The US Marine Corps has awarded a contract to Bohemia Interactive Simulations to further develop the capabilities of its Virtual Battlespace 2 (VBS2) game-based military training tool.
The $10.3m deal will see Bohemia upgrade the call-for-fire and close air support capability of VBS2 to comply with USMC needs, while the simulation will also emulate a wider range of USMC devices.
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Further upgrades will be made to the terrain capabilities, support for physics-based destructible buildings, improved visual appearance of 2D terrain maps and improved editing capabilities in the terrain tools.
The contract award comes as the USMC Deployable Virtual Training Environment, of which VBS2 is an important component, nears a complete upgrade.
DVTE is a laptop-based platform used by the USMC to conduct a variety of training simulations. The contract also includes software support, a web portal, delivery of VBS2 training, and ongoing software maintenance.
Bohemia Interactive Simulations CEO Peter Morrison said: "This award highlights the mutual commitment between the USMC and BISim to game-based learning, by enhancing the capabilities of VBS2 and maintaining it as the premier military game for training."
"We are focused on delivering state-of-the-art game technology to organisations like the USMC, and new features like physics-based destructible buildings will deliver exciting new training possibilities to all of our customers."
