Major NATO exercise with XVR
From 8 to 11 October, a large-scale NATO exercise was held in Serbia. The exercise, which involved around 2000 participants from 40 NATO countries, made active use of the XVR Platform to visualise the scenario.
The purpose of the exercise was to improve cooperation between international disaster response organisations. The exercise was run by the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) in cooperation with the Serbian Ministry of Home Affairs.
This exercise in Serbia was the largest since the EADRCC was founded 20 years ago. Based on the geological and environmental challenges in Serbia, it was decided to stage an earthquake scenario with its potential consequences.
The scenario starts with a powerful earthquake near Belgrade, registering 6.7 on the Richter scale. Initial accounts from the stricken area report damage to a large number of buildings, with many injured and an unknown number of fatalities.
In addition, there are reports of chemical leaks, damaged water mains and power transmission lines, and the water supply may also be contaminated. In view of the seriousness of the consequences and the local conditions, an official request is made for international assistance.
The scenario used for this exercise ran on the XVR Simulation platform. Five different teams took up their positions in a specially designed virtual reality truck. Here, they all had a joystick in their hands, in order to attempt to manage the scenario and practise multilateral communication and international cooperation.
Copyright NATO, 2018