Last month we were delighted to attend the first SIM OPS (le forum de la simulation operationnelle) conference and exhibition at EDS (écoles militaries de Saumur) in the Loire Valley, France. Exhibiting with our French representatives, APVL ingenerie, who did a great job in making the arrangements, we were hosted on site by CDNBC (centre de défense nucléaire biologique et chimique).
The CDNBC is a specialist French Army centre upgraded in 2011 for training members of the French military and associated organisation for appointment to posts with CBRN responsibilities and staff assigned to jobs requiring a specific qualification in CBRN defence. CDNBC, which receives 500 to 600 students per year, also participates in the development of doctrine and testing of CBRN defence equipment, and trains specialists whilst developing expertise in the CBRN arena. The proximity of CDNBC to the French Army’s specialised CBRN defence regiment, 2ème régiment de dragons (2° RD), situated in nearby Fontevraud, offers many opportunities for practical application of knowledge acquired.
The conference was attended by about 300 delegates and approximately 200 local service personnel including CDNBC staff and students, and provided Argon with the opportunity to demonstrate our simulation training solutions to CBRN subject matter experts and the wider French military battlefield training community. Of particular significance amongst the chemical and radiological simulators we demonstrated was the AP4C-SIM, a training instrument for the Proengin AP4C chemical detector that is widely used by the French military. Vincent Dubuget of APVL spoke to a number of delegates and demonstrated how AP4C-SIM can be used with the Argon PlumeSIM system in the context of a dedicated wide area live field training, or as a component of larger scale instrumented battle group exercises.
All in all, we had a productive experience in the Loire Valley. Thank you everyone we met at the event, including the organisers and our reps for their hard work.
