Will Virtual Battlefield Systems 1 (VBS1) ever become publicly available?

Maybe in 50 years.

This rumor began on October 21, 2002, when, after the VBS site was down for a while, it came back up again with a picture of VBS1's box art (below), the caption "See why the world's largest super power uses VBS1..." above the box art and "Coming in October 2002" written in small print under it.

It looks to me like this is simply an announcement preceding a new rendition of the VBS site itself and not VBS1's generally availability to the public.

In fact, the text "Coming in October 2002" has since been replaced with a contact email address at BIS: [email protected]. To the best of my knowledge, this is the email address of David Lagettie, a.k.a. Seventh, the Australian composer of the original OFP version's heavy contemporary music. David's been busy working at BIS Australia's office for some time now. This would explain why you'll find VBS1 pics of Aussie troops and vehicles. I'm hoping that the Australian units and more will become publicly available when the sequel to OFP, Independence Lost, is released - if ever.

(For general information about VBS1 and plenty of pics, see this FAQ item).