FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Michelene K. St. Amand
P: 617.876.8085 x144
F: 617.876.9208
mstamand@mak.com
MÄK TECHNOLOGIES TOOLS SUCCESSFULLY NETWORK NATO "FIRST WAVE"EXERCISE
MÄK RTI and MÄK Gateway Provide Critical Connectivity
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 6, 2005 ―MÄK Technologies, the world’s leading supplier of distributed simulation software, announced the successful use of the MÄK RTI and MÄK Gateway to help network NATO’s First WAVE (Warfighter Alliance in a Virtual Environment) exercise. Exercise First WAVE, sponsored by the NATO Research and Technology Organization (RTO) Studies, Analysis, and Simulation Panel in conjunction with the NATO Modeling & Simulation Group, was a seven-country, 16-site virtual training exercise. It was the principal event in the research program undertaken by the NATO RTO Mission Training via Distributed Training (MTDS) Task Group. Experienced aircrew participated in realistic mission scenarios using operational training systems at their home bases. The exercise was NATO’s first attempt at running a large, real-time, wide area networked, multinational simulation of combined air operations.
"First WAVE is not only another success for the high performance MÄK RTI, but also an exciting example of our products being used globally to network disparate sites,"said Warren Katz, MÄK’s chief operating officer. "We’re delighted that this international consortium selected the MÄK RTI to run in their secure network environment."
The MTDS Task Group brought together Air Forces from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States, together with national experts from research laboratories and agencies ― AFRL (US), DSTL (UK), DRDC (CA), NLR (NL), TNO (NL) - and industry ― Alenia (IT), CAE (CA), IABG (GE), PlexSys (US), Qinetiq (UK) and Thales (FR, UK). A wide area network using commercial communication systems was established to link a principal node in each country.
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FIRST WAVE NETWORKS WITH MÄK RTI
National simulators and other facilities were then linked to this network using encryption systems to ensure that all information transmitted was fully protected. Although US-based systems were unable to participate, the US provided experts and other critical systems to help First WAVE happen.
An RTI is a key component of the HLA networking architecture. The verified and fully compliant MÄK RTI has been chosen as the backbone of major simulation programs. MÄK RTI customers include Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Mission Training Center, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems’ DMT lab, AFRL Warfighter Training Research Division, FATS and Verrax. The MÄK RTI is consistently proven in third party studies to be the most efficient RTI available.
The MÄK Gateway is a vital tool for distributed simulations, allowing legacy DIS simulations to participate in an HLA exercise, bridging the two network architectures. The Gateway uses VR-Link, taking full advantage of the networking toolkit’s FOM-Agile infrastructure.
About MÄK Technologies
MÄK Technologies develops software to link, simulate and visualize the virtual world. We create tools and toolkits for distributed simulations, develop PC-based military tactical trainers, craft custom solutions, and research and develop the latest simulation technologies. We build commercial off the shelf simulation software that is flexible, portable and supported. Whether you choose our best-selling networking toolkit, VR-Link or our computer generated forces toolkit, VR-Forces, you have purchased a product backed by the industry’s leading distributed simulation experts. Our worldwide customers include ITT Industries, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Tenix, Dassault and BAE. Please call 617.876.8085 or visit www.mak.com for more information.
