Research Overview

The training and simulation market will continue to grow and evolve as countries continue to move away from live training to virtual and constructive systems. The market has shown strong resilience to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a decline in live training capabilities has led to greater adoption of virtual solutions to offset a loss in capabilities. The training and simulation market continues to be an important adopter of commercial off-the-shelf technologies as the commercial industry has demonstrated faster development of technologies at more affordable costs than the defense industry. As a result, non-traditional companies such as Microsoft have entered the market (it provides the Hololens virtual reality headset system for US Army training purposes). Commercial gaming technologies are also seeing increased uptake to enhance planning and training capabilities; for instance, the UK Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)'s use of Slitherine Software's commercial video games.

This Frost & Sullivan study briefly explores changing trends in the training and simulation market; it analyzes the impact of the changing geopolitical landscape, the economic turbulence, and the evolving military doctrine on the market. The study focuses on the global market and its growth over the next 10 years. It is broken down into regions and segments of training system and training service. The study covers these changes at a macro global level. The market is further investigated in terms of key competitors and their shares.

Future expectations covered in the study include the prioritization of rapid prototyping and development cycles with upgrades through software packages to reduce the overhead costs of upgrading physical training systems. The gradual adoption of live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) architectures and strategies, with an emphasis on the upgrade and the integration of legacy training systems, is also examined. The United States will continue to be the main innovator in terms of adoption and direction of new training doctrine, with NATO countries and other allies following suit. With escalating global tensions and the nature of warfare shifting toward a more grey and hybrid model, training and simulation requirements are also changing and capability development is being reprioritized. This is evident from the focus on cyber and electromagnetic activities (CEMA) as Western countries are falling behind the capabilities of both Russia and China, which are highly active in the CEMA domain. As a result, training and simulation systems must include these capabilities and keep pace with developments within military organizations.