Adobe Partners With U.S Military To Prepare Soldiers For Combat Missions

Posted by Mike Murtha, Adobe Department of Defense Solutions Engineer

Adobe’s Connect software was used in the Operation Blended Warrior exercise to help more than 50 participating industry vendors and military entities connect, communicate and collaborate at the world’s largest simulation and virtual reality conference in Orlando November 28-December 2.

The Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) brings together more than 15,000 government and military personnel, defense companies, research organizations and academics every year to showcase next-generation defense technology.

Adobe’s web conferencing technology, Adobe Connect, was in various exercise vignettes and to facilitate the Operation Blended Warrior (OBW) multi-day event—a virtual training exercise that features realistic, live simulators in a full-scale battle context. Four large displays on stage give the audience a view into the action that includes live actors, virtual, and constructive simulations to replicate a realistic battle space with a series of kinetic and non-kinetic military events. The audience sits inside the replicated operation center.

The collective goal of OBW is to leverage the latest technology to save military—and taxpayer—resources and manpower, while increasing the effectiveness of training for the warfighter. The multi-year initiative launched at I/ITSEC last year with 31 exhibitors—and it was labeled a huge success.

This year, the event attracted more than 50 participating organizations from industry and government. Organizers hope to see increased live demo participation, and a focus on multi-level security and cross-domain solutions. Instead of 15 discrete 30-minute vignettes, organizers ran five continuous battle threads to demonstrate more and varied Live, Virtual and Constructive (LVC) activities.

Adobe Connect was used in OBW as a collaboration tool between participants, as well as scenario simulation and remote briefings. It provided a common operational picture for all viewers on one secure platform.

The National Training and Simulation Association, OBW 2016’s sponsor, calls OBW a “model for how government and industry can team to create standards and solutions.” Adobe is partnering with the U.S. government on this R&D effort.

About OBW

OBW is a collaborative LVC event conducted between DoD and Industry for the purpose of uncovering and documenting the challenges to rapidly developing and integrating a training LVC environment. Whether the challenge to LVC is standards, database interoperability, cyber, performance measurement, cross-domain solutions, or distributed after action review, OBW has developed a construct to better understand and demonstrate those challenges.

Get more information on Operation Blended Warrior and last week’s I/ITSEC 2016 event.

About Adobe Connect

Adobe is the market leader in government software for local, state, federal and military. Adobe Connect is the trusted, all-in-one web conferencing & eLearning solution used by the Marine Corps, National Guard and the Department of Homeland Security. It won the Army’s ‘best of breed’ designation in 2005 and was subsequently selected as the primary component in the highly successful Defense Connect Online (DCO) service.

Learn more about Adobe Connect here.