Polygons & Lumens

Raydon Corp. released its newest configuration of the Virtual Route Clearance Training Services (VRCT) to the Army, which was initially fielded to Fort Hood.

The complete VRCT system provides instruction in route clearance operations, IED detection, and the recognition and removal of other hazards. Each of the systems will allow a team of 31 soldiers to train together in the same virtual environment to improve soldiers’ route clearance skills, teach the latest tactics, techniques and procedures for route clearance, and how to operate and employ the new route clearance vehicles, (MRAPS) in particular: Buffalo; MPCV (mine protected clearance vehicle); Husky; VMMD (vehicle mounted mine detector); RG-31 and JERRV–MMPV (medium mine protected vehicles); Talon IIIB–MTRS (man transportable robotic system).

“The upgrades, which will take place in April 2009, will add the JERRV and the Talon IIIB and take the training number up to 31 warfighters,” Don Ariel, chairman and chief strategic officer, told MT2. He continued, “The JERRV will include driver, commander and gunner stations, gunners weapon, OEM Panels and controls for fidelity, along with radio communication. The Talon IIIB will include an operator, OEM robot controls for maneuver and crane/gripper, camera monitors, OEM panels and controls for fidelity along with radio communication.”

Further upgrades/enhancements are planned for later in 2009 and in 2010.

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

PEO STRI Awards Second Omnibus Contract

PEO STRI granted 142 awards for the second STRI Omnibus Contract, known as STOC II, January 27, 2009. STOC II, valued at $17.5 billion over the next 10 years, serves as an efficient contracting vehicle in order to quickly get simulation and training products and services into the hands of U.S. and coalition servicemembers.

Companies competing in STOC II were evaluated in two categories: the Full and Open Lot and the Partial Small Business Set-Aside Lot. Small companies competing in the Full and Open Lot also had the opportunity to compete in the Partial Small Business Set-Aside Lot, and vice-versa. Two lots were established in order to enhance PEO STRI’s ability to achieve its small business goals.

One awardee, Saab Training, views its award as an opportunity to bid on specific future tasks. “There are a number of contracts that will be awarded under the STOC II contract for which Saab will bid as a prime. The first program is the Homestation Instrumentation Training Systems that will be competed in 2009 along with a series tasks for the family of Instrumentable MILES tactical engagement systems,” Bob Clydesdale, Saab spokesperson, told MT2.

Additional information about the contract is at http://www.peostri.army.mil/PAO/pressrelease/20090129_STOCII.jsp.

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

MetaVR Awarded Patent for its Metadesic Terrain Architecture

The U.S. Patent Office has issued MetaVR a patent for the invention of its Metadesic virtual terrain architecture, which represents the earth’s surface in a geocentric coordinate system that accurately represents the curvature of the earth.

“Metadesic is MetaVR’s virtual terrain architecture that is designed to solve a variety of problems associated with projection-based, monolithic visual databases. Through this architecture, improvements are realized in database production, distribution, storage, update, as well as many run-time and mission function benefits,” read a company statement.

Richard M. Rybacki, chief technology officer and co-founder, MetaVR, described how MetaVR's Metadesic 3-D terrain architecture benefits military training and mission rehearsal customers. Key benefits include:

• A geocentric terrain representation to accurately represent earth curvature and handle polar regions correctly. • A pageable format to enable databases of arbitrary resolution and geographic coverage.

• Support for sparse coverage where the areas to be included in the database need not be rectangular.

• A metadata-free design whereby the indexing overhead of the terrain data does not scale with geographic coverage or resolution of the source data.

• The ability to update small regions of the database in short periods of time without the need to restart the run-time system.

• The ability to incrementally update the database by adding to its coverage or updating pre-compiled regions with newer source data.

• A more robust database generation process that can be parallelized and restarted following computer or software failure.

Rybacki told MT2 that simulators often depend on a terrain database for such functions as elevation lookup and pointto- point intervisibility tests. “Optimized terrain elevation lookups and intervisibility tests have been developed in Metadesic that exploit the recursive and hierarchal nature of the design and are very efficient. For example, MetaVR’s Virtual Reality Scene Generator implementation of an elevation lookup is as fast as 20 microseconds, and point-to-point intervisibility lookups as fast as 100 microseconds. These speeds are comparable to and sometimes even faster than conventional, projection- based terrain database implementations,” he added.

W.G. Smith, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Network-Centric Forces Simulation Toolkit Introduced

Scalable Network Technologies Inc. (SNT) and VT MÄK (MÄK) announced the introduction of Network Centric Forces (NCF), a new toolkit for creating battlefield simulations where network communications are a central component.

Network Centric Warfare (NCW), currently in development as a critical part of future U.S. and Western allies’ military operations, depends on a wireless communications infrastructure that supports on-the-move communication. NCW has created the need for a new generation of simulation tools for training modern warfighters who depend on these on-the-move-communications.

Network Centric Forces is a comprehensive network-centric warfare simulation package that realistically models the interrelation of network conditions and human behavior to predict battle outcomes. NCF includes QualNet, SNT’s simulation engine for predicting network performance, and VR-Forces, MÄK’s toolkit for generating and executing battlefield scenarios—all the tools a customer needs to get their network-enabled battlefield simulation started quickly.

“Through ultra-high-fidelity simulation of the communications environment, NCF provides a new level of realism for mission planning and rehearsal readiness training. VR-Forces provides behavior and threat modeling in a user-friendly GUI environment that accurately determines and realistically displays entity movement. In combination with QualNet’s communication network modeling, NCF can determine how factors like urban terrain, dropped packets, traffic surges and weather conditions collectively impact overall battle outcomes,” read a statement provided by the companies to MT2.

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

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

IS-900 Technology to Support MANPAD Training System

InterSense Inc. announced that BVR Systems has selected InterSense’s IS-900 inertial/ultrasonic tracking technology for use in its man portable air defense (MANPAD) training system. BVR Systems will incorporate the IS-900 technology into its MANPAD system to provide military personnel with lifelike target simulation as they train in spotting and identifying aircraft and properly using anti-aircraft weapons.

The IS-900 is a precision six-degree-of-freedom wide-area tracking system used in a number of military simulation and training applications. When combined with BVR Systems’ MANPAD system, the IS-900 delivers a rich immersive experience that ensures military personnel are properly trained to use portable air defense systems in an operational environment.

In the MANPAD application, InterSense’s sensor technology is mounted on the trainer, which consists of a 270-degree curved screen surrounding a 4-by-3.6- meter training platform. Two separate training regimens can be employed—one to teach control of a shoulder-launched weapon and the second using virtual binoculars to scout targets. Both weapon and binoculars are tracked in real time using the IS-900 tracking technology.

“InterSense will provide two systems. The systems have already been delivered to BVR. They expect their customer installation to be completed by fourth quarter 2009,” Mike Donfrancesco, vice president of sales at InterSense, told MT2.

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

USMC Driver Simulator Contract Modification

FAAC Inc. received a contract modification to add a dual-simulator mobile system for Marine Corp Air Station, Iwakuni, Japan; three full-motion 6-DOF simulators for Camp Hansen, Okinawa, Japan; and three additional dual-simulator mobile systems for U.S.-based Marine Force Reserve sites.

“This modification to FAAC’s contract with the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command, Program Manager for Training Systems (PM TRASYS), increases the total number of USMC ODS systems procured to 26 systems with a total of 51 simulators,” read a statement provided to MT2.

The USMC ODS originally employed in operations of M1114 up-armored HMMWV and MK-23 with Marine Armor System has been extended to include USMC mine resistance ambush protected fleet of vehicles: 4-by-4 Cougar Category I, 6-by-6 Cougar Category II, and 6-by-6 Buffalo Category III vehicle.

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

CBRN Training Equipment Delivery

Argon Electronics announced the delivery of 50 CAMSIM, AP2C-SIM, S4PE-SIM and LCD3.2e-SIM training systems for use by the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF).

While CAMSIM is an established product in service with civil and military response organizations around the globe, the SAF were the first recipients of the new AP2C-SIM (including the S4PE-SIM liquid sampling device simulator) and LCD3.2eSIM. All of the systems supplied reflected the unique specifications of the SAF as a service seeking to ensure enhanced delivery of training as a foundation to their world-class CBRN operational response.

“In addition to the inclusion of a comprehensive instructor training provision that was delivered at the SAF facility in Umea in late 2008, the contract includes options for further equipment of the same type as well as for the latest HAPSIM-P probe [for training in the use of the Inficon Hapsite range] and PlumeSIM, Argon’s classroom and field exercise remote wide area instrumented training system,” read a statement provided to MT2.

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

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