Written by / Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

 

“Since the publication of the 2006 Training Transformation Strategic Plan, there have been several major changes, which drove the need for an updated strategic plan. We have continued to adjust the Training Transformation Program to meet current and emerging challenges as well as the department’s approach to practices, processes and resources that were outlined in the 2007–2008 “Guidance for Development of the Force and Guidance for the Employment of the Force.” Since the issuance of the 2006 Strategic Plan, the Combatant Command Exercise and Engagement resources, initially after an internal DoD review then with even greater consolidation at the direction of Congress, have been merged into the Training Transformation Program.

Additionally, the Training Transformation Program continues to be broadened beyond the traditional military audience to include government civilians, other U.S. government agencies, industry and academia to encompass a whole-of-nation approach to training, mirroring our integrated operations. The vision for training transformation remains to provide dynamic, capabilities-based joint training for the Department of Defense in support of national security requirements across the full range of military operations, and the changes captured in the updated strategic plan will better enable us to achieve that vision.”

ODUSD/R is also working to support the ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) deliberations and to ensure training needs for the future are addressed. These QDR efforts will provide the impetus for the next training strategy. Finally, the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative is in the process of developing an updated strategic plan, which will link to the updated T2 Strategic Plan.

EA-18G Maintenance Trainer Program Update

Boeing delivered its first EA-18G Growler maintenance trainer to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in November 2008. The company provided additional details on the rapidly evolving training technology program.

“The EAMT was delivered in late November, one week ahead of schedule. Facility setup and on-site testing were successful. In early June of this year a software upgrade will occur upon completion of the LOT 30 upgrade, currently in progress at NAS Oceana,” Charles “Chuck” Sulin, lead system engineer for the EAMT, Boeing, told MT2.

The EA-18G Maintenance Trainer (EAMT) is a set of three devices used to train Navy maintenance technicians to support the EA-18G’s unique systems, primarily the airborne electronic attack avionics. The majority of these avionics are installed on a pallet in the gun bay and in two wingtip pods.

Two of the three EAMT devices are mockups of aircraft hardware: One represents the gun bay and pallet, and the other a wingtip pod. The mockups are used to support training on installation and removal procedures.

The third device in the set, the Visual Environment Maintenance Trainer, consists of a fully replicated cockpit, an instructor/operator station, and two touchscreen displays that provide graphical representations of the aircraft and support equipment. The student interacts with the trainer via the cockpit and displays to test and troubleshoot. The trainer simulates a variety of maintenance situations and provides realistic feedback to students’ actions.

Stacey Ritter Holloway, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Training is a Vital Part of Multirole UAS Enabling Concept

The Air Force and Army Chiefs of Staff signed a plan taking the two services one step closer to supporting the full spectrum of conflict with their larger, multirole unmanned aircraft. Military officials presented the Army/Air Force Multirole Unmanned Aircraft System Enabling Concept to leaders at the Army/Air Force Warfighter’s Conference.

One important next step is to identify specific training solutions to enable both services to implement the concept.

“The bulk of the work will be done by the functional managers within Air Combat Command and TRADOC. The idea is to use existing service training venues and programs instead of creating new ones,” Elaine Belcher, ACC spokesperson, told MT2. She added, “The ideas from the enabling concept will therefore be integrated into both individual and exercise training forums, including both the Army and Air Force initial qualification training syllabi, the Army and Air Force post-IQT mission qualification syllabi, instructor upgrade and other primary courses, the joint firepower course at Nellis AFB, the weapons instructor course for MQ-1/9 at the Air Force Weapons School, and the training scenarios for Green Flag and other major exercises.”

Both services expect that the concept will be fully implemented within one year.

M&S Industry Opportunities and Challenges Outlined

COTS software, new markets and increased interoperability are some issues on the mind of one industry insider. Robert Kopersiewich, vice president, Product and Program Management, Presagis, pointed out that “in recent years, the industry has been moving away from traditional high-flying applications and more toward urban operations, low-flying UAVs, IED detection, network-centric operations and human simulation as the needs of the industry evolve,” and added, “COTS software from Presagis provides an affordable, flexible and interoperable development environment that supports quick responses to market demands to enable developers to produce innovative simulations for a variety of applications.”

With respect to the troubled global economy, he reflected, “While we don’t have a crystal ball, we are confident in the state of the M&S industry. We are seeing a commitment from educational institutions, government, private industry and emerging markets to invest in M&S.”

Presagis is also seeing expanding interests by new markets, including homeland security and health care, which are now looking to solve training and simulation problems in a new way. “Presagis views this ongoing attention to M&S technology as positive indicators for our industry,” Kopersiewich said.

In the near term, developers have the opportunity to capitalize on a variety of feature-rich solutions and integrated technologies from Presagis. “Within our community, development tools have evolved extensively, putting us in a position to capitalize on new application areas such as emergency management, explosive device detection/diffusing and urban planning,” he noted.

Interoperability remains a major concern for developers. “As a result, Presagis is working to integrate its portfolio of visualization, content creation and simulation software to offer the market an integrated development workflow. Similarly, Presagis is stewarding CDB, a commercial open standard, ensuring that subsystems such as computer-generated forces and visual systems all tap into the same data source—effectively eliminating traditional data correlation issues,” Kopersiewich concluded.

Tracey Ades, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

ADL Initiative Milestones Announced

The Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative announced the completion of three major milestones: the launch of sharable content object reference model (SCORM) 2004, 4th edition; an updated Website (www.adlnet.gov); and the introduction of ADL Registry version 1.7. The updated SCORM standard is expected to have the most significant impact on DoD learners.

Increased interoperability is the major advancement in SCORM 2004, 4th edition. “That’s the key hallmark of SCORM and what we deliver,” Angelo Panar, SCORM spokesperson, told MT2 during an open house at the ADL Co-Lab Hub. The new standard contains other new features that are an extension to the baseline 2004 model. These include:

• enabling sharable content objects to share large amounts of unstructured data
• extending the current data mapping of shared global objectives
• extending the sequencing rollup behavior to account for partial completion and completion threshold evaluations; and
• enabling direct navigation to an activity.

Other ADL efforts include the development of SCORM 2.0, and an examination of the effectiveness of games, virtual worlds, mobile systems and other new learning technologies for DoD learning.

Robert Wisher, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Study on Reuse of Digital Training Content

The RAND National Defense Research Institute was asked to examine how the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative and the Department of Defense might encourage the reuse of digital training content as a strategy to reduce the cost of its development. RAND’s recently completed study focused primarily on the extent to which incentives and other enablers currently are and might be used to encourage training development organizations to develop a reuse mechanism, especially one supported by repositories. The study is available at http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG732/.

Contract Eyes Better Access for M&S Systems to Geospatial Data

Masa Group is presently under contract to ESRI to support the U.S. Army’s efforts to improve the way in which M&S systems access and use native geospatial data. Under the present contract, Masa Group Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Masa Group SA, is required to investigate how constructive simulations could better access information contained in a geo-database without the need to build specific data formats inherent to a simulation’s internal needs.

“By making changes to the way simulations access data, it may be possible for M&S and C2 systems to pull from the same data source. Drawing from the same source speeds up the preparation time for data supporting mission rehearsal and training and ensures that there are no discrepancies between the simulation and the command and control systems,” read a statement provided to MT2.

Conclusions about the suitability of the methods to be employed will be known in September 2009.

Mark Phillips, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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