Field Shooting Training Update
Written by Erin Flynn Jay
MT2 2011 Volume: 16 Issue: 8 (December)
The ability to train U.S. troops on virtual marksmanship ranges and CGI-based judgmental trainers more effectively takes our troops from a weapons familiarization state to weapon confident.
Dan Wakeman, deputy, TCM Virtual, described how marksmanship training equipment supports the U.S. Army. “The EST [Engagement Skills Trainer] II is a home station, indoor, multipurpose, crew-served, anti-armor and small arms gunnery virtual simulator. Ten weapons are replicated in the simulator including the M16 rifle, M4 carbine, M9 pistol, MK19 grenade launcher, all machine guns, M1200 shotgun, and the AT4 shoulder launched munitions,” Wakeman told MT2. “The EST II provides the capability to build and sustain marksmanship skills, squad and fire team distribution and control with judgmental use of force (shoot/ don’t shoot) training using HD computer imagery and video. EST II’s extensive library of scenarios includes 249 Army standard courses of fire, 131 judgmental and use of force scenarios, and 167 collective scenarios that are unique to infantry, scout, military police, engineer, and combat support/combat service support squad level training.”
The EST II is utilized by the Army as a gateway to live fire training. “Soldiers training in the EST II virtual environment can reset a training mission within two minutes with unlimited ammunition, saving time and money,” Wakeman said. “While using the feedback capability of the EST II to analyze and critique a soldier’s aptitude to apply the proper marksmanship skills, the trainer can visually show the soldier the location of their point of aim, the impact of the round, trigger pressure (pull) and follow through after the shot was fired. All of this is used to hone the basic skills prior to the soldier ever firing a live round.”
Currently, the U.S. Army’s improvements include adding high-definition video projectors to increase visual fidelity and add increased realism for the shooters. One of the additional improvements to the EST II is the ability to have a tetherless weapons capability to allow for additional mobility for the soldiers in training.
This marksmanship virtual training device has evolving training requirements. “As technology changes, so do the virtual training requirements for the EST II program. Currently, we are working to introduce the family of thermal weapon sights to the long list of EST II capabilities,” Wakeman concluded. “This thermal sighting system allows the soldier to see heat signatures during the day and or night. Training with this advanced technology in a virtual simulator prior to live fire saves time and money, allowing the soldier to receive familiarization training before ever touching a live weapon.”
PEO STRI is currently developing the acquisition documentation for a followon effort to the EST 2000 program during FY12.
Fire Training Technologies
“It almost goes without saying that warfighters need to use all of their organic weapon systems in training on a regular basis before deploying for combat. However, with the rising direct and indirect costs of conducting live fire training, a host of training technologies have become available to replace portions of the live fire training regimen, multiply the amount of weapon training opportunities, or make live fire training more efficient,” said Christopher M. Chambers, chief development officer at Laser Shot Inc.
Examples of these technologies include firearm simulators (using laser “bullets” or non-lethal training ammunition), using devices for improving shooting technique (such as trigger squeeze analyzers and scope/gunsight cameras), and the use of live fire or laser engagements with virtual targetry, which enables training time compression and higher skill achievement than comparable live fire training on outdoor physical targets, Chambers said.
Several challenges face commanders in training for improved shooting performance. “Resource constraints are likely the main current challenge, ranging from the rising cost of ammunition to the time and other resource costs in traveling to and operating a live fire range. In addition, the loss of adequate shooting range surface danger zones by public or urban encroachment, coupled with environmental issues, is creating a further major challenge and has reduced the number and quality of live fire ranges available,” said Chambers. “All mounted gunnery training is increasingly more challenging to conduct, but the waterborne warfighter has particularly difficult constraints when trying to train on waterborne machine gunnery due to the environmental legislation blocking most live fire on waterways and open seas.”
Laser Shot has introduced several products that directly address these concerns and assist commanders to train more proficient shooters. Chambers believes that use of virtual targetry simulators with the capability to register hits from any laser, non-lethal training ammunition, or standard service ammunition offers a valuable training alternative. “Laser based simulators are not intended to replace live fire, but provide a host of advantages in the ‘crawl’ and ‘walk’ phases of marksmanship training or close quarters battle shooting. The same simulators used in a live fire mode in a live fire facility support the ‘run’ phase of the training cycle,” he said.
Laser Based Simulators
Laser based simulators are particularly helpful to train mounted weapon systems with large caliber weapons, such as the Navy and SOCOM smaller boats, and all of the service’s land and aviation mounted machineguns. Laser Shot has a full line of mounted gun simulators with full motion platforms, 360 degree geo-generic or geo-specific virtual worlds, with realistic recoil weapons.
Laser Shot produces unique systems that span the training regimen all the way to live fire on interactive and intelligent virtual targetry (using video game technology). “In simulator and live fire facility packages such as our Battlehouse and our Digital Modular Range, training is conducted using laser, non-lethal, and lethal ammunition interchangeably for close quarters combat and marksmanship training tasks,” Chambers said.
Laser Shot not only provides training solutions for the “regular” marksman, but also the special operator. “Sniping systems for very long-range marksmanship training in interactive situations using life-sized, fully interactive, game-based live fire virtual targets at real or simulated distances, with actual or simulated weapons, day or night, indoor or outdoor, have recently been fielded to military/federal customers. These live fire systems can be accompanied by a special sniper simulator with an in-optic microdisplay for appropriately training on simulated engagements of very long-range interactive targets [600-2,000 meters],” concluded Chambers. “This unique system was recently introduced to the market and was used as a graded event in the U.S. Army’s International Sniper Competition at Fort Benning.”
Virtual Marksmanship
Technology continues to catapult our troops ahead of the enemy. The ability to train our men and women on virtual marksmanship ranges and CGI-based judgmental trainers more effectively takes our troops from a weapons familiarization state to weapon confident, said Colonel Kevin Dietrick, U.S. Army, Ret., vice president for business development with Meggitt Training Systems.
Right now warfighters are using a number of shooting technologies to ensure that they are ready to put steel on target. “Initially troops are using small arms simulation trainers with tethered and tetherless weapons to crawl the young warfighters through the early phases of weapons training and familiarization. Some of those crawl procedures are consistently shooting in the same spot (grouping), ensuring that they aim at the target correctly (sight picture), make sure that they breathe naturally when engaging targets (breathing), and ensuring that they manipulate the weapon properly (trigger squeeze),” said Dietrick. “All of these can be achieved in a virtual environment.”
Using BlueFire technology—Bluetooth enabled wireless weaponry—and tethered weaponry, the warfighter is able to use any number of weapons that they might use in the field. “The sensored weapons allow the trainer to jam or cause misfires within the weapon. This allows an experience similar to what would be experienced in the field. The system also builds in wind and weather conditions that force the warfighter to adjust,” said Dietrick.
The next phase of training is referred to as the walk phase, when warfighters take the fundamentals and apply advanced techniques to ensure that they can put steel on target when not in a basic environment. “They learn how to scan their lanes and engage multiple targets on the battlefield, again all within a virtual environment. This scanning and engaging targets on the battlefield teaches soldiers how to aim at the right location and expect, as long as their other fundamentals are sound, that they will hit their targets,” said Dietrick.
Finally, Dietrick said the warfighter will move into the run phase where they focus on weapon support and what cover to use (reflexive fire). Military personnel across all branches of service and throughout many allied nations are using Meggitt’s virtual weapons training systems to move their men and women through these phases of firearms training.
Funding Challenge
Probably the biggest challenge facing our warfighters today is funding. “It simply is not cost-effective to fire some weapons. The cost of the weapons themselves, rounds and targetry that needs to be engaged are so expensive that most warfighters only fire enough for weapons familiarization and not enough to gain the confidence they need for the battlefield,” added Dietrick. “With Meggitt’s systems, troops can fire all of the small arms weapons from 9 mm to MK19. All of these weapons meet the form, fit and function of live weapons as well as accurate ballistics.”
In an environment when live training is too costly, virtual training is a critical requirement. “Confidence is key for our warfighters, and we know that the virtual small arms trainers and other advanced technologies can build that confidence, but we also know that today’s warfighter cannot rely solely on technology,” concluded Dietrick. ♦