About

Ken-Tore Saade Eriksen is a retired Lieutenant Colonel with more than 38 years of service in the Norwegian Army, the final two decades of which were dedicated to training, simulation and capability governance at the national level.

From August 2018 to February 2026, he served as Head of the Norwegian Army Training & Simulation Centre — the Army’s senior national position for simulation policy, training governance and Live-Virtual-Constructive capability integration. In that role he held institutional responsibility for the entire Army simulation portfolio, developed governance frameworks that linked procurement, doctrine and readiness measurement, and represented Norway in NATO training and simulation structures.

His leadership has operated at the intersection of operations, institutional governance and long-term capability development — structuring training as an enduring institutional capability rather than a collection of systems or events.

Throughout my career, I have held responsibility for:

• National simulation portfolio integration across Army structures
• Governance design for Live, Virtual and Constructive environments
• Brigade and Division-level constructive training structuring
• Alignment of simulation capability with doctrinal evolution
• Organisational transformation of training ownership models
• NATO engagement and multinational training coordination

Rather than managing isolated systems, my leadership structured training as an institutionally anchored capability tied directly to operational output and readiness measurement.

Alongside national leadership responsibilities, I have contributed directly to international defence training dialogue and senior-level industry engagement.

• Author of the Chief of the Norwegian Army’s keynote address at ITEC 2025
• Panel speaker at ITEC 2025 in Oslo
• Invited panel participant at ITEC 2026 in London on Training Transformation
• International engagement with NATO and multinational training and simulation communities

These engagements reflect a professional profile shaped not only by national leadership, but by active participation in the wider international conversation on how military training must evolve to remain operationally relevant.

Operational deployments to Lebanon, Bosnia and Syria gave me first-hand experience of decision-making under uncertainty and multi-domain complexity.

That experience shaped a principle I have applied consistently since:

For more than 20 years I served in the Norwegian Army within training, simulation and operational capability development — culminating as Head of the Norwegian Army Training and Simulation Centre.

In that role, I was responsible for:

• Army Simulation Policy
• L-V-C integration across domains
• Governance of training systems
• Operational validation of simulation capabilities
• Alignment between user requirements and long-term procurement

Having worked from the operational side of capability development for over two decades, I understand defence training not as a product category but as a governance challenge.

I know:

• What commanders actually need from synthetic environments
• Where integration fails in practice — not in theory
• How acquisition decisions get made inside defence institutions
• How governance determines delivery speed and operational effect

Following retirement from active service, I am engaging with the defence training and simulation industry — as a speaker and strategic advisor to organisations operating in or entering Nordic defence markets.

My focus lies in:

• Governance-driven transformation of training and simulation capability
• Scalable LVC integration in national and multinational contexts
• Nordic defence market positioning and acquisition alignment
• Executive-level stakeholder engagement across industry and government

If your organisation is navigating any of these areas, I welcome a direct conversation.