DSET 2025: VRAI to launch VADE mission visualisation tool next month
VRAI, a Dublin-based simulation training supplier, revealed that its latest project, VADE, has reached minimum viable product and will be used within the UK Ministry of Defence from 11 August 2025.
VADE is a software tool that allows the user to visualise their mission planning in a granular, three-dimensional virtual space to help mitigate any unforeseen problems ahead of a real-life mission. As the saying goes, no plan survives first contact with the enemy, but VADE offers command and control (C2) an additional layer of assurance.
The company offered a run-through in an exclusive demonstration for Army Technology during the Defence Simulation, Education, and Training (DSET) exhibition in Bristol on 9 July 2025.
“Visualising complex operational tasks in three and four dimensions significantly reduces the cognitive burden of understanding and solving these complex problems”, observed Anthony Casson, a former Royal Air Force officer and business development lead for UK and Europe, VRAI.
The platform can support all domain mission sets at the tactical and strategic levels.
“With the right data it can visualise bathymetry, land, littoral, space and air and everything inbetween,” Casson added.
UK requirements in military training
The Strategic Defence Review recently highlighted the importance of military training, and determined that “validation testing must be used to prepare the commander to win, incentivising learning through mistakes.”
It should be noted that VADE is not a mission planning system but rather a visualisation tool. This extra layer provides commanders with the necessary validation needed to learn and adapt.
While VADE appears to be boundless in its user engagement and minute battlefield assessment, what will prove valuable is how the software will emulate the intricate network of sensors and effectors, such as the Digital Targetting Web, a concept that will be fully realised by 2027, according to the Strategic Defence Review.
This future Web will provide data in real time from across the battlespace to inform decision-making in this rapidly developing environment.
Simulation training suppliers are leaning on generative artificial intelligence to deliver this fast-paced training experience for personnel, in which data plays a critical part. Hadean, a London-based company, uses a large language model to populate a rolling social media feed that could alter decisions during operations.
