The Battle Force Tactical Training (BFTT) program brings distributed team training to the U.S. Navy (USN). This program has many similarities with the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN's) Maritime Warfare Training System. Therefore, USN and RAN collaboration is mutually beneficial. A key near-term goal of such collaboration is to enable rehearsal for joint exercises such as the RIMPAC. In the long-term, the overarching goal is to enable conduct of coalition training and mission rehearsal between multiple ships at-sea.

This paper will discuss initial connectivity trials between USN and Australian Defence establishments. Research and operational training issues will be discussed including scenario generation, database requirements, connectivity issues, interoperability among dissimilar simulators, exercise management, coordination, and control, network traffic and latency issues, and use of Computer Generated Forces (CGFs) to enrich the synthetic training environment. Further, this provides the backdrop for conduct of a live coalition training demonstration at I/ITSEC 2001 including training planning, conduct and after action review (debrief). USN personnel manning a Fleet representative combat system emulation on the I/ITSEC convention floor will conduct a coalition training event with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) manning a Fleet representative combat system configuration at HMAS Watson, Sydney. A human-in-the-loop research simulator (aircraft cockpit) being flown from the Defence Science Technology Organisation Melbourne will augment the event.