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(Oct 2003) Pitch signs groundbreaking agreement with FMV to ensure Swedish DoD-wide availability of Pitch HLA 1516 products for Modeling and Simulation.

Linköping, Sweden, October 2003 – Pitch AB, the leading supplier of infrastructure products based on the High Level Architecture (HLA) for Distributed Simulation, has signed a groundbreaking agreement with the Swedish Defense Material Administration (FMV). The agreement ensures unlimited access to Pitch HLA 1516 products (pRTI™ 1516 and Visual OMT™ 1516) for all organizations under the jurisdiction of the Swedish Department of Defense (DoD). Organizations include; the Armed Forces, FMV, the National Defense Research Agency, Coast Guard, the Defense College, the Rescue Services Agency and more. Attached to the agreement is also a five year support contract.

This is in many respects a groundbreaking agreement, said Staffan Löf, President and CEO of Pitch. First of all it is a very prestigious contract for Pitch, the contract was awarded to Pitch after an open international competition according to the EU procedures. Second it is a big step forward for the open IEEE 1516 standard for HLA. Last but not least we are very pleased with the five year support contract; that will guarantee a healthy development of Pitch HLA products for the foreseeable future.

According to Wing Commander Osmo Westin, Head of the Armed Forces M&S-office, this is an important step in realizing the Armed Forces M&S Strategy. “We are particularly pleased with the fact that we have been able to sign a contract including all organizations under the DoD jurisdiction. This will ensure that all major players necessary to realize the Swedish Network Based Defense (NBD) vision are included. Since NBD is a truly international concept it was natural for us to select the open international standard IEEE 1516 for HLA”.

Mr. Gunnar Öhlund, Head of M&S and responsible for M&S Infrastructure Development at FMV, adds that “the HLA 1516 products are going to be important components in developing the future M&S infrastructure and distributed simulation environments to support Research & Technology and development of the NBD concept. My feeling is that M&S is going to play a crucial role, both in developing NBD as well as being a very important component / part of NBD itself. As part of the support contract, including a user group forum, we are also part of a joint group for strategic product development. The fact that we are part of the group will give us first hand information on future products development as well as the possibility to influence products development. This is very important for our own strategic planning and development of our M&S infrastructure and other simulation resources”.

About Pitch AB
Pitch AB is the leading supplier of HLA infrastructure products for the open international IEEE 1516 standard as well as for the old HLA 1.3 standard. Pitch customers include major European, US and Asian organizations and companies like Saab, Boeing, EADS, NASA, Mitsubishi, NEC, US Department of Defense, the Norwegian oil industry and many more.

Pitch was founded in 1991 and is a privately held company. Headquarter is located in Linköping, Sweden. Pitch has an extensive international network of distributors and partners in North America, Asia, Europe and Australia.

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