers’.

Rheinmetall brings 15 years of experience in virtual, live and constructive simulation technologies for customers around the world, said Richard Streeter, managing director of Rheinmetall Electronics UK.

He also emphasised the structure of the team as a key advantage for Omnia Training, and said it could immediately work with the British Army to improve training outcomes.

However, Streeter also underscored the long-term potential.

‘The British Army in 15 years isn’t going to be fighting as they do now. They’re going to be fighting in human-machine teaming formations, manned-unmanned, with UGVs, with UAVs – there’s going be a very different delivery of the fighting force,’ he said.

‘That’s going to need a very different training solution to help the army … deliver proper training and training outcomes.’