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Ground Range Instrumentation Gets Real
Written by Erin Flynn Jay
Asymetric and urban warfare threats are being addressed
in training areas using role players and T-IEDs. Learning
objectives could range from initial introduction to the local
village authorities to searching for weapon caches to
countering the uses of the T-IEDs.
For the Marine Corps, their current fielded ground range instrumented system includes tactical engagement simulation systems (TESS) and various types of known distance (KD) and maneuver range area (MRA) target systems. “TESS is a family of devices that supports force-on- force and force-on-target training events. This capability provides direct fire laser detections and engagement between instrumented individuals and vehicles with adjudication at the individual level,” said Ronnie Soles, chief engineer for the Marines’ Live Training System. “For the KD and MRA Targets System, individual and crew scoring in target marksmanship are provided.”
A new capability currently undergoing operational assessment is the Position Location Information (PLI) System. This add-on component that interfaces with TESS provides track (position location) and important information such as health status and engagement outcomes for the instrumented entities (individual or vehicle). “More importantly, this information is relayed back to the Marine Corps Instrumentation Training System (MC-ITS) so as to provide situational awareness and after-action review capabilities of the training event,” Soles told MT2. “MC-ITS main functional capabilities are planning, mission exercise simulation list, situation awareness, exercise control and after-action review.”
GAPS IN CURRENT SYSTEMS
According to service command PM TRASYS, current gaps within TESS are the capability to support area weapon types and their effects appropriately. In addition, the PLI System works well for outdoor training events. However, due to the fact that the PLI System uses GPS for location identification, indoor tracking is not well suited for this application. PM TRASYS is investigating other technologies that are better suited for in door tracking.
Other gaps that have been identified and scheduled for investigation and experimentation are interoperability within the range instrumentation systems family of systems (FoS). The FoS includes the ability to provide video coverage within and adjacent to the military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) training sites, ability to record tactical communications, and ability to support training counter radio electronic warfare (T-CREW) and training improvised explosive devices (T-IEDs).
Other shortfalls that have been identified and scheduled for experimentation are to support interoperability between live, virtual and constructive domains and interoperability with tactical C4I systems.
Currently, asymmetric and urban warfare threats are being addressed in the MOUT training areas using role players and the T-IEDs. “The role-player scripts are based on the mission exercise simulation list. In turn, these scripts have been generated to force the Marine to perform certain tasks as defined within the training objectives and as the role players interact with the Marines,” said Soles. “The terminal learning objectives could range from initial introduction to the local village authorities to searching for weapon cache to countering the uses of the T-IEDs.”
In all, the Marines are being exposed to both the kinetic side and to the non-kinetic aspects of war in which they have to interact with the local peoples to gain their respect and trust in order to defeat the insurgency and enemy.
PM TRASYS just recently signed a program level agreement with Army in order to leverage their Live Training Transformation (LT2) Product Line Architecture Framework specifically focusing on the Common Training Instrumentation Architecture artifacts. This effort will support the rapid development and early deployment of the MC-ITS system to the Marine Corps. Marine Corps is eagerly working with the Navy to procure and field common ground training systems in support of the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC).
Current common systems include PM TRASYS fielding to NECC of convoy combat simulator (CCS), USMC operator/driver simulator (ODS), language and culture learning resource centers (LC LRC) and tactical video capture systems (TVCS). The Marine Corps, with JIEDDO, is also performing other service fielding of T-CREW systems to the Air Force and Navy, as well as fielding Army systems within the Marine Corps.
FIELDING URBAN SITES
Within the next six to 12 months, Soles said PM TRASYS will have begun field multiple MOUT sites with TVCS. In addition, MC-ITS first software build and formal release/fielding will occur late summer/early fall. T-CREW and Marine Corps TIED (MC-TIED) will be operational with MC-ITS once fielded. Tactical Audio Capture System (TACS) is scheduled to undergo proof of concepts demonstrations this fall in support of two different configurations. New procurement program Instrumented Tactical Engagement Simulation System (I-TESS) should start fielding this system by the fall time frame or earlier.
An R&D effort currently under way focuses on interoperability of the two different PLI systems within the Marine Corps, DITS and IGRS. “The primary objective is to establish a common base station and communication protocol/gateway in which both IGRS and DITS components can interoperate with both MC-ITS and the DITS Exercise Control System,” said Soles. This effort’s experimentation demonstration is scheduled to occur in the fall/ winter time frame.
Another R&D effort in the contract award phase will focus on the integration of DITS, TVCS, a radio frequency identification device (RFID) indoor tracking system, dynamic OPFOR targets video projection, and the capability to support automated performance assessments and evaluations of the training objectives. This effort will develop two test beds for experimentation: NECC ranges at China Lake, Calif., which focuses on counter IED defeat training, and Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., which focuses on close quarter battle (CQB) training.
INTRODUCTION FROM SAAB
Saab introduced the first deployable ground instrumentation system to the U.S. Army Europe Command (USAREUR) in 2001 with the fielding of the DITS. The DITS was expanded into the Deployable Instrumented System-Europe (DIS-E) in 2003 when the system increased to over 1,500 ground and air players with four instrumentation systems that could be deployed to four separate locations simultaneously.
“DITS provides exercise control, battle tracking, data collection and rapid after-action reviews (AARs) for live training events,” said Bob Clydesdale, business development manager for Saab Training USA. “The real-time situational awareness, exercise control capabilities, and adjudication of indirect fire engagements maximize the training exercise benefits and reduce the amount of time needed for live training.”
The measure of its deployability was evident in Iraq in 2004 when company support personnel embedded within the 1st Cavalry Division picked up the DITS systems at the Baghdad Airport and had them operating within two hours. There were four DITS systems deployed to Iraq in 2004 and 2005. The Marine Corps first selected Saab’s DITS in 2003 to instrument its large desert training base but expanded the operations by 2007 to include urban training exercises at the divisional training areas.
The use of realistic deployable training systems in response to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has uncovered unique deployable features beyond mere mobility. “A deployable system must also be adaptable to the local conditions after deployment, interoperable with other systems also deployed and ready for the local commander’s use with little advance notice,” said Clydesdale. The new doctrine in both the Army and Marine Corps requires full spectrum operations for offensive, defensive and stability or civil support operations.
Realistic training should replicate as closely as possible the expected operational environment and local requirements to meet the stability training needs. “Voice cues in the player units must be provided in local dialects to train host country units, and laser simulators must work on their weapons and vehicles,” said Clydesdale. “A vocabulary of over 100 words was recorded in the field using Iraqi soldiers speaking the local dialect; sent electronically to Saab to modify the program; relayed back where it was tested for accuracy and downloaded into 400 instrumented vests for immediate use.”
Finally, the system must be ready when and where it is directed by the local commander. Saab has two current examples with the U.S. Navy SEALs and the British Army. Although the SEALs exercises are in the United States, Saab supports the training with little advance notice in a variety of remote training and rehearsal sites throughout the United States without adding a logistical burden to the command.
The U.S. Army’s program of record for deployable instrumented training is I-HITS (Initial Homestation Instrumentation Training System), for which Cubic is the incumbent. This program has fielded a number of I-HITS or similar deployable systems to U.S. Army installations in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia and Korea, and will be deploying the system to an Army National Guard site in the near future, said Ray Barker, executive vice president, Business Development and Strategy for Cubic Defense Applications Inc.
“The system we delivered to Alaska traveled to Australia for the Joint Combined Training Capability effort that took place during Talisman Sabre ‘07, a joint U.S./ Australia exercise. I-HITS has also been deployed to various locations around the United States.
“Our deployable systems share common components that can be easily tailored to accommodate the specific customer’s needs and applications,” said Barker. “Generally, such systems include mobile shelters, range communications and exercise control systems that provide situational awareness that can display participant tracking and event data used to generate training feedback and after-action reviews.” Cubic has developed and delivered myriad fixed and deployable/ mobile combat training instrumentation over the years.
MISSION REHEARSAL
In recent times, instrumented combat training has focused more on mission rehearsal (almost always in anticipation of an asymmetric threat) and less on traditional doctrine-oriented training. Barker said the tools used by the contemporary adversary include the use of very unpredictable and undetectable devices and techniques like IEDs, suicide bombers, transportation in non-combat vehicles, use of civilians to mask intent and so on.
“Our systems and devices have evolved to support the contemporary operating environment,” Barker said. “For example we now have effective techniques for realistically simulating improvised explosive devices and a large assortment of threat-representative weapons; from small arms to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosives [CBRNE].”
Cubic is looking to exploit the advances in portable, rugged, commercially available products as a way to provide low-cost, low-burden, readily available devices and systems to better prepare the warfighter for the challenges found in the current operating environment. “In the near term, we will deploy systems that provide highly realistic 3-D modeling of urban environments and participants; ‘shoot through walls’ capability; instrumented structures; battlefield visual and audible effects; more realistic artillery play; and virtually generated effects, to highlight a few,” Barker said.
Laser Shot is offering the deployable training movement the patented Thermal Shot Live-Fire Virtual Targetry System, which enables live weapons to be used in conjunction with any of Laser Shot’s projected (virtual) training courseware. The exclusive technology of the Thermal Shot system enables live fire training in small deployable packages like Laser Shot’s Deployable Military Skills Engagement Trainer (MSET), which stores and travels in a single 2-foot-by-3-foot rolling case. Thermal Shot is also utilized in Laser Shot’s Mobile Range, which provides a completely deployable live fire range facility in an over-the-road container.
The Thermal Shot system is specifically designed to train infantry and special operations combat forces in urban combat tactics, techniques and procedures. “The increasingly urbanized environments in most current theaters of operation, combined with non-linear or asymmetric threats, necessitate improving training for battle in close quarters,” said Robert Findlay, business development manager at Laser Shot Inc. “Battle drills, shooting skills and movement techniques are completely different in the confines of interior spaces, presenting unique challenges in achieving victory with minimal losses to enemy action, fratricide or injury.”
By using modern simulation techniques such as high-fidelity graphics and robust game engine technology, the Thermal Shot system enables the evolution of training from static paper and nonanimated targetry, to full human motion, intelligent and active targetry. “Projections of life-sized enemy and noncombatant figures in relevant combat situations can be used in training with a broad spectrum of interactivity,” said Findlay. “Dialogue, tracking, viewing, smelling and shooting are among some of the current levels of interactivity between live trainees and virtual targetry.”
Without a doubt, as verified by the continued development of the Thermal Shot system and related technology by the U.S. military, virtual environments are rapidly becoming the norm in live fire shoothouses, as well as the more familiar desktop-driven simulations or laser engagement systems. Continued advancements by internal research and development have allowed the Thermal Shot system to help military and law enforcement agencies to leap frog from 19th century archaic training techniques to 21st century innovative solutions that save lives.
In the coming months, Findlay said Laser Shot will roll out of the CQB training courseware Laser Shot Virtual Shoothouse (LVS). The LVS will provide state-of-the-art, realistic, multi-room integrated CQB scenarios using the Thermal Shotlive fire system. LVS courseware was created specifically for SOCOM CQB training utilizing ultra-realistic, life-sized 3-D character models to mimic the life-like movements and reactions to that of real humans.♦
For more information, contact MT2 Editor Marty Kauchak or search our online archives for related stories.