Argon Electronics has cut itself a niche in the development and manufacture of hazardous material detection simulators, most notably in the fields of military chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) defence. The company’s simulators also have applications in civil defence market.

At this year’s IITSEC event, the company is set to launch a system for remotely managing CBRN and HazMat simulation exercises. Called PlumeSIM, the new system has been developed for use by military and first responder training organisations as well as industrial concerns such as those responsible for nuclear power generation. It enables a single instructor to configure simulated chemical and radiological releases across a wide area, and then to monitor and manage multiple trainees in real time from a central location.

The system allows virtual dispersal plumes and hot spots to be set up quickly and simply. There are multiple scenario options including the type of threat, the point of release or delivery mechanism from single or multiple sources, and a full range of constant or changing environmental conditions such as wind strength and direction and precipitation. Persistency, deposition, time of release or detonation can also be controlled by the instructor.

Able to operate as part of a desk-top training exercise or in the field, it is thought that PlumeSIM will attract interest from the integrators of live training systems that want to add realism to their training exercises.

The exercise area can also be configured, using standard maps or hand-drawn sketches of the training area. Once configured, all exercises can be saved for future use and revision. These can be run in either a classroom environment for table top exercises, with trainees using standard gamepad controllers to manipulate their positions on-screen with actual simulators responding according to the simulated threat, or as a field based training system.

The company says that PlumeSIM is a modular system, so can be upgraded as required, and is designed for use with all simulation instruments from Argon.