Australian Navy Project SEA 1412 is integrating a set of team trainers using Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) to develop the Maritime Warfare Training System (MWTS). The US Navy has a similar Program - Battle Force Tactical Training (BFTT) System, which will eventually include 158 major surface ships and five shore sites, providing training for individual and multiple ships, using distributed interactive simulation. This technology enables a number of ships and shore units to participate in the same virtual battlespace even though they may be geographically dispersed; eg one fleet unit could be at San Diego and one in Sydney, Australia, and they could participate in the same exercise through electronic linkages. DIS is the current mature standard for simulator interoperability and is used by BFTT. The US DoD has mandated that M&S projects be High Level Architecture (HLA) compliant. BFTT is currently migrating to HLA.

It is in both Australia's and the United States' interests to collaborate, since this will ultimately ensure that Australian Navy training systems both in the ships and ashore will be able to communicate with their US counterparts. The RAN could then participate in coalition training exercises with the USN in a series of exercises which might be termed Virtual RIMPAC. Through these two similar Programs, Australian and US researchers are sharing their experiences with DIS for naval training, including various difficult technical issues. This paper will discuss the issues from both the Australian and USN perspective, and outline a proposed collaborative R&D effort in the area of migrating to the newer HLA. Australian researchers have suggested a migration path for SEA 1412 which is similar to the BFTT migration path. At the higher level, both Australian and USN researchers are interested in investigating whether their systems will prove effective both from a cost and training perspective in delivering training to the RAN and USN, and how they endeavour to measure it.