The Training Is Included
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MORE CAPABLE EMBEDDED TRAINING SYSTEMS ARE ON TAP FOR U.S. DOD GROUND VEHICLES.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) parses no words on the importance of Embedded Training (ET), along with Advanced Distributed Learning, in its weapons platforms and systems programs.
The DoD Directive 1322.18 (Military Training) states, “All defense technology projects and acquisition programs shall comply with the training requirements of DoD Instruction 5000.2. Embedded training and distributed learning shall be considered as the first alternative.”
This message has clearly resonated with industry-military teams.
While ET systems are installed in ships and aircraft, strategies which use this capability in ground vehicles are of special interest. Attention to networking, safety features, software reuse, and other attributes promise to increase the effectiveness of this learning strategy in upgraded legacy and next-generation ground platforms.
ET DEFINED
The same DoD directive defines ET as those capabilities built into, strapped onto or plugged into operational materiel systems to train, sustain and enhance individual and crew skills necessary to operate and maintain the equipment.
The Light Armored Vehicle (LAV), Abrams and Bradley main battle tank variants, HMMWV and the next-generation Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle and Future Combat System are representative programs which use, or will include, the broad tenets of ET as defined by the department.
APPENDED TRAINING OPTION
Raydon has developed and fielded appended trainers for tracked and wheeled vehicles, some of which are the LAV-25, Abrams, Bradley and HMMWV.
The HMMWV’s Full-Crew Interactive Skills Trainer (FIST) illustrates this instructional approach. “The appended equipment attaches to the actual vehicle. A combination of overlays and sensors is used to simulate the vehicle controls and indicators,” explained Don Ariel, chief executive officer. “The driver views the virtual battlefield through three, 17-inch flat panel displays, and the gunner utilizes a Helmet Mounted Display,” he continued.
The gunner performs target engagement with an array of simulated weapons. The weapons mock-ups are designed modularly to support quick connect and disconnect with the gun mount.
The HMMWV-FIST development began in 2004.
Twenty-five HMMWV-FIST trainers are delivered or are on contract. Most of these HMMWV-FIST trainers are networked with Raydon’s Virtual Combat Operations Trainer. In response to lessons learned from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the trainers are being used for convoy training by the U. S. Army National Guard.
The company’s earlier appended training efforts are seen on the Abrams FIST (A-FIST) XXI and Bradley’s FIST (ABFIST).
Both systems were originally designed to support the Army’s precision gunnery curriculum. The two programs “have received the approval of the Service’s Armor Center and the Infantry School as pre-live fire trainers. The only other trainers to enjoy this status is the Conduct of Fire Trainer (COFT). The COFT only trains the commander and gunner. Therefore the FISTs meet or exceed every capability of the COFT plus include additional crew members not currently trainable in COFT,” pointed out Ariel.
The A-FIST XXI’s development began in March 1999.
Raydon has delivered 122 A-FIST XXI trainers for the Abrams M1A1 to the U.S. Army National Guard. A-FIST XXI trainers are distributed throughout the Reserve component—one to each Abramsequipped company.
The AB-FIST development began in July 2001.
Eighty-one AB-FIST trainers for the Bradley M2A2 and ODS variant have been delivered or are on contract. ABFIST trainers will be distributed throughout the U.S. Army National Guard.
Deployability is an attribute of the company’s appended equipment. The gear for A-FIST XXI and AB-FIST is contained in transit cases which can be transported to any location the platform deploys. The equipment is powered by 120 volts at 30 amps, or a standard 10 kilowatt generator.
Raydon’s ET team includes Microsoft, Intel and Unitech.
INCREASING SCOPE OF ET
BAE Systems Land and Armaments has fielded a maintenance ET capability on the M2A3 and M3A3 Bradley variants, and developed a virtual gunnery trainer that can support any A3 Bradley variant.
Similar to other fielded and planned service programs, BAE’s efforts place the training device onboard the weapons platform.
The Phase-1 Embedded Maintenance Trainer (EMT) “is a software enhancement which allows the Army mechanic to practice troubleshooting the complex electronics, using the Vehicle Diagnostic Management Software on the vehicle through fault simulation on the actual vehicle,” explained Henry Jehan, embedded training program manager, and Mark Willhoft, Bradley A3, deputy program manager.
Future EMT Phase development programs will add a great deal more capability to the maintenance training program, they stated.
The BAE Systems’ Bradley A3 Embedded Trainer is a technology demonstrator designed as an add-on Line Replaceable Unit that can be integrated with any Bradley A3 to provide virtual gunnery training.
The trainer is comprised of six Quantum3D Thermite computers, interconnected with an Ethernet switch, and interfaced to the vehicle through the Ethernet and other hardware and applications.
The Thermite Tactical Visual Computer is a multi-role, real-time, 2- and 3-dimensional commercial-off-the-shelf tactical visual computer which was specifically designed for embedded training, mission rehearsal, and deployed C4ISR applications, noted the Quantum3D Website.
Another benefit for a prospective service customer is the effort to maximize reusable software components from current programs, including Bradley Advanced Training System, COFT, Close Combat Tactical Trainer and SemiAutomated Forces programs. This will conceptually reduce the life cycle and development costs while providing the highest fidelity training utilizing the latest simulation technologies.
The BAE Bradley team’s systems approach has compelled it to use Distributed Interactive Simulation and High- Level Architecture protocols to support collective training in the same virtual battlespace. “We envision the Army will require platoon-level gunnery and maneuver exercises to be done virtually from the confines of a motor pool,” predicted Jehan and Willhoft.
Warfighters want safety features built into ET systems, which will preclude the crew from erroneously operating the training system during a live mission, and prevent accidental weapon firing or other “real” tasks from occurring during training. Safety features are built into the virtual demonstrator—which have received several safety certifications.
Providing mission rehearsal capabilities are also on the program’s radar screen.
In addition to Quantum3D, BAE’s ET partners for the prototype system include AcuSoft and Rockwell Collins for supplying image generators.
At press time, BAE was not on contract to produce or deliver any of the Bradley ET programs, beyond the EMT.
ET FOR EFV
The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) is the replacement platform for the Marine Corps’ Amphibious Assault Vehicle.
ET has been part of the EFV system since the vehicle’s earliest days. The program’s ET system was most recently demonstrated in a System Design Development vehicle in summer 2006.
One of several readiness and cost benefits of this ET package can be gleaned from the EFV Common Simulation Framework’s supporting software—which, by design, includes some features from program schoolhouse systems. “The software, in-part, stimulates the vehicle’s systems and displays with the same simulation features which are used in the institutional trainers,” pointed out Dave Lincoln, program manager, Training Systems, General Dynamics Amphibious Systems.
Another commonality between the onboard ET system and vehicle’s institutional instruction is the Instructor Operator Station (IOS). “We use the same IOS application both in an institutional IOS with multiple screens, as well as the onboard ruggedized ET laptop we use in the vehicle for different functions,” said Lincoln.
The vehicle is going to an Ethernet, database architecture, which will be a very open system. “In a very large sense, the simulation core of the ET software is highly reusable for other vehicle architectural needs,” he added.
The EFV ET suite will support crew and individual training requirements. “The plan is eventually to also support small unit level training. We haven’t demonstrated that, but we are using the same architecture as in the training systems where we have demonstrated the capability,” noted Lincoln.
The current, prioritized mission areas to be supported by ET include precision gunnery, maneuver and navigation.
This training application will influence about 85-percent of the tasks that are performed at the crew stations through the Marine- Machine Interface.
In the program’s future is the plan to network vehicles’ ET capabilities.
The EFV team is meeting the challenge of ET safety. “We actively maintain an unpowered condition on everything to do with firing a weapon, including moving the turret. That’s one of the conditions for being in the training state, that those power modules remain unpowered. In the operational state, there is no activity or residual data that could cause a misfire or other residual ET effect—that is all purged,” explained Lincoln.
The navigation database is supported by Multigen Paradigm products, and will help address the warfighters’ increased demand for mission rehearsal tools. “The notion in mind all along has been that we need to use open sources and open systems so that mission rehearsal can be supported. That is another goal of an ET system—to be very conducive to rapid database development,” remarked Lincoln.
The General Dynamics team has enlisted several team members to support this program.
Hart Technologies developed the common simulation framework and other parts of the overarching training system, to include that which supports institutional training.
The EFV program used Quantum 3D’s Thermite computer for its ET hardware solution during the demonstration phase. “I am not saying this will be used in the production vehicle, but it is what we used in the demonstration, and it was a successful demonstration,” added Lincoln.
FCS PLANS MATURE
BAE is responsible for five manned ground vehicle platforms in the U.S. Army’s embryonic Future Combat System (FCS) program: Infantry Carrier Vehicle, Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon, Non-Lineof Site Mortar, Medical Vehicle, and FCS Maintenance Vehicle. Specific details remain unavailable of how ET will support these and other FCS platforms. What is significant, is that a placeholder exists to include this learning strategy in the program’s training plan.
“The key to FCS embedded training strategy is to make embedded training a Key Performance Parameter (KPP) in the FCS Operational Requirements Document,” asserted Robert Fraser, FCS project engineer. “The existence of this KPP enables the FCS developers to incorporate training requirements into the operational design processes, so that the embedded training capability is developed integral to, and simultaneously with, the vehicle hardware and software capabilities. This provides an environment that simultaneously supports the operational and training missions,” he added.
The FCS training strategy also mirrors one mantra of DoD’s Training Transformation program: enable learning, anytime, anywhere.
The FCS ET capability will be integrated into all networked platforms to allow the soldiers to train, anytime or anywhere— individually or collectively. “The objective of FCS embedded training is to support training of operational and maintenance tasks for individual, crew and collective training in the Live, Virtual and Constructive domains. For those training tasks that are deemed unsafe or not practical to be performed on the manned ground vehicle platform, off-board training devices (training aids, devices, simulators and simulations) will be developed,” he revealed.
DOWNSTREAM
Raydon’s current development effort on AFIST XXI includes the fielding of a weapon station for the Loader, and the inclusion of platoon gunnery capability. Additional enhancements are planned for AB-FIST, including: out-the-hatch binocular viewing for the commander; next generation Personal Computer-Image Generators; and a crew training matrix for urban operations.
“As appended technology evolves toward embedded, a substantial reduction in weight, size and set up time will be critical. We are developing the next generation of appended capability with this in mind. Look for this in 2008,” disclosed Ariel. ♦