Field Trials – making sure new kit will improve operational effectiveness
Field trials, whether bespoke warfighting experiments or inserts into training exercises, are the closest environment to real operations yet allow an acceptable level of experimental control. Field trials can be used for acquisition support but only if the limitations of the method are fully understood. Likewise exercise exploitation can provide high quality data for baselining, modelling and direct intervention across lines of development, but only if the constraints are accounted for.
In recent years, field trails have proven to be high cost, low delivery options because defence has lost the skillset required. Wapentakes has retained that skillset, with unique, robust and low-cost techniques for measuring information flow, situational awareness and combat effectiveness.
Previous work includes:
Leading analysis on six warfighting experiments and analyst on dozens of others. Technical Leader on the Land Warfare Centre & QinetiQ collective training data archive, analyst on Platoon Combat Experimentation (PCE) and data triage on PCE 1.
Tactical Psychology in PCE – finding the limitations of training exercises to represent the human factor in war.
