No matter which side of the political spectrum you support, we can probably all agree that this current election year has shown beyond all doubt that it is really easy for people to make misleading, wildly exaggerated, and even totally spurious claims, and that sometimes it can be very difficult for the "consumer" to distinguish the real truth of the situation.

That can be especially true when dealing with some of the more arcane aspects of technology. No matter how technically savvy we are, none of us can keep up with all the details of the changing technology that underlies much of our industry. That also happens to be true for much of the more arcane details of HLA. And it is therefore very easy for a vendor to claim to be "HLA compliant". But what does this mean? In some cases it may just mean that their platform of choice has a compatible RTI available for the user to install. That is somewhat akin to giving you some planks of wood and some tools and calling it a bookshelf.

Where is factcheck.org when you really need it?

Fortunately, there is another sniff test that can be applied, which is to look at the claimant's active installed base, and talk to previous users. In other words, as we've heard time and time again this election year: "Look at the record."

When DMOC and JFCOM wanted to set up a large and complex demonstration training event at I/ITSEC this year, they solicited those team members that they judged would bring the requisite technical expertise and equipment to the table to make it a successful endeavour. We can certainly be sure that ASTi wasn't invited to participate as a result of being an "insider" or as a result of a successful sales effort, since we don't have any of those guys (neither insiders nor salesmen).

No, it can only be as a result of our proven track record as a cooperative and responsive supplier of HLA network communications on virtually every successful HLA project undertaken in the U.S. military since HLA's inception.

For more information about the Joint Virtual Training Special Event (JVTSE) and a list of participating entities, check out page 2 of the Special Events PDF made available from the I/ITSEC website. (Link goes directly to PDF download.)