ASI & TFD have exhibited at this year’s NATO Life Cycle Management Conference in Brussels, held at the end of January. The event convened at a venue close to the recently updated and expanded NATO HQ site at the outskirts of Brussels city.
It comes at a time of great change within the NATO environment, with Finland and Sweden as new joiners to the Alliance. There are now 32 nations within NATO. TFD has presented at this conference for the last three years, but this year, we took a break from presenting and focused on re-acquainting ourselves with many in the NATO Product Support community.
It was our first opportunity to use our newly-produced, newly-branded display and banner material. These proved effective in creating a focal point for delegates to discuss the many recent improvements to our products and the diversification of the environments in which our tools and services are finding utility. In particular, we re-established contact with the NATO Supply & Procurement Agency (NSPA) representatives, with whom we are already seeking follow-up engagements.
Once again, the Conference proved to be a valuable and unique focal point for a community committed to developing and implementing solutions to improve asset availability and support NATO’s Defence capabilities.
Amongst the challenges presented was the need to explore ways of efficiently procuring and supporting ever-increasing and diversifying remotely piloted systems. NSPA is charged with procuring and supporting a diverse selection of unmanned vehicles amongst varying consortia of user Nations. Such a challenge is tailor-made for use of modelling tools to optimise the support dynamics for complicated, dispersed, and fast-changing equipment deployments.
A further key theme, developed in multiple presentations, was various mechanisms for pulling through emerging AI techniques into equipment support – this is certainly a theme that is attracting much attention in Government and Multi-National Organisations at this time.
TFD and ASI are on a promise to present at next year’s Conference and to that end…..we look forward to airing our recent findings on Project MONET – the high-profile modelling of eco-friendly propulsion options for a newly-designed light training aircraft. But there is the opportunity to offer up additional material to this high-profile audience. Do you have something you’d like share with the representatives from 32 nations?