DEFEATING the threat
AS IED-RELATED DEATHS SPIKE, TRAINING REMAINS ONE STRATEGY TO COUNTER THE DEVICES
The number of U.S. troops killed by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq has dramatically increased since the “surge” of forces began.
In addition to providing the appropriate vehicles to protect troops and taking offensive actions against groups deploying the devices, training remains an important component of the Department of Defense’s plan to defeat IED strategy.
The increased diversity and lethality of these devices and the dynamic nature of their employment pose one of the most critical challenges to the joint and service training communities. The training organizations have responded by including IED training in their pre-deployment training and by requiring more capable training equipment.
TRAINING PROGRAMS
Joint and service training programs allow deploying forces to identify and react to IEDs.
One such effort is the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization’s (JIEDDO) start up of the Joint Center of Excellence (JCOE) at the Army’s National Training Center (NTC), Fort Irwin, Calif. The center of excellence seeks to improve pre-deployment training for Joint and Service individuals and units.
“We are improving pre-deployment training in two ways,” pointed out Christine Devries, JIEDDO spokesperson. At the top of her list was supplying actual or surrogate counter IED equipment to training centers.
IED equipment, some of which is later described further in this article, is included in mission rehearsal exercise scenarios and other unit and staff training events at NTC, 29 Palms, Camp Shelby and similar sites.
A premier case of a surrogate training device is a 5-ton stand-in for the high demand, 22-ton Buffalo mine-resistant vehicle, which is primarily used in a route clearance role in Iraq and Afghanistan. The surrogate has much of the functionality of an actual vehicle and is used by units during mission rehearsal scenarios.
The JCOE also enables the rapid inclusion of IED lessons learned into pre-deployment training.
“The last time I was at NTC, the units were factoring a training lesson learned—which was seen in theater the previous day—into that day’s scenario,” Devries recalled.
The center of excellence has also established component offices with the services at NTC (Army), Indian Head Surface Weapons Center, Md. (Navy), Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, 29 Palms, Calif. (Marine Corps), and Lackland Air Force Base, Texas (Air Force), to better prepare other service men and women to defeat the IED threat.
To complement these training efforts, industry teams on both sides of the Atlantic are quickening their pace to field more capable IED devices for use in the field and in classrooms.
One Solution Set
RUAG’s Simulation and Technology division’s COPAS family of remotely operated pyrotechnic launcher systems simulates indoor and outdoor battlefield effects.
“COPAS units provide safe, highly realistic explosive, flash and sound simulations, including for IED attack,” pointed out Dr. John Pike, company sales manager.
During a walkthrough demonstration for MT2 at the 2007 ITEC, the devices were noted to have the capability to kill or injure MILES-equipped personnel, or destroy or more lightly damage MILES-equipped vehicles by way of a simple, lightweight interface unit worn on the soldier’s vest or mounted on the vehicle. An actual device receives the RF signal from an activated COPAS simulator and then transmits a low-power laser kill signal directed at the player’s MILES sensor.
COPAS devices may be used in open-terrain training areas and in fixed and mobile Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) training facilities, both as ground devices and on vehicles. The family of devices also replicates attack by direct fire, indirect fire, landmines, chemical, biological and radiological weapons, as well as IEDs.
Pike explained why pyrotechnic devices have found favor with live-training audiences.
“They provide much more realistic battlefield effects simulation than the compressed gas and inert powder systems used hitherto. In particular, the sound and shock effect of pyrotechnic systems adds significantly to realism of training, particularly in a closed urban environment,” he said.
The company’s systems uses U.S.-safety approved pyrotechnic charges manufactured by the German company Comet.
AAI is a RUAG industry partner.
RUAG’s COPAS products are in service with U.S. Services and other international military forces. The U.S. Army uses the COPAS 7R (a 7-shot fire marker unit) to replicate IED effects at Combat Maneuver Training Center, Hohenfells, GE, and the U.S. Marine Corps employs different COPAS products to bolster IED simulation.
NON-PYROTECHNIC SOLUTIONS
IED simulation is a core capability of Saab Training Systems’ Deployable Instrumented Training System (DITS) and Deployable Tactical Engagement Simulation (DTES) system. U.S. ground forces continue to expand their use of DITS while DTES was selected this spring to support overseas British Army training programs.
Saab’s training package utilizes commercial off-the-shelf non-pyrotechnic (CO2 and powder-based) IED training devices to replicate an explosive device, together with a Saab radio module to transmit the effect to instrumented soldier and vehicles.
“The simulated IED transmits a signal over an area representative of the explosive charge’s effect and each of the instrumented players makes an individual simulated assessment as to the effect—for example, individual casualties due to lack of body armor, some who were protected but who experienced injury, or occupants of an up-armored vehicle who were unaffected,” said Anders Jonzon, director communications and public affairs, Saab Training Systems AB.
The systems’ after-action report of an event shows the IED detonation and the resultant blast vectors, and indicates those players who were impacted by the event.
Saab’s IED training devices can also be used to trigger inservice pyrotechnic devices that will produce a higher fidelity training experience.
Combat Training Solutions (CTS) also looks to meet Service training requirements with non-pyrotechnic training devices. The company’s products are in use throughout DoD and with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“CTS’ Full Effect Audio and Visual Non-Pyrotechnic Explosion Simulators are based upon a simple concept: air pressure, burst diaphragm and smoke simulation powder,” explained Tony Colón, chief executive officer. “The loud audio report and large visual smoke signature enables a realistic live training experience that helps educate warfighters on counter-IED tactics and better prepares them for IED encounters along convoy or foot patrol routes,” he added.
CTS notes non-pyrotechnic training devices increase training effectiveness by allowing direct contact and removing the safety restrictions and inherent dangers that may accompany the use of pyrotechnic products.
The company’s products range in size from small, trip-wire booby-trap devices and anti-personnel landmines, to full-size, radio-controlled roadside bombs. Three specific products are the T155FT Large IED Trainer, the T50PB High-Impact Pipe Bomb and the RT01K4 Long Range Wireless Detonator – which was of particular interest.
“This is the first device of its kind to provide the type of flexibility required for military training simulations because it can be connected to real-world triggers such as cell phones and pagers,” said Colón. The state-ofthe- art Radio Frequency Receiver and Transmitter enables detonation of battlefield effects simulators from up to 1,000 meters (1,093 yards) line-of-sight. In order to overcome false wireless detonations, the company built the detonator with over 1 million embedded encryption codes. “This makes it virtually invulnerable to outside radio interference or malicious attempts to intercept and replicate the detonation signal,” said Colón.
Another company, AMTI, an operation of SAIC, supplies a wide-range of products to allow trainees to understand IED mechanisms, and also practice defeating the device in both the classroom and the field. Pressure plate designs, cell phone and wireless detonation devices and car alarms are several items from the company’s burgeoning product list.
The company recently introduced a line of training devices based on possible threats that may confront military and other first responders.
“The Urban IED Training Device product line is supplemented by a line of special weapons training devices to replicate as closely as possible, weapons of mass destruction devices such as dirty bombs and chemical dispersants,” said Josh Van Haelen, EOD Product Manager for AMTI. In addition to products, the group also provides train-the-trainer programs to aid explosive ordnance disposal and other military and first-responders to better train their students.
DEVELOPMENTS DOWN UNDER
The Cubic-developed LAND-134 transportable combat training system, which became operational in Australia last year, has a capability to use Cubic-manufactured radio frequency emitting anti-vehicle and anti-personnel mines.
“These are coupled with a range of mechanical activation devices for pull, trip, tilt, command and other detonation means,” explained Ray Barker, senior vice president, Readiness Systems Business Unit, Cubic Defense Applications. He continued, “To simulate a command-detonated roadside device, Cubic’s Australia LAND-134 support team may set up one of these devices alongside a Combat Training Solutions’ compressed air and talcum powder device, then set the mine for an activation that suits the scenario. The mine emits and imposes casualties realistically, while the talcum powder device provides a visual and aural cue. The Land 134 mines do not emit and kill MILESequipped forces directly, but this is a potential future enhancement with increasing interaction of ground exercise control centers (with the company’s Initial-Home Station Training System & Land 134).”
CAPITOL HILL INTEREST
Looking downstream, the fiscal year 2008 House Armed Services Committee’s Authorization Report fully supported the President’s Budget Request ($4.5 billion) for JIEDDO.
These funds will be needed, in part, to continue developing and deploying the innovative training solutions being developed by the industry-military team.
ON THE HORIZON
Saab is in the process of fielding a sub-set of its IED simulators to represent Vehicle Borne IEDs (VBIEDs). “These devices are carried on the person of the vehicle driver. When initiated the simulated VBIED will produce a simulated blast effect around the vehicle,” disclosed Jonzon. The targeted, instrumented players will hear an explosion in the small loudspeakers in their personal kit, which may be coupled with the affect of a non-pyro device if fitted to the vehicle.
For its part, RUAG is extending its efforts to date with the Micropyro indoor explosive effects device, in order to bring realistic, pyrotechnic IED simulation effects indoors in a safe manner. “We believe that this is a key issue for Military Operations in Urban Terrain training,” said Pike.
RUAG is also focused on developing a realistic simulation capability for IED jamming. Demonstrating this capability is challenging, since at many training ranges and areas, the frequencies and power of an actual vehicle IED jammer may not be used, since it would encroach on the nearby civilian frequency spectrum.
Finally, the Swiss-based company is developing the indoorand outdoor player tracking possibilities presented by the RFcontrolled COPAS pyrotechnic launchers.
“Using the secondary tracking capability of these units provides an inexpensive and highly mobile method of location of vehicles and personnel in and around a MOUT site,” pointed out Pike.
CTS envisions several deliverables in the near future.
The company is developing a Concussive Effects Device with an even louder audio report for a “big boom” effect. “Additionally, we will be releasing an explosively formed projectile which attaches to our T120FT to fire 12 successive, 68-caliber rubber or paintball-type projectiles to allow for a realistic impact on convoys or other moving vehicles during live training,” said Colón.
Cubic’s Australia team has been asked to set up IED training devices in the new Urban Operations Training Facility that the company is instrumenting at Shoalwater Bay. “We will work with other agencies inside Combined Training Center rotations to provide the most technically accurate replication, but the capability is only just emerging. An IED Taskforce supports mission rehearsal exercises in Australia and provides the most realistic and up to date mock ups of IEDs to complement the Land 134 and Combat Training Solutions equipment,” said Cubic’s Barker. ♦