MT2 17-6 (Sept. 2012)

America's Longest Established Simulation & Training Magazine

Combined Arms Center-Training

Marine Trainer Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Murray

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September 2012 Volume 17, Issue 6

Commanding General Training and Education Command

Command Profile Lt. COL. darren Jennings U.S. Army Sniper School

Language Training O Enhancing Instructors Serious Gaming

“The U.S. Special Operations Command will rely more on industry self-funding R&D of military equipment and weapons.” *

MetaVR and Battlespace Simulations’ JTAC simulator (a self-funded private venture) was recently granted accreditation by the Joint Fire Support Executive Steering Committee for types 1, 2, 3, and day/night control, and laser target designation. **

* Quote from James Cluck, acquisition executive and director of the Special Operations Research, Development and Acquisition Center at USSOCOM. ** Accreditation assessment report issued by the Joint Fire Support Executive Steering Committee on June 19, 2012.

Real-time screen captures are from MetaVR’s visualization system and Afghanistan 3D virtual terrain and are unedited except as required for printing. The real-time renderings of the 3D virtual world are generated by MetaVR Virtual Reality Scene Generator™ (VRSG™).

3D models and animations are from MetaVR’s 3D content libraries. Photograph of the F-16 simulator built by International Simulation & Training Systems (ISTS) courtesy of SSgt. Dan DiPietro, 158 FW, Vermont Air National Guard. © 2012 MetaVR, Inc. All rights reserved.

MetaVR, Virtual Reality Scene Generator, VRSG, the phrase “Geospecific simulation with game quality graphics”, and the MetaVR logo are trademarks of MetaVR, Inc.

http://www.metavr.com sales@metavr.com US 617-739-2667

Military Training Technology

September 2012 Volume 17 • Issue 6

Cover / Q&A

Features Special Section Combined Arms Center-Training

6 9

9

Q&A with Colonel Mike D. Lundy Deputy commander of the CAC-T

Army Debuts the Integrated Training Environment

The Army is harnessing training technology in a new way to prepare units and develop leaders. The way ahead is the Integrated Training Environment (ITE), which links live, virtual, constructive and gaming training enablers.

By Colonel Mike D. Lundy

Making Good Instructors Great

11

To excel in today’s complex battlespaces, each warfighter, must possess a high degree of cognitive readiness, which is the mental, emotional and interpersonal skills that allow him/her to rapidly decide and act in dynamic, ambiguous environments. Fostering such sophisticated skills, particularly in more junior personnel, presents a major challenge.

By Sae Schatz Sae, Ph.D., and Lieutenant Colonel Karl Gannon, USMC

Serious Gaming Update

20

“Serious gaming” is an important component of military training today and will play an increasing role in preparing U.S. military for its future missions. Serious games help improve learning retention for armed services trainees and also help budgets by leveraging existing commercial investment and technologies to reduce the cost of training.

By Brian O’Shea and Erin Flynn Jay

16 Major General Thomas M. Murray Commanding General Training and Education Command

Departments 2

Editor’s Perspective

3

Program Highlights/People

4

Command Profile

14

Data Packets

27

Resource Center

Speaking the Language

Learning a foreign language is not usually the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about armed forces training, but being fluent in Pashtu or Korean can be crucial to mission success.

By J.B. Bissell

Industry Interview

24

28 Lars Borgwing President and CEO Saab Training USA

Military Training Technology Volume 17, Issue 6 • September 2012

Recognized Leader Covering All Aspects of Military Training Readiness Editorial Editor Brian O’Shea briano@kmimediagroup.com Managing Editor Harrison Donnelly harrisond@kmimediagroup.com Online Editorial Manager Laura Davis laurad@kmimediagroup.com Copy Editor Laural Hobbes lauralh@kmimediagroup.com Correspondents Peter Buxbaum • Hank Hogan • Erin Flynn Jay Henry Canaday • J.B. Bissell

Art & Design Art Director Jennifer Owers jennifero@kmimediagroup.com Senior Graphic Designer Jittima Saiwongnuan jittimas@kmimediagroup.com Graphic Designers Amanda Kirsch amandak@kmimediagroup.com Scott Morris scottm@kmimediagroup.com Kailey Waring kaileyw@kmimediagroup.com

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KMI Media Group Publisher Kirk Brown kirkb@kmimediagroup.com Chief Executive Officer Jack Kerrigan jack@kmimediagroup.com Chief Financial Officer Constance Kerrigan connik@kmimediagroup.com Executive Vice President David Leaf davidl@kmimediagroup.com Editor-In-Chief Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com Controller Gigi Castro gcastro@kmimediagroup.com Operations Assistant Casandra Jones casandraj@kmimediagroup.com Trade Show Coordinator Holly Foster hollyf@kmimediagroup.com

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE Recently the media reported that approximately 6 percent of soldiers experienced injuries during hand-to-hand combat training at a Texas Army base that the Pentagon says are consistent with concussions, also called mild traumatic brain injuries.

The study is still ongoing, but the preliminary results give brain specialists cause for concern that soldiers were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan after suffering mild traumatic brain injuries in training and may have been more vulnerable to long-term consequences from additional concussions later.

Researchers stress that the study is relatively small, drawing from classes at Fort Hood with just under 2,000 soldiers.

Brian O’Shea Editor Most people recover from mild traumatic brain injuries quickly, but others can have lasting effects, such as memory loss, difficulty reading and frequent headaches. These are conditions that hinder the effectiveness of our soldiers, who are tasked with defending our country. As a rock climbing guide for years, I had to train civilians and military alike on proper rope usage, setting anchors and basic climbing techniques. In all of my training for that position, safety was constantly emphasized. If someone is injured while training out in the field, their training is a secondary concern compared to their health and safety. Many times the redundancy throughout the training session slowed things down, but that was a necessity to ensure the safety of all participants. Granted, this is not hand-to-hand combat, but an equally dangerous activity if done incorrectly.

Of course, the U.S. military has a similar view of safety and would never intentionally jeopardize a soldier’s safety while training for pre-deployment. That being the case, it is imperative to diagnose these injuries before soldiers are deployed to give them the proper care and treatment they need to perform effectively while in-theater.

Hopefully when the study is completed, steps will be taken to diagnose traumatic brain injuries post training and pre-deployment. It is unfair to ask soldiers to risk their lives after receiving training that could hinder their operational effectiveness in theater. The Army has invested more than $530 million to improve access to care, quality of care and research, and traumatic brain injury screening and surveillance. But the best clinical treatment for servicemembers and civilians with mild TBI may be months and years in the future.

If you have any questions regarding Military Training Technology, feel free to contact me at any time.

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PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Tactical Training Ranges Contract Modified Northrop Grumman Technical Services Inc. is being awarded a $58,376,175 modification to a previously awarded contract for operation and maintenance services of the combined tactical training ranges. Services will be required at shore sites, land-based test facilities, aboard ships in ports, and aboard ships at sea. Work will be performed in Oceana, Va. (30 percent); Yuma, Ariz. (25 percent); Fallon, Nev. (20 percent); Cherry Point, N.C. (12 percent); Key West, Fla. (8 percent); and San Diego (5 percent); and is expected to be completed by April 2013. Contract funds in the amount of $27,324,445 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Division, Hueneme, Calif., is the contracting activity.

Jenae Journot; jenae.journot@ngc.com

U.S. Army Training Contract Awarded Defense and security company Saab has received an MUSD 14.4 order to U.S. Army for radio systems for communication for live training.

Saab Training USA received an order for three exercised options of the Live Training Transformation Interim Range System (LT2IRS) contract by the U.S. Army Program Executive Office of Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI).

Saab Training USA will produce and field three more range systems in 2013 at Fort Campbell and Fort Drum and an Exportable Training Capability (ETC) system that deploys to different training sites. Under the LT2-IRS

contract, Saab Training USA is fielding communication network systems with more than 5,000 radios to enable soldiers to engage in instrumented force on force training at the home stations. Saab Training USA has fielded 17 communication networks to the U.S. Marine Corps for similar instrumented training.

“Under LT2-IRS, Saab Training USA is providing a state-of-art integrated instrumentation training capability at the home stations with a focus on reduced operational, support and sustainment costs,” said Lars Borgwing, president of Saab Training USA. Brian Domian; brian.domian@saabtraining.com

PEOPLE Brigadier General Balan R. Ayyar has been assigned commander, Air Force Recruiting Service and director, Recruiting, Headquarters Air Education and Training Command, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, to rule of law deputy, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, U.S. Central Command, Kabul, Afghanistan.

Air Force Brigadier General Timothy M.

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Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Ray has been nominated for appointment to the rank of major general. Ray is currently serving as the commanding general, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Air Training Command-Afghanistan, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Training Mission-Afghanistan/ Combined Security Transition CommandAfghanistan, and commander, 438th Air Expeditionary Wing,

Air Combat Command, Kabul, Afghanistan.

Army Reserve Colonel Michaelene A. Kloster to the rank of brigadier general and for assignment as the commander, 98th Division (Initial Entry Training), Rochester, N.Y. Kloster is currently serving as commander, 1st Mobilization Support Group-East, Fort Totten, N.Y.

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

United States Air Force Approves Training Development Application The Disti Corporation, a developer of interactive 3-D software and customized training solutions, received software certification approval for Replic8, its latest interactive training development application, by the U.S. Air Force Department of Defense.

This approval allows military personnel access to the Replic8 tool, providing them with an advanced solution for producing highly interactive level 3 and 4 courseware assets.

Replic8 has been certified by the U.S. Air Force for use on standard desktop systems that are connected to the Air Force Global Information Grid. This certification has also placed Replic8 on the Air Force Evaluated/Approved Products List, which contains the products and services that have been approved against the specific security requirements of DoD. With these significant certifications, instructional designers and courseware developers can utilize Replic8 to create interactive courseware training through a simplified process.

“One of our top objectives for Replic8 was to ensure published training content was accessible to warfighters. Having a top tier 3-D interactive content creation tool is only beneficial if the courseware consumer can access the material. With this certification, developers of military training courseware can now create content that fills the gaps left by traditional training methodologies,” said Darren Humphrey, CTO and cofounder of Disti.

Replic8 streamlines the development of level 3 and 4 courseware assets by providing an out-ofthe-box 3-D lesson framework that can be inserted into any extendible learning management system such as C3, Lectora Inspire, Evolution, Moodle and Blackboard. Replic8 allows instructional designers, subject matter experts or 3-D graphic artists to easily produce compelling 3-D interactive training content in less time than it takes to author a video and without computer programming experience.

Replic8 works directly with 3ds Max, forming a cohesive transition of static 3-D models into interactive learning objects without losing essential fidelity and functionality. Replic8 creates engaging training material that increases knowledge retention and shortens training schedules by allowing students to do procedures instead of watching them.

Scott Ariotti; sariotti@disti.com MT2 17.6 | 3

COMMAND PROFILE

U.S. Army Sniper School

By Lieutenant Colonel Darren Jennings

The mission of the U.S. Army Sniper School is to provide the Army with motivated, agile, adaptive soldiers and leaders who are equipped to deliver precision fire and collect intelligence in support of combat operations.

The Sniper School is located in the Harmony Church area of Fort Benning, Ga., and is part of the Maneuver Center of Excellence. Sniper School is one of several sections supporting small arms training and doctrine under Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment, 197th Infantry Brigade.

The school is made up of 34 cadre members who train sniper students at the resident course on Fort Benning as well support mobile training teams that provide training to snipers assigned to units around the globe.

On average, the Sniper School trains 400 snipers a year from across the Department of Defense in specific skills such as target detection techniques, stalking and precision shooting from 300 to 2,000 meters. In addition, students learn the fundamentals of reconnaissance and mission planning. Currently, sniper training is five weeks in length. Starting January 2013, the course will grow to seven weeks in order to accommodate additional training that will include survival resistance, evasion and escape training, advanced situational awareness training, and an 80-hour field training exercise, which will challenge soldiers through a multitude of mission profiles encompassing various insertion and extraction methods.

In the extended seven-week course students are required to engage targets with the XM2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle. The XM2010 is an improvement on the recently phased out M24 Sniper Weapon System. It includes an improved stock, improved day optic and is chambered for the .300 Winchester Magnum Cartridge.

In addition to the M110 and XM2010, soldiers are trained to engage targets between 800 and 2,000 meters using the M107 .50 Caliber Heavy Sniper Rifle. Students execute numerous tables of fire, both day and night, using various night-vision devices. Students also receive training on moving target engagements between 300 and 700 meters, 4 | MT2 17.6

rapid target engagement techniques out to 600 meters, compensating for the effects of the environment on the bullet’s trajectory, and properly maintaining the Army’s current suite of sniper weapon systems.

The Sniper School has adapted to the demands of the force through the integration of new technology and improved methods of education. The school implements the Army Learning Model 2015, focusing more on hands-on practical exercises and mentorship, which fosters a learning environment founded on operational relevancy.

For example, Sniper School recently modernized its methods in teaching sniper students the process of arriving at a ballistic solution. In the past, snipers spent considerable time and resources gathering data on previous engagements (DOPE) to account for minute difference in individual weapons, lots of ammunition, atmospherics and shooter capabilities.

The Sniper School now teaches students to use the Army’s advanced ballistic calculator to provide accurate DOPE in less time than older data gathering methods. The advanced ballistic calculator is one of the first pieces of equipment a sniper student receives when he enters Sniper School. The calculator uses a predictive algorithm that accounts for the variables of temperature, barometric pressure, altitude, height of the line of sight over the line of bore, bullet weight, bullet diameter, ballistic coefficient, rifling twist rate, muzzle velocity and the zero range. Once calculated, this information generates ballistic data for the sniper. While this first set of data is highly accurate, it is still a best guess as it does not account for minute difference in weapons and ammunition. In order to account for those factors, the sniper student is taught a technique called “truing.”

To properly “true” a weapon system, snipers compare the ballistic data gained by the advanced ballistic calculator to observe target impacts gathered on a range. This “real world” data is entered into the calculator, which compares the information by making adjustments accordingly.

This data allows a sniper to use the calculator to create electronic field data cards quickly and accurately, regardless of the operating environment. Through the use of the advanced ballistic calculator and the process of “truing,” the amount of time required to gather data and the impact of human errors are greatly reduced.

Upon graduation from the Sniper School, newly minted Army snipers are prepared to return to their units and provide commanders with a valuable service through the employment of precision fires exceeding the infantry squad’s reach. In addition, Army snipers are trained and ready to provide detailed battlefield intelligence in order to help commanders shape the modernday fight. O Lieutenant Colonel Darren Jennings is commander, 2nd Battalion 29th Infantry Regiment, 197th Infantry Brigade, Maneuver Center of Excellence. www.MT2-kmi.com

Military Training Technology

Training Manager Col. (P) Mike D. Lundy Deputy Commander Combined Arms Center-Training

Combined Arms Center-Training

Combined Arms Center-Training

Training Manager

Q& A

Identifying, Developing and Delivering Training Products to Fill Gaps

Colonel (P) Mike D. Lundy Deputy Commander Combined Arms Center-Training Q: Please describe the Combined Arms Center-Training’s (CAC-T) missions.

A: CAC-T’s missions are managing Army training support and training development, and initiating programs to support the development of agile, adaptive leaders and versatile, ready units. Training support focuses on identifying the requirements for and delivering services, facilities and products at home stations, in the schools, at the Combat Training Centers and during deployments. Training development focuses on identifying, developing and delivering training products to fill gaps in training and education.

Q: How does CAC-T keep soldiers interested and engaged in training as they return from war in Iraq and Afghanistan?

A: As the Army draws down its operations in Afghanistan, we must have the right capabilities at home stations to help commanders train their units and leaders to standard. To provide that complex, realistic training environment, we will be fielding the Integrated Training Environment, which seamlessly combines live, virtual and constructive training enablers. It will help commanders train on a large scale with fewer resources and provide the complex training environment that cannot be replicated in only live training.

Q: What are the primary benefits of soldiers using video games to train for real-life missions?

A: Serious Army gaming has many benefits for individuals, units and leaders. It’s relatively inexpensive and effectively supplements live training. It can be easily adapted to support both institutional and unit training objectives. It allows those being trained to conduct repetitive training under rapidly changing conditions. That repetition helps soldiers raise their performance, so that they enter live training at a higher level. Gaming also allows you to take risks that you might not try in live training, and learn lessons that you might otherwise not learn. Bottom line: Gaming complements, but does not replace live training.

communicate those needs through our contracting requirements and by participating in forums such as the Association of the U.S. Army conventions. We want training enablers that can be integrated into the Army’s training support system. Many of the previous generation of training enablers were stand-alone systems. We can’t afford to do this in the future. Because of the complexity associated with replicating today’s operational environment, we must field integrated solutions.

Q: What are the major challenges CAC-T faces as our country draws down in two war zones?

Q: How important is CAC-T’s relationship with industry to provide the Army with the most up-to-date training technologies, equipment and solutions?

A: We’re facing several challenges. Institutional training must transform to better provide soldiers with the right skills, knowledge and abilities. Home station training will become more important to readiness and preparation. We’re also transitioning the focus of training from counterinsurgency training to conducting simultaneous offensive, defensive and stability operations against a threat that has conventional and irregular forces, terrorists and criminals. We call that a hybrid threat.

A: Our relationship with industry is very important. Industry must understand our requirements to meet the Army’s needs. We

Q: What effects are proposed budget cuts having on CAC-T’s operations?

6 | MT2 17.6

www.MT2-kmi.com

Combined Arms Center-Training A: We know that in the budget and programming processes, senior leaders consider the fact that commanders are very innovative at training their units. If they don’t have a particular training enabler, they will find an alternative way to train their soldiers to standard. We’re looking for ways to be innovative, eliminate redundancies and improve efficiencies. For example, rather than outfit every training complex at home station, with a full suite of training simulations and technicians, we are centralizing simulations capabilities at a few select sites and from those sites supporting long-distance exercises.

Q; Can you elaborate on decisive action in unified land operations?

A: Army forces apply the Army’s core competencies of combined arms maneuver and wide area security through decisive action—the simultaneous planning, preparation and execution of offensive, defensive and stability operations or defense support of civil authorities’ tasks in unified land operations. Those simultaneous operations may occur at any point on a conflict continuum from peace to general war. Unified land operations are the Army’s contribution to unified action—those operations involving our Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental and Multinational partners [JIIM]. The goal of unified land operations is to apply land power as part of unified action to defeat the enemy on land and establish conditions that achieve the joint force commander’s end state.

Q: What are the primary differences of training soldiers at home station versus training at the CTCs? A: Even with more emphasis on home station training, the CTCs always will be our graduate-level school for unit training and leader development. It’s a place where soldiers and commanders are required to achieve higher levels of proficiency. The CTC experience includes highly skilled observer-coach-trainers, a professional opposing force, professional role players, higher fidelity training devices/systems and established JIIM enablers. We cannot routinely resource those capabilities at home stations.

Q: How does the CAC-T keep training consistent across training environments?

A: CAC-T oversees the development of the Combined Arms Training Strategies that integrate training products and training enabler requirements. Working with major Army commands, TRADOC’s experts on the operational environment, and our schools and centers, we develop standard mission essential task lists and standard training environments to help provide consistency. Additionally, we develop the doctrine and tools to assist commanders. The Army Training Network is a one-stop website that can help commanders plan, prepare, execute and assess their training. And the Integrated Training Environment will provide persistent access to consistent training enablers. O

Top 10 Contracts Vendors

Amount

Program

Akima Infrastructure Services; Angelo Group; Cogar Group; Craig Technical; Delan Associates; Information Experts; Keybridge Technologies; Nangwik Services

$56.8 million

Producing distributed learning products

Northrop Grumman Technical

$46.9 million

Program support of Mission Command Training Program

IBM

$12.9 million

Program support of Army Training Support Center (ATSC)

Raytheon

$5.6 million

Program support of Combat Training Centers

Computer Sciences Corp.

$4.6 million

Program support of ATSC

Booz Allen Hamilton

$3.4 million

Program support of National Simulation Center (NSC)

Cubic Applications

$3.4 million

Program support of NSC

Booz Allen Hamilton

$3.2 million

Program support of NSC

Parson

$2.7 million

Program support of ATSC

Calibre

$2.6 million

Program support of ATSC

www.MT2-kmi.com

MT2 17.6 | 7

Combined Arms Center-Training

2012

Col. Mike D. Lundy Deputy Commander Combined Arms Center-Training

Col. Mark F. Fassl Director Army Joint Support Team

Col. Sharon H. Baker Commander Army Training Support Center

Col. Charles E. A. Sexton Commander Mission Command Training Program

8 | MT2 17.6

Col. Michael J. Barbee Director Combat Training Center Directorate

Col. Anthony D. Krogh Director National Simulation Center

Col. Thomas J. Trossen Director Training Management Directorate

Col. Miciotto O. Johnson Director TCM Virtual

www.MT2-kmi.com

Combined Arms Center-Training

Providing realistic and engaging exercises to train soldiers as they fight.

By Colonel Mike D. Lundy The Army is harnessing training technology in a new way to prepare units and develop leaders. The way ahead is the Integrated Training Environment (ITE), which links live, virtual, constructive and gaming training enablers. It provides the complex conditions found in current and predicted future operational environments—conditions that the Army cannot afford to replicate solely in live training.

The ITE’s goal is to provide realistic, challenging and engaging exercises that allow soldiers and leaders to train as they fight. In doing so, the ITE will save the Army money, save commanders time, improve unit readiness and expand the training battlefield. The ITE is the backbone of the Army Training Concept, the guiding document for Army leaders through 2020. After nearly a decade of development, the ITE’s first field test will occur September 10-28, 2012, at Fort Hood, Texas, and involve 1st Cavalry Division units.

The ITE’s development coincides with other changes in training. Over the past 10 years, commanders relied heavily on the combat training centers (CTCs) to help prepare their units for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. With deployments decreasing, commander-driven home station training will play a greater role in preparing units for unified land operations. When a unit is not scheduled for a specific mission, it will train to conduct decisive action (simultaneous offensive, defensive and stability operations) against hybrid threats. Hybrid threats include conventional and irregular forces, terrorists and criminals. www.MT2-kmi.com

With the increase in home station training, demand for training areas, ranges, and other training facilities and devices will significantly increase, placing a premium on available time and space in a climate of reduced military budgets.

The ITE addresses the challenges of reduced budgets and stands in contrast to past blended training that combined live, virtual, constructive and gaming training enablers. Each blended training event had to be built from the ground up, was costly and was inconsistent from exercise to exercise.

Instead, the ITE provides persistent and consistent training events with the right mix of live, virtual, constructive and gaming enablers that the Army plans to use at domestic and overseas posts.

Linking Training Enablers Live training involves troops maneuvering on physical terrain and using high-tech laser engagement systems that adjudicate probability of kill algorithms between targets and shooters.

In the virtual world, live tank and helicopter crews in simulators battle simulated forces. Constructive training consists of soldiers using a computer equipped with a mouse to move icons that represent units and equipment. Gaming involves soldiers and leaders using desktop computers to interact with others in a first-person shooter/thinker game, or a turn-based and real-time strategy game.

For years, the Army has used live, virtual, constructive and gaming training. While these training devices worked well separately, they were not designed to work together.

ITE addresses this issue with the integrated architecture.

The integrating architecture is comprised of computers and software that act as translators allowing the live, virtual, constructive and gaming devices to communicate with each other and with commanders’ digital mission command systems (MCS).

Linking all of these together will stimulate MCS to drive command and staff coordination and provide commanders with a common operational picture to practice decision making. All of the action will look real to commanders as they assimilate information from their MCS to make decisions that can win or lose simulated battles.

Live The Army has equipped troops with Instrumentable-Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (I-MILES) gear for simulated force-on-force engagements in the field. At the Fort Hood exercise, troops also will use a new training enabler that will work with I-MILES, called the Homestation Instrumentation Training System (HITS).

HITS supports companies through battalion-level live force-on-force training using player unit radios that track the real-time locations of soldiers and vehicles. It records the unit’s radio communications, time-stamped global positioning system locations of all the MT2 17.6 | 9

Combined Arms Center-Training players, and all force-on-force engagements.

The exercise’s content then can be quickly compiled for an after action review (AAR).

HITS provides a first-time training capability to the home station by providing simulated area weapons effects that include replicating mortar and artillery indirect fires.

In the past, this capability was only available at the CTCs.

Virtual Helicopter crews use the virtual simulator Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (AVCATT), while tank and infantry fighting vehicle crews train in the Close Combat Tactical Trainer (CCTT).

Initially, AVCATT’s and the CCTT’s software did not allow them to share the same picture of the virtual battlefield and prevented virtual air-ground integrated training opportunities. Today, AVCATT and the CCTT share a common battlefield picture, thanks to a software innovation that creates a common virtual environment.

For the first iteration of the ITE, the common virtual environment links AVCATT and CCTT to the ITE’s integrating architecture, delivering simultaneous training with live and constructive enablers.

Constructive Constructive simulations enable commanders and their staffs to give orders to subordinate units just as they would in realworld operations. For example, a brigade commander orders a battalion to attack. Then role players representing the battalion use a computer mouse to move the unit against opposing forces represented on the computer screen.

As the unit attacks, the simulation generates reports to the brigade commander’s digital MCS. Those reports help create a common operational picture of the battlefield, giving the commander and staff information to practice and refine their decision-making skills.

Simulations can create scenarios that exceed the challenges in the real world. Under these extreme trial-by-fire conditions, commanders and their staffs can respond to significant challenges without risking soldiers and equipment.

Gaming Games and gaming technologies provide a training opportunity for a wide 10 | MT2 17.6

variety of individual and collective tasks for soldiers, leaders and units. Gaming applications include cultural and language trainers, improvised explosive device recognition and defeat, and small unit tactics, techniques and procedures.

Using gaming applications, soldiers and leaders train in scenarios that replicate their individual and unit missions, capabilities, and the actual battle terrain. Gaming enables participants to visualize the effects of their actions and battlefield multipliers such as artillery and air support, while also allowing participants to experience a thinking enemy in a first-person encounter.

Leveraging commercial and government off-the-shelf serious games and gaming technology, Army gaming is an agile training and education enabler. Games can facilitate AARs and mission planning and rehearsals. They are linked to MCS, and other training aids, devices, simulations and simulators (TADSS).

Blended Training vs. the ITE Some Army units have conducted blended training exercises linking live, virtual, constructive and gaming training enablers with the MCS, but these one-time exercises took months to plan and cost millions of dollars.

While far better than only live training, the Army cannot afford to support one-time exercises during this period of constrained financial resources. Instead, the ITE will provide consistency through a stable set of TADSS and persistence through ready access to the capabilities.

The ITE’s other benefits include: reducing the time to prepare and conduct training, providing greater opportunities to train with other units, virtually expanding the training area in simulation, providing consistent multi-echelon training, generating consistent and consolidated AARs and supporting mission command training.

ITE’s Future The ITE will not address every training need. It is not a replacement for live training.

Instead, the Army leadership is looking to the ITE to help units begin their live training at a higher level of proficiency and complete live training better prepared.

The ITE also does not replace the CTCs. They always will provide graduate-level training events and remain an essential component of the Army leader development

A soldier trains in a close combat tactical trainer M1 Abrams tank simulator. CCTT allows leaders and soldiers to train in combined arms tasks and collective gunnery using M1 Abrams tank and Bradley Fighting Vehicle simulators. [Photo courtesy of U.S. Army]

and training strategies. Even with the ITE, commanders will still need to be very involved in the planning, preparation, execution and assessment of their training events.

The first use assessment at Fort Hood will identify issues requiring resolution before we field this new system of systems.

With each fielding, the Army will address those problems and add capabilities. For example, gaming was not a requirement for the Fort Hood exercise, but will be added to the next increment of the ITE. Following the Fort Hood test, the Army plans to provide ITE capabilities to Forts Bliss, Campbell and Drum as well as to South Korea during fiscal year 2013. In FY14, the Army projects to provide ITE capabilities to Forts Carson, Riley, Stewart and Hawaii.

Over the years, the ITE will continue to improve and grow its capabilities to meet emerging challenges, focusing on the Army’s strategic plan of 2020. O Colonel Michael Lundy is deputy Commander of the Combined Arms Center-Training.

For more information, contact MT2 Editor Brian O’Shea at briano@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mt2-kmi.com.

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Honing the tip of the spear through cognitive readiness and masterful instruction.

By Sae Schatz, Ph.D., and Lieutenant Colonel Karl Gannon, USMC To excel in today’s complex battlespaces, each warfighter, down to the lowest echelons, must possess a high degree of cognitive readiness, which is the mental, emotional and interpersonal skills that allow him/ her to rapidly decide and act in dynamic, ambiguous environments.

Fostering such sophisticated skills, particularly in more junior personnel, presents a major challenge. The Marine Corps, however, is no longer “just observing” this problem—and a major part of our solution focuses on enhancing instructors.

In the Marine Corps Vision & Strategy 2025, Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James F. Amos, calls on the training and education community to “prepare Marines for complex conditions and to counter the unexpected” and to help small unit leaders develop their abilities to “make sound decisions ... in an increasingly complex environment while potentially operating in a decentralized manner.” The USMC Training and Education Command (TECOM) is now actively implementing efforts to meet the commandant’s priority. Specifically, the Marine Corps has established the Small Unit Decision Making (SUDM) initiative, designed to enhance Marines’ cognitive skills in support of enhanced decision making.

The premise of the SUDM effort is that small unit leaders must sharpen their mental, emotional and social skills as intensely as their physical skills. The initiative has defined five cognitive competencies, in particular, that small unit leaders should hone (see sidebar at right), and TECOM personnel are currently revising Marine non-commissioned officer (NCO) training in order to accelerate the acquisition of these competencies. To be successful, though, these new curricula must be delivered by masterful instructors, who are able to model skilled decision-making as well as use nuanced instructional techniques to most effectively and efficiently convey the sophisticated subject matter. This related endeavor has been dubbed the “instructor professionalization” effort.

Why Focus on Instructors?

Basic instructor courses provide a wide array of suggestions for good instruction: e.g., link discrete instructional activities with course goals, select relevant assessments, use active planning verbs and plan instruction for all levels of knowledge and skills. These types of edicts, www.MT2-kmi.com

however, do not reflect the inspiring personal qualities, the motivational planning and delivery, or the innovative assessment and feedback techniques required to help Marines develop complex cognitive competencies. To build cognitive readiness, instructors must become master facilitators, coaches and mentors. In other words, instructors cannot merely possess good skills—they must be great.

To address this need, the Marine Corps is identifying ways to improve the USMC instructor development process and define more demanding performance criteria for their teachers. Naturally, all instructors continue to meet basic administrative and logistical standards, such as being tactically knowledgeable and understanding administrative procedures. However, in addition to these good instructional practices, the SUDM initiative and Instructor Professionalization plan outline four additional attributes that great military instructors must actively integrate into all aspects of their duties: leadership, communication, expert technique and character (see sidebar on page 12).

COGNITIVE COMPETENCIES The Marine Corps is emphasizing five cognitive competencies as part of their Small Unit Decision Making initiative.

Adaptability: Consistent willingness and ability to alter attitudes, thoughts and behaviors to appropriately respond to actual or anticipated change in the environment.

Attentional Control: Ability to direct and sustain attention on a deliberately chosen target, tolerate sustained attention even when unpleasant, and maintain awareness of own attention.

Metacognition: Thinking about your own thinking; using cognitive strategies to monitor/self-regulate learning and other mental process.

Problem Solving: Understanding the problem space, generating possible solutions, and applying complex strategies to achieve (or move toward achieving) a specific goal.

Sensemaking: Understanding connections (e.g., among people, places and events) in order to anticipate their trajectories, estimate the overall situation, and act effectively.

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FOUR ATTRIBUTES OF A GREAT INSTRUCTOR Leadership Sets big goals with measurable standards Uses mastery learning—ensures all achieve mastery Encourages students to “own” their learning Values and connects with each student Motivates Marines via determination and enthusiasm

Communication Presents content in clear, compelling ways Actively engages students in a dialog

Training Instructors for Greatness In order to help instructors meet these expanded performance goals, TECOM has developed a research-based set of support materials, including an instructor handbook, pocket guide and resource DVD. These resources outline the competencies of expert teachers in detail, indicating their scientific foundations as well as practical implementation strategies.

The materials also explain how to plan and execute a variety of advanced instructional techniques, which support SUDM training and education.

“These materials are like a ‘bag of tools’ for instructors,” explained Nicole Burley, MESH Solutions LLC, one of the authors of the resource materials. “They have scenario-based learning methods, instructional strategies and assessment techniques that were all purposely picked because they support higher-level learning and they apply to a military audience.”

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Asks a variety of direct, thought-provoking questions Fluidly adapts communication styles in different settings Uses dynamic, emotional language to engage students

Expert Technique Plans exhaustively, working backwards from the goal Has a large “bag of (instructional) tricks” Fluidly adapts instruction for maximum effect Maintains engagement with instructional tactics Maintains brisk, fluid momentum

The USMC has also created a corresponding faculty development course, called Making Good Instructors Great (abbreviated as “Good to Great” or G2G). This course introduces military instructors to the principles of cognitive readiness and helps them refine their skills by emphasizing the four themes of expert instructors (i.e., leadership, communication, expert technique and character). It also teaches instructors how to use the methods, tactics and techniques discussed in the handbook.

The G2G curriculum goes beyond the material taught in existing schoolhouse courses or even Train the Trainer school. This approach is designed to take Marines beyond skilled classroom instructors, transforming them into great leaders, teacher-scholars and expert mentors.

The G2G curriculum and supporting materials were developed by a multidisciplinary team of military, government and industry experts, who were overseen by the MAGTF Training and Education Standards Division of TECOM. Participants included personnel from a variety of Marine Corps academic units, such as The Basic School and Marine Corps University. Additionally, subject-matter experts from MESH Solutions LLC; Maverick Leadership LLC; the Mind Fitness Training Institute; Cognitive Performance Group; Deep Insights LLC; Perigean Technologies LLC; and Pacific Science & Engineering Group Inc. assisted.

Paving the Way for a New Breed of USMC Instructors TECOM recently completed a pilot test of the G2G course. Fiftysix Marine reservists participated as students. During the 11-day pilot, they learned to be better instructors and gained the expert competencies needed to deliver sophisticated cognitive readiness instruction.

The G2G pilot course was held at the Quantico Marine Corps Base, June 11-21, 2012. The Marines who participated in the course are preparing for mobilization as the Georgia Deployment Program International Security Assistance Forces, rotations 8 and 9 (ROTOs 8/9) Mobile Training Team (MTT). Over the next year, they will train two Republic of Georgian infantry battalions for combat operations in Afghanistan.

The pilot course, therefore, directly supported their mission preparation.

“This is not only going to help us from an immediate mission in [the Republic of] Georgia, but this is going to help us from a Marine Corps Reserve perspective,” said Lieutenant Colonel Mark Lamelza, the MTT officer in charge (OIC). He went on to explain, “This is important, building instructors, because we [as reservists] only have 38 days a year to develop Marines. So, you have to have great instructors who can maximize that time and build the proficiency level.”

The ROTO 8/9 personnel agreed with their OIC’s sentiments. For instance, during the course after-action review, Corporal Bruce Selleck remarked that “Marines have always been physically strong. We have had the tools to better us physically and now with this course, we have the tools to be mentally stronger as well.” www.MT2-kmi.com

Establishes effective and efficient routines Constantly monitors students and the learning context Employs frequent, appropriate assessments Gives specific, timely, actionable, reflective feedback

Character Possesses grit—works relentlessly, refusing to surrender Manages one’s own wellbeing Knows oneself, seeks self-improvement Acts as a role-model for students

Staff Sergeant Brian Kenefic, another course participant, added, “As a reserve staff NCO, this course will not only have a direct impact on how I lead and mentor Marines, it will have huge benefits to me in the civilian world as a manager of a financial institution interacting with influential business people in my community.”

Moving Boldly Ahead TECOM intends to leverage components of the course content, delivery methods and support materials (e.g., handbook) to support training, education and faculty development across the Marine Corps. This includes instructor development seminars at the Schools of Infantry, SUDM workshops and seminars, and ongoing instructor development projects across the Marine Corps schoolhouses.

Great instructors will equip our warfighters with the cognitive readiness needed to make critical, fast-paced decisions in challenging environments, the strategies needed to teach others, and the gritty determination to persevere in the face of seemingly insurmountable problems. Further, great instructors are great leaders, and great leaders inspire greatness in others. As noted at the Major General John H. Russell Jr. Leadership Conference, “The backbone of the Marine Corps is the individual Marine, and it is because the individual Marine is superbly trained and expertly led that the institution continues to flourish (2009, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Grice, USMC, Coaching, Counseling, and Mentoring). The SUDM, Instructor Professionalization, and Good to Great efforts are the latest innovations in that proud tradition.” O From June 2011–August 2012, Lieutenant Colonel Karl Gannon served as the branch head for the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Training and Education Standards Division of the USMC Training and Education Command. During his tenure in this billet, he oversaw the Small Unit Decision Making (SUDM) initiative for the Marine Corps, and he led the Making Good Instructors Great effort as part of SUDM. Dr. Sae Schatz is the chief scientist at MESH Solutions, and she is one of the lead developers of Making Good Instructors Great.

For more information, contact MT2 Editor Brian O’Shea at briano@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mt2-kmi.com.

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MT2 17.6 | 13

DATA PACKETS Fully Immersive Dismounted Soldier Training System Intelligent Decisions (ID) Inc., a recognized leader in federal IT solutions, will roll out the revolutionary new Dismounted Soldier Training System (DSTS) to 28 U.S. Army installations worldwide over the next six months. The cutting-edge system enables U.S. soldiers, leaders and units to train in a virtual environment, increases the quality of instruction and combat preparedness, and reduces traditional expenses associated with large-scale training facilities. ID spearheaded the development and production of the multi-million dollar DSTS. The company will also provide ongoing, onsite operations and maintenance of the system at all the Army installations. Management of the training system is being led by the Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.

Demonstrated to U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Army Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno this spring, DSTS has the capability to train soldiers and units in all five operational themes—major combat operations, irregular warfare, peace operations, limited intervention and peacetime military engagement—as well as the four elements of unified land operations: offense, defense, stability and civil support.

“DSTS is transforming the way soldiers train—creating a more realistic environment, increasing combat readiness, and significantly reducing the traditional expenses associated with large-scale training facilities,” said Harry Martin, ID president and CEO. “Intelligent Decisions is proud to have reached this huge milestone, providing our deploying soldiers with the best available training, and, ultimately, helping ensure they maintain the military advantage.”

The Dismounted Soldier Training System delivers: •

•

•

•

Fully Immersive Graphics and Technology: DSTS provides a fully immersive 3-D environment with high fidelity graphics and technology that enable soldiers to virtually interact with their physical environment and use combat equipment just as they would in a real environment.

Out-of-the-Box Ready Training: The training system is an innovative, out-of-the-box ready system with a flexible, portable and transportable design that can be installed in a fixed or mobile facility in under four hours.

Semi-Automated Forces: DSTS accurately simulates the movement of ground vehicles, aircraft, dismounted infantry and guided weapons. An unlimited number of training scenarios incorporating the semi-automated forces and live participants can be created and modified in real-time including weather effects and time of day.

Accurate After Action Review Debriefings: The After Action Review records all relevant data during the training scenario, including tactical voice and radio communications, movement techniques, weapons positions, critical events and engagements. As a result, soldiers training in DSTS are given immediate feedback on their performance.

The DSTS system successfully completed U.S. Army User Assessment Testing at Fort Benning, Ga., prior to receiving authorization to move forward with production. The system was evaluated by the U.S. Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence for its training capability. Passing this key milestone led to the U.S. Army and ID offi-

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cially kicking off the DSTS roll out at Fort Bragg, N.C., on July 26.

Two squads from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at the base participated in a two-hour training exercise.

ID’s Simulation and Training Division is located in Orlando, Fla., and houses the management and development team for DSTS. Michele Anapol; manapol@intelligent.net

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Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Virtual Engine iOS App The Disti Corporation, a leading developer of interactive 3-D software and customized training solutions, has released the virtual engine app for the iPad, the first truly interactive 3-D virtual engine maintenance trainer on the Apple App Store.

The virtual engine app boasts an immersive and highly interactive 3-D maintenance training environment giving the user a spatial awareness of job procedures that transcends traditional text or video based materials.

Created with Disti’s GL Studio ES, the app immerses the user into a mobile maintenance training lesson while retaining all the fidelity and functionality of a desktop-based virtual maintenance trainer. The app includes a fully interactive 3-D model of the Cummins 855 Diesel Engine, a list of job procedures with the ability to perform each one through simple touch gestures, and a color-coding feature to clearly identify physical constraints when moving parts during a lesson. The app also provides a view of the parts table, allowing the user to closely inspect removed parts.

“The next trend in maintenance training is the ability to take the training with you. Simply porting electronic documentation and videos to a tablet completely misses the mark on what this mobile technology is capable of delivering. This virtual engine app was made to set a new standard and show how easily GL Studio ES can create customizable training content,” said Disti Chief Technology Officer Darren Humphrey.

Disti’s Virtual Engine iOS app is compatible with the iPad iOS version 5.1 or later.

Scott Ariotti; sariotti@disti.com

ONR Augmented-Reality Initiative Progresses ONR has completed the first year of a multi-year augmented-reality effort, developing a system that allow trainees to view simulated images superimposed on real-world landscapes. One example of augmented reality technology can be seen in sports broadcasts, which use it to highlight first-down lines on football fields and animate hockey pucks to help TV viewers with interpreting plays.

With major advances in this same technology, ONR envisions preparing the future force and providing the Navy and Marine Corps a first-of-its-kind training solution.

“The training capability augmented reality offers is revolutionary, because you can train in a real-world environment and inject simulated forces or entities,” said Dr. Peter Squire, ONR program manager for Human Performance Training and Education. “This will decrease costs and allow trainers to execute a wide range of scenarios with a fraction of the support required for live training. You can construct simulations to meet your training needs and objectives rather than going to a training facility, enabling users to train anywhere.”

The technology uses advanced software algorithms and multiple sensors to determine a trainee’s viewpoint, while virtual aircraft, targets and munitions effects are inserted into the real-world view through

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glasses, goggles or a visor. ONR is currently working with Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs and industry to develop augmented-reality headgear.

One application for augmented reality is Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) training. JTACs work on the ground to manage the attacks of nearby combat aircraft. Today, live JTAC training is conducted on a few specialized ranges with static targets and limited reconfigurability. This training also requires aircraft flight hours, range time and live artillery—all of which are scarce resources. Augmented reality offers huge cost savings, since the only element needed is the terrain: aircraft, targets and effects can all be computer generated.

Researchers working on the project will present papers at ISMAR 2012, the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, November 5-8 in Atlanta, as well as at I/ITSEC 2012, the Interservice/ Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, December 3-6 in Orlando, Fla. In December, ONR will select the most promising head-mounted SBIR/STTR displays for further development. In 2013, ONR will conduct two more demonstrations of the augmented-reality technology in Quantico, Va., and Camp Pendleton, Calif.

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Marine Trainer

Q& A

Preparing, Organizing and Prioritizing Marine Training Major General Thomas M. Murray Commanding General Training and Education Command A native of St. Paul, Minn., Major General Murray graduated from the University of St. Thomas in 1980 with a B.A. in quantitative methods. Commissioned through the PLC Program, he completed The Basic School and Naval Flight Training and was designated a naval aviator in April 1982. After training in HMT-301 he was designated a CH-46E pilot.

In February 1983, Murray joined HMM-165 in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, where he completed three WestPac deployments including operations in Beirut, Lebanon. His billet assignments included Flightline OIC, NATOPS officer, weapons and tactics instructor and assistant operations officer. In August 1986, he attended the Amphibious Warfare School.

In August 1987, Murray reported to Marine Corps Air Station Tustin, Calif., where he served with HMM-161 completing two WestPac deployments and held positions as assistant operations officer, weapons and tactics instructor and aircraft maintenance officer. In August 1990, he reported to the First Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company at Camp Pendleton where he served as the operations officer and as a brigade platoon commander during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

In February 1992, Murray served as the operations officer at the Marine Corps Air Facility for five months and attended the Marine Corps Command and Staff College. Upon graduation, he returned to HMM-161 in September 1993, completing two WestPac deployments including the withdrawal of UN forces from Somalia. During this tour, he served as the Aircraft Maintenance Officer, Operations Officer and Executive Officer.

In August 1996, Murray reported to the Pentagon for assignment to the Navy Staff in Plans, Policies and Operations. In August 1998, he reported to the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., earning a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies.

Following school, he transferred to Okinawa, Japan, where he served as the executive officer and commanding officer of HMM-262 from August 1999 through December 2001. Reporting to the Pentagon, he next served on the Joint Staff, J8 as the branch chief, Combatant Command Liaison Office.

In October 2003, Murray took command of Marine Aircraft Group 26 and deployed the reinforced MAG to Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. Following the change of command in August 2005, he remained at Al Asad as the deputy commander and chief of staff for 2D Marine Aircraft Wing Forward. In July 2006, he returned to the Joint Staff, J8 as the branch chief for the Joint Requirements Oversight Council Secretariat. From May 2007 through August 2009, Murray served as the commanding general, Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. On December 20, 2010, Murray was assigned as the commanding general, Education Command, and president, Marine Corps University.

Murray’s most recent deployment was as the deputy commander, Regional Command South, CJTF-6, ISAF from October 2009 to 16 | MT2 17.6

November 2010. On June 27, 2012, Murray assumed command of Training and Education Command, Quantico, Va. Murray’s decorations include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon.

Q: What are the top three challenges the Marine Training and Education Command (TECOM) faces to prepare Marines for active duty and deployment?

A: As we draw down forces from Afghanistan, we are looking beyond OEF and thinking about how to posture the Marine Corps for what our commandant calls a “complex security environment.” This environment—coupled with impending budget cuts and force structure reductions—will provide a number of challenges to maintaining the high readiness of our operating forces, challenges we haven’t faced since before September 11, 2001.

Looking to future training, there are three significant challenges that TECOM must address.

First, while current training focuses on preparing units for counterinsurgency [COIN]/stability operations in support of OEF, future training must support the development a wider array of capabilities across the range of military operations. Toward meeting this challenge, our www.MT2-kmi.com

commandant has recently provided strategic guidance: We must rebalance our operational capabilities by re-emphasizing training in our core competencies—combined arms operations, expeditionary operations and amphibious operations. Our central training challenge is to find the “sweet spot” between high-end [combined arms] and low-end [COIN/ stability operations] capabilities.

Second, in a resource constrained environment, we must get the most bang for every buck spent on training. Thus, we must carefully identify and prioritize training requirements throughout the force and synchronize service-level [TECOM-sponsored] training with unit level training, eliminating duplication and maximizing both efficiency and effectiveness.

Finally, TECOM must address some longstanding organizational deficiencies, exacerbated by 9/11, in order to better meet the needs of our operating forces. TECOM was formed in 2000 from an assemblage of disparate commands, units, formal schools, detachments and staffs.

Until recently, the organization lacked an effective strategy for prioritizing requirements and allocating resources. TECOM also lacked an ability to recognize and respond to emerging requirements, and its ability to assess organizational performance remains immature. We recently published a campaign plan that is addressing these and other deficiencies, but it will take time to get the organization to where it needs to be.

Q: What new programs or initiatives does TECOM plan to implement over the next couple of years?

A: Based on lessons learned from more than 10 years of continuous combat operations, TECOM is developing new programs that will enhance the preparation of our forces for an uncertain future operating environment. At the center of this effort is the MAGTF Training Program. The MAGTF Training Program establishes, defines and integrates training requirements, programs and resources, facilitating the development of war fighting capabilities across all elements of the MAGTF. The MAGTF Training Program is comprised of four service-sponsored subordinate programs: Battle Staff Training Program: provides training for battle staffs across all elements of the MAGTF from battalion/squadron to MEF level headquarters.

Integrated Training Exercise: provides battalion/squadron level collective training. This program is similar to combined arms training conducted prior to OIF and OEF, while incorporating lessons learned from the last 10 years.

Mountain Exercise: provides training in both the technical aspects of mountain and cold weather operations and the tactical integration of MAGTF elements at the battalion level and below. Mountain Exercise is conducted at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in California and at Hawthorne Army Depot and Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada.

Large Scale Exercise: a brigade level or higher combined arms exercise, employing distributed forces in a live-virtual-constructive training environment construct. The exercise forces will be linked through a supporting network across the United States and may include amphibious forces afloat. The exercise focuses on MAGTF operations and the integration of all elements of the MAGTF. The MAGTF Training Program is an important step towards refocusing our Corps on its core capabilities and posturing our forces to meet operational requirements across the entire range of military operations.

It will produce a MAGTF command element capable of planning and executing integrated MAGTF operations, and ground, aviation and www.MT2-kmi.com

logistics combat elements well trained in the technical skills needed to integrate with other MAGTF elements.

Q: How is TECOM affiliated with the Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning (CAOCL) and what are the primary goals of this program?

A: Formally established in 2006, the Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning is a subordinate directorate of Education Command.

CAOCL’s mission is to ensure that the Marine Corps is a force of Marines, globally prepared, regionally focused and effective at navigating and influencing the culturally complex 21st-century operating environments in support of USMC missions and requirements.

The primary goals of CAOCL include serving as the Marine Corps general purpose force proponent for capabilities related to operational culture and language familiarization, maintaining training and education standards, providing training and education solutions, managing the Regional, Culture and Language Familiarization Program, and providing operational support.

CAOCL is the central Marine Corps agency for operational culture, language familiarization and related issues for the Marine Corps general purpose force concerning doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel and facilities. CAOCL advises on formulation of service policy regarding operational culture and language for the general purpose force, it integrates operational culture considerations into Marine Corps Warfighting Publications and doctrine, and it participates in the Expeditionary Force Development System process. CAOCL helps ensure that where appropriate, concepts and capabilities related to operational culture and language are institutionalized by the Marine Corps.

CAOCL’s principal education activity is the management of the Regional, Culture and Language Familiarization Program, which is a new, career-length program designed to instill, develop and sustain basic language, region and culture capabilities in our career Marines.

Upon promotion to sergeant or during accession training for officers, Marines will be assigned one of 17 regions for career-length study. Each Marine will be responsible for completing one module of the education program per rank as a required component of their professional military education. Each module provides the Marine with rank-appropriate, familiarization-level exposure to the specific region, its cultures and culture general concepts, which include general ideas and skills applicable to dealing with all cultures. Each Marine also completes familiarization training in one of their region’s primary languages. The three conceptual lines are complementary and are balanced within each of the educational blocks. There are strong parallels between the content of the officer and enlisted blocks. The end state of this program is to provide a basic foundation to enhance cross-cultural competence within the general purpose force.

CAOCL’s other primary activity is providing operational support to the Marine Corps operating forces. To this end, CAOCL remains engaged with deploying units even after their pre-deployment training is completed. CAOCL provides subject matter experts for cultural advising to units in training and during their planning. They also provide deployed cultural advisors, or CULADs, for certain operations and exercises to serve as personal advisors to commanders and staff augmentation to support planning and operations; CAOCL currently has five CULADs deployed in support of I Marine Expeditionary Force [Forward] in Afghanistan and one CULAD deployed in support of Marine Forces Central Command. To support Marines and units while they are deployed, CAOCL publishes and distributes operational aids, such as operational MT2 17.6 | 17

culture field guides and tactical phrase cards in the local language.

To augment deployed staffs’ resources and other service and national resources, CAOCL also provides an expertise and research reach-back capability for deployed units that Marines can access from anywhere in the world by contacting CAOCL in Quantico. Even beyond topics that strictly concern culture, CAOCL has a capacity to conduct social science research on any topic of interest to the Marine Corps.

Q: How has the evolution of technology changed the way Marines are trained?

A: The evolution of technology has increased the number and types of simulators and instrumented systems that Marines can use to train with to hone their combat skills. Many generations of Marines had only the use of assets such as tanks, aircraft, rifles, etc., to meet their training needs and standards. Today, technology has evolved such that we can employ a training methodology that includes the use of simulators, instrumented systems and ranges, and even distance learning to complement live training, which provides a more efficient and cost-effective training continuum for marksmanship, wheeled and mechanized training, flight training, etc. For distance learning, our College of Distance Education and Training utilizes MarineNet and Blackboard technologies to enroll and facilitate instructor to student communications in order to provide all Marines with premier education opportunities, as all Marines do not have the opportunity to attend a resident course. So, taking advantage of technology has allowed the Marine Corps to better train its Marines by complementing live training with simulation and other technologies, and in the end the training is more cost effective because ammunition, fuel, and other resources are conserved.

Live Training: The fielding of instrumentation technologies on Marine Corps ranges throughout the world has enhanced our ability to train Marines in a more complex yet safe environment for global deployments. For example, with our Infantry Immersion Trainers [IIT], we immerse the Marine in the training scenarios by providing a geo-specific physical environment that includes the simulated sights, smells and sounds for the Afghanistan area of operations. The Marines interact with computer generated avatars as well as live role players in this blended environment of virtual and live simulations to make the most effective use of the live role players. In addition, the IIT uses advanced position location information tracking, video capture and video recording technology to identify key features of the training event that enable our instructors to provide a more effective after action review. Additionally, modern range instrumentation systems such as the Instrumented Tactical Engagement Simulation System provide unambiguous performance feedback to Marine trainees whether they are utilizing an infrastructure based system, such as the IIT, or a noninstrumented training area.

Virtual and Constructive: The advance of game-based technology for constructive simulations now supports tactical decision-making training for small unit leaders for the blended training environment.

These game-based constructive simulations have high fidelity cognitive models as well as high fidelity physical models that provide a training capability anywhere and anytime. By training with these constructive simulations in advance, the training in the high demand live training venues is made more effective and cost efficient. Simulations such as the Individual Simulated Marksmanship Trainers, Combat Convoy Simulator, Supporting Arms Virtual Trainer, Deployable Virtual Training Environment and Combined Arms Command and Control Training Upgrade System provide commanders with a variety of skills and 18 | MT2 17.6

collective training simulations to hone their Marines’ skills prior to exercising those collective skills at a more complex live training event.

Q: How does TECOM work with industry to ensure TECOM has access to the most up-to-date technology and solutions?

A: TECOM works closely with the Office of Naval Research [ONR], the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory [MCWL] and MARCORSYSCOM Program Manager Training Systems [PM TRASYS] in providing training systems, technologies, knowledge products, devices and support services.

TECOM is the combat requirements developer for training and education capabilities, the ONR Code 30 is the primary Expeditionary Warfare technology developer, MCWL conducts concepts-based experimentation, and PM TRASYS is the materiel developer. TECOM continuously communicates with the operating forces to identify the latest training requirements/capabilities and then prioritizes them. When it is determined that a materiel solution is required to address a validated gap, TECOM will then task PM TRASYS to acquire the best materiel solution to provide the required capabilities. If these capabilities do not yet exist, we turn to our science and technology [S&T] partners, such as ONR Codes 30 and 34 or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, to develop solutions. There are several S&T programs currently being developed that specifically support the USMC Small Unit Decision Making initiative, Squad Immersive Training Environment, Combat Hunter Program of Instruction, and the Live, Virtual, Constructive Training Environment initiative that will lead to innovative technologies and knowledge products based in emerging scientific research for our training and education programs. For example, through the Future Naval Capability program, ONR is currently developing enabling capabilities to provide technology solutions—or measurable improvements—to address USMC S&T gaps within three to five years. Our industry partners typically work with these S&T partners, PM TRASYS, or are engaged through a number of forums including the annual Training and Simulation Industry Symposium, and Interservice/Industry Training Simulation and Education Conference to facilitate communication of requirements.

Q: Can you give an overview of TECOM’s strategy in managing all technological resources used to train Marines?

A: The strategic partnership between TECOM and PM TRASYS is critical to managing the technological resources that train Marines. We have a strategic partnership of developing requirements, defending the funding that supports all of the live, virtual and constructive ground training systems through each POM cycle, and supporting the training systems from design and development, through fielding and sustainment. In 2009 at the direction of the commandant of the Marine Corps, TECOM began to establish Training Support Centers [TSCs] at all major Marine Corps installations in order to improve TECOM support to home station training. TSCs provide a single point of coordination and integration for all TECOM services and programs [aside from the formal schools] available at local installations. The TSC initiative: • • • •

Aids commanders in locating, obtaining and most effectively utilizing training resources.

Optimizes the development and execution of unit training plans.

Promotes a standardized approach to training.

Integrates all live, virtual and constructive training capabilities with training plans. www.MT2-kmi.com

TSCs are fully operational capable at Camp Pendleton, MCB Hawaii and MCB Quantico. They are initial operational capable at Camp Butler Okinawa and MCB Camp Lejeune.

Q: Can you describe how Marines are specially trained for operations in specific areas of the globe, Afghanistan for example?

A: The Marine Corps has developed an extensive pre-deployment training continuum for preparing units for operations in OEF. The continuum establishes a logical progression for skills training, conducted by commanders and evaluated at mission rehearsal exercises.

Training is conducted in four ascending “blocks.” Marine Expeditionary Force commanders determine what level of competency is required for deploying units based on the analysis of mission essential tasks. The pre-deployment training continuum consists of: Block 1: Individual training in skills that are both military occupational specialty-specific [core skills] and common to all Marines within a grade [common skills]. Block 1 training includes combat-focused skills that are environment, mission, rank or billet specific [core plus skills]. Block 1 training is conducted in both formal schools and in units in the operating forces. For aviation units, Block 1 training provides resident instructor development, certification and sustainment of the qualifications and designations of individual aircrew and to meet annual training requirements.

Block 2: Collective training of “core capabilities” within a unit.

Core capabilities are the essential collective functions a unit must be capable of performing during extended combat operations. For ground units, Block 2 is collective training at the company level and below. For aviation units, Block 2 is core skills refinement and flight-leadership development, normally single-ship through division-size flight operations.

Block 3: Collective training of “advanced core capabilities” based on a unit’s mission essential tasks, or METs. For ground units, Block 3 is battalion-level training and may be conducted within the battalion or by its higher headquarters. For aviation units, Block 3 is squadronlevel integration with adjacent aviation and supported ground units, utilizing formal command and control functions to perform assigned METs. Block 4: Battalion/squadron level training, also known as a unit’s mission rehearsal exercise or MRX. Block 4 training is a unit’s predeployment training “graduation exercise” and is individually tailored to assess the unit’s ability to perform tasks within its assigned mission.

Q: How are TECOM’s training and education concepts evaluated for possible improvements?

A: Within TECOM, we are constantly assessing and improving our training and education programs, curricula and instructional techniques. TECOM uses the Systems Approach to Training [SAT] to develop and review programs of instruction. However, the Systems Approach to Training is a process-intensive system that is optimized for peacetime use.

For more than 10 years, persistent combat operations have produced lessons learned requiring adjustments to training at a faster rate than can be supported by the formal SAT process. The requirement to rapidly inject lessons learned into training led to the development of the Trend Reversal and Reinforcement Process [TRRP]. The TRRP does not replace the SAT process; instead, it is designed to indentify and address www.MT2-kmi.com

Block IV trend deficiencies and systemic trends in service-level training that adversely impact the pre-deployment training of our operating forces. Lessons learned during both pre-deployment training and on deployment require prompt analysis and, if actionable, incorporation into TECOM training, evaluation and doctrine.

TECOM also has the Marine Corps Center for Lessons Learned [MCCLL], which serves as the single fusion center for the Marine Corps Lessons Learned Program, which supports the commandant of the Marine Corps in fulfilling his Title 10 responsibilities and to provide support to the Joint Lessons Learned Program. MCCLL can rapidly adapt lessons into the operating forces and supporting establishments while also providing a relevant, responsive source for institutional knowledge with direct input to TECOM, the Capabilities Development System, advocates and proponents and joint lessons learned for future investment decisions.

Q: With conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq winding down, how are Marines training for future conflicts that have yet to occur?

A: Earlier I discussed the MAGTF Training Program and its key role in post-OEF training. In a nutshell, the MAGTF Training Program is the next step in the evolution of Marine Corps training. Building on the foundation established by current pre-deployment training, the MAGTF Training Program will: • • •

•

• •

Institutionalize lessons learned over the past 11 years Better synchronize unit training with staff training for all MAGTF elements Rebalance core capabilities training with COIN/stability operations training by expanding the service’s training capabilities to cover the entire range of military operations, including MEB-level amphibious training Improve coordination between MAGTF Training Command, other TECOM organizations and non-TECOM organizations that provide support to pre-deployment training Provide home station training venues with capabilities that are not commonly available at the unit level Improve efficiency and effectiveness in the use of resources

With operations in Afghanistan winding down, we’re already recalibrating our service-level training to orient on future operational requirements. Last July, we conducted a proof-of-concept exercise for the Large Scale Exercise at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twenty-nine Palms, Calif. Currently, we’re preparing to conduct the first Integrated Training Exercise, also at Twenty-nine Palms, early in 2013. While continuing support to ongoing operations, TECOM is stepping out smartly to prepare Marines and the operating forces for whatever the future security environment holds.

Q: What is the primary goal of the Marine X-File program?

A: To gather, organize and synthesize knowledge gleaned through concept-based experimentation and publish it in easy-to-read “what to do” and “how to do it” format that is readily available to users and leaders at all levels of command. Usable collection of results of experiments and applied research in easy-to-read, highly portable guidebooks—both hard copy and easily downloadable digital files—that inform on effective application of concepts, TTPs and technology enablers while managing expectations of users and leaders. O MT2 17.6 | 19

Improving learning retention for military trainees.

By Brian O’Shea, MT2 Editor and Erin Flynn Jay, MT2 Correspondent “Serious gaming,” an important component of military training today, will play an increasing role in preparing the U.S. military for its future missions.

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory’s Simulation and Training Technology Center (STTC) is developing a variety of virtual environments for serious gaming. The Enhanced Dynamic GeoSocial Environment (EDGE) was developed by STTC in partnership with the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) as a virtual representation of the operational environment. EDGE allows soldiers to become familiar with the political, military, economic, social, information, infrastructure, physical environment and time aspects of various regions. The environment will allow users to accomplish common “attack the network” training objectives and align with the Army Learning Model 2015 and 21st Century Soldier Competencies, to include critical thinking and problem solving.

Another serious game developed at the STTC augments the current medical training curriculum. The Tactical Combat Casualty Care simulation provides an engaging, relevant, virtual training environment for training Army combat medics. Scenarios immerse trainees in realistic training environments.

Obvious primary benefits of serious gaming for training are cost savings and availability. Tami Griffith, Science and Technology (S&T) manager at the STTC, also believes, “We also shouldn’t ignore the fact that virtual environments are, or can be, engaging. Given the option of reading a document and answering questions about it, or experiencing the repercussions of actions in an immersive environment, most people enjoy the virtual learning experience more, and they are more likely to retain the information through experiential learning.”

Added Matthew Hackett, another S&T manager at the center, “Serious gaming allows trainees to make mistakes in a risk-free environment; letting them learn from their mistakes and helps prevent them from reoccurring.”

Several challenges exist in serious games for training, from lack of understanding to keeping up with evolving technologies.

According to Griffith, a major challenge to serious gaming is that there are still pockets of resistance to using games and immersive 20 | MT2 17.6

environments for training. “Some people truly believe that you cannot learn while you are having fun,” said Griffith.

“To mitigate these misconceptions, it is important to determine the appropriate subject domains for serious gaming; a training need should be fulfilled by a serious game, not have a serious game in search of a problem,” according to Hackett.

Finally, the gaming industry is a rapidly evolving sector and keeping up with the current state-of-the-art for defense researchers can be very challenging. This challenge becomes even greater when coupled with stringent information assurance regulations that lock down network functionality and outdated computer technology often found on installations.

Even with these challenges, Hackett believes the future of serious games for training will continue to grow, “as more and more applications will be applied to serious gaming as the technology advances.

Novel gaming interfaces will also be a significant change, including the Kinect and others. These interfaces will allow for more advanced and interactive controls within a serious game.”

Griffith agrees, adding, “I see serious games as becoming ubiquitous. When you look at how many people are using smartphone and tablet applications to learn languages, manage networks, navigate, etc., it becomes clear that more and more of the population is becoming comfortable with the use of this technology. Industry is becoming better at making games for training more engaging. Leveraging these trends only makes sense.”

The Combined Arms Center-Training (CAC-T) is a subordinate organization of TRADOC. CAC-T uses serious gaming in a variety of ways to meet Army training goals.

Gaming provides affordable individual and small unit training, especially at the crawl and walk levels of training. Many posts have created their own local training areas and ranges in VBS2 (Virtual Battlespace 2), said Don Toliver, TRADOC Capability Manager gaming, National Simulation Center, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center. This allows them to practice warrior skills, battle drills and communications procedures in a gaming simulation of the actual terrain before conducting resource www.MT2-kmi.com

and system administrators to utilize these tools or to contract commerintensive and expensive live training. This gaming approach reduces cial ISPs to host these environments.” cost while enabling leaders/soldiers and units to enter live training at Despite these challenges, the AETC is hoping to transition to colhigher proficiency level than they could have by conducting live-only laboratively planning and executing the air campaign simulation in a training. Gaming can also support mission planning and mission virtual air operations center for distance learning professional military rehearsals because of its use of terrain that replicates the mission area. education, added Moon.

Gaming affords the opportunity for experiential learning. It is easy for “There is great potential in leveraging this technology if the Air gaming-enabled trainers to run multiple iterations of scenarios while Force would commit to investing in the upgrade of Air University’s increasing or decreasing the difficulty of the training based on the connectivity infrastructure to that of a civilian institution of higher performance of the leader or unit. Such repetition is key to developing learning,” said Moon. a leader’s cognitive skills while conducting unit training on tactics, Serious games help improve learning retention for armed services techniques and procedures, added Toliver. trainees due to their “hands-on” interactive nature and also help budGaming is currently in use across the U.S. Army at operational and gets by leveraging existing commercial investment and technologies institutional locations for active, National Guard and Reserve units. to reduce the cost of training—critical within the context of today’s There are many gaming products currently in the inventory that solreduced defense spending environment, said Marc Schlackman, vice diers, leaders and trainers can download from the MilGaming website. president of sales and marketing at DI-Guy. DI-Guy is an example of These products include VBS2, VBS2 Fires, Video Creation Tool, Moral such a technology, providing serious games with the AI middleware Combat, BiLat, UrbanSim, BioFor, Operational Language Trainer, and required to model intelligent human behavior.

Training Support Packages. Goals of these programs vary from being a DI-Guy is a sophisticated human simulation framework including 3-D first-person game-for-training platform that provides realistic semiuser-modifiable intelligent agents, scripting tools and on-screen authorimmersive environments, to advanced artillery and mortar call-for-fire ing techniques enabling trainers to cost-effectively populate their serimodules for VBS2 that simulate artillery, naval gunfire support, mortars ous gaming scenarios with lifelike human characters. and multiple launch rocket systems to a high level of detail.

DI-Guy provides tools for realistic training, simulating There are several challenges facing our military hundreds or thousands of human characters interacting as warfighters return from conflicts in Afghanistan and responding intelligently to asynchronous events such and Iraq, said Toliver. “As more and more units as firefights. Effective training focused on counterinsurreturn from deployment there is going to be an gency and IED defeat tactics requires modeling not only the increased training demand for all home station trainenemy warfighters, but also the financiers, recruiters, bomb ing resources, especially gaming,” he said. He added makers and other enemy specialists embedded within the that funding in the current (and future) resourcesgeneral populace. constrained environment may limit development of “To give a concrete example of our solutions being used gaming solutions. This applies not only to solution by the United States military, the Marine Corps Tactics development, but also to operation and mainteand Operations Group has developed Enhanced Company nance, as technical experts at mission training comOperations Simulation to train officers how to sift through plexes and schools provide significant assistance to Marc Schlackman the enormous amount of visual and written information trainers and instructors and may soon be limited by mschlackman@diguy.com at their disposal and make correct tactical decisions,” said budget restraints.

Schlackman. “The behavior and visualization of hundreds The Air Education and Training Command and thousands of human entities, including Marine squads, (AETC) Squadron Officer College employs an inmortar teams, opfor fighters, IED networks, UAV feeds, and house computerized air combat simulation known civilians is all handled by DI-Guy.” as Theater Air Visualization as the Squadron Officer Calytrix Technologies offers multiple products to the School Warfare curriculum capstone event, said U.S. military in the arena of serious gaming including Steven Moon, Department of Air Force, Advanced LVC Game, Comm Net Radio and LVC Cost Counter, said Technologies program manager, HQ AETC/A5TT Damon F. Curry, international sales manager, Calytrix Technology Requirements Branch. Air War College Technologies.

Distance Learning uses a culture simulation (VEST) “LVC Game is the de facto standard for connecting serithat is an interactive simulation used to familiarize ous games products into DIS/HLA-based distributed simustudents somewhat with different cultures. Students Damon Curry lation environments,” said Curry. “Through LVC Game, can collaboratively apply lessons in Air Force and damon.curry@calytrix.com serious games can interact with external live, virtual and joint doctrine, as well as leadership and communicaconstructive entities of other systems, such as OneSAF, tion, in planning and executing a realistic air operaJSAF, JCATS, or multi-million dollar specialty trainers like flight simution by utilizing these programs. However, using this type of simulation lators. Comm Net Radio family of products provides simulated radio has its challenges. communications to serious gaming applications. LVC Cost Counter “Some of the major challenges to widespread use of serious gaming monitors a serious gaming network and computes the real-world costs in the Air Force is the lack of sufficient base architecture and computers associated with simulated events. Example: LVC Cost Counter can with processor, graphics and memory capabilities to handle advanced calculate the true financial cost of firing real artillery shells versus firing simulations and virtual world environments,” said Moon. “Security and simulated artillery inside a serious game based training activity. In genbandwidth concerns severely limit the ability of the .mil network to host eral, LVC Cost Counter accumulates the costs of operation, repair and virtual environments for large scale training. In addition to these factors, replacement of vehicles and weapons systems, the costs of munitions, funding is just not currently available to retrain instructors, developers MT2 17.6 | 21

vulnerabilities in mobile platforms. Currently, any content more sensietc., so LVC Cost Counter quantifies what has been previously assumed tive than that which is freely available—for example, on the Internet—is but not actually calculated in detail.” impractical with mobile platforms from the military’s standpoint.

Calytrix products are currently in use by the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine “Similarly, contractor support for system maintenance and upgrades Corps and several foreign military branches. is a drain on resources. CTI’s efforts in cloud-based computing, with Laser Shot offers the game After Ambush Contact, which utilizes objectives in both large-scale artificial intelligence and remote renderVBS2. Laser shot also provides a wide array of virtual systems to ing, address these challenges,” said Korris. “On a more modest scale, military and law enforcement customers in the United States and CTI is addressing the need for meaningful after-action reviews and abroad. These systems can be categorized as marksmanship, crew student coaching in less-bounded, interactive applications with a novel, trainers or close quarters battle systems (CQB), said Paige Manard, AI-based scoring and evaluation system now in testing for the U.S. chief executive officer, Laser Shot. intelligence community. We are addressing the high cost of simulated “Our marksmanship trainers can be further broken into classroom, military equipment with a CTI-developed process for producing the deployable and lanes trainers,” said Manard. “Our crew trainers include tools required for training military occupational specialties like Joint vehicle crew and gunnery trainers, boat crew and gunnery trainers, Terminal Attack Control.” and air crewman training simulators. Lastly, in our CQB systems, Melissa Moore, director of government sales, Simformotion LLC, we provide digital ballistic and non-ballistic shoot houses, and range the licensee for Cat Simulators for Caterpillar Inc., said the opportunity modernization systems that allow traditional paper target ranges to be to gain practical knowledge and skills before training with actual tools converted to include virtual scenarios and targetry.” and equipment offers benefits including safety, cost savings, production, Manard added that the challenges faced in creating such serious mobility, flexibility and skill assessment. gaming platforms should be treated as opportunities.

Simulation is being used more often, as the newer generation of “I believe the greatest opportunities for serious gaming develrecruits enjoys gaming. “One battalion commander opment include networkable solutions that train is even using Cat Simulators as a recruiting tool, critical thinking, require less infrastructure and at a citing the simulators as a convincing way to show lower cost,” he said. “Although our military customrecruits the technology and training they will receive ers still have a need for some stand-alone simulawhen they sign on,” Moore said. “The cost savings tions, they increasingly have a need to network cannot be overlooked. As the defense budget continmultiple simulations to better replicate and train for ues to tighten, cost-saving measures in training are the complex environments that they work in.” crucial.”

As serious gaming evolves, Manard feels immerContinuing education training is being implesion of the student is key. mented at advanced individual training, and for “New interfacing technologies must be incorpoexample, Army Reserve Centers also have simulators rated that help engage the student as well as provide at engineering sites to allow soldiers to keep their a finer detailed picture of feedback for the instrucPaige Manard skills fresh in between projects and deployments. tor,” said Manard. “This comes in the forms of the pmanard@lasershot.com “The challenge is deciding ‘what,’ rather than fields of biometrics, human-computer interfaces and ‘what if,’” to simulate, said Moore. “Technology is graphics engine upgrades.” continually evolving. As new and more powerful computers are developed and available, it means even Cloud Computing Development more detailed and interactive environments can be created.”

From individual to team training on standBrad Spearing, president of Ternion Corporation, alone computers, mobile devices and massively said there seems to be an established interest in using multiplayer games, rehearsing individual skills, precomputer games in first-person shooter training mission tasks and evolving technologies, gaming applications. Interest appears to be growing in using can offer our servicemembers unique and creative games in applications where the training audience is ways to learn, noted James H. Korris, president and James Korris someone other than a trigger-puller, such as a C4I CEO of Creative Technologies Inc. (CTI). james.korris@creative-technologies.com system operator.

“We have seen a rapid evolution of technology “Game software is seldom designed to be cusin serious gaming,” said Korris. “New developments tomized by those other than the original developinclude cloud computing to support increased funcers,” said Spearing. “In the defense industry, where tionality and broader platform options. Remote rensimulation requirements are numerous and everdering, putting simulation image generators in the changing, not being able to use their own developers cloud, seen in the commercial sector in recent years, to customize the game can be a serious problem for promises to bring the power of desktop systems to end-users.” the thinnest of clients.”

Games rarely model all the different types of miliSimilarly, Korris said cloud-based data centertary systems that are involved in a real battle. Consesized support for artificial intelligence can bring quently, Spearing said it is very difficult to simulate a large numbers of realistic non-player characters to battle with enough realism to support training a C4I pocket-sized platforms. An important caveat: The Melissa Moore system operator. Games also have limited capability acquisition and training community will need to mmoore@catsimulators.com to interact with real C4I systems. solve numerous open questions regarding security 22 | MT2 17.6

www.MT2-kmi.com

Customizable Scenarios “In many games, the game and the scenarios that the game supports are inseparable. It is often difficult, if not impossible, to edit existing scenarios or create totally new scenarios,” said Spearing. “FLAMES [Flexible Analysis, Modeling and Exercise System] was designed from the ground up to be customizable by the end-user. The source code to all system models is included with the development kit, and new models can be added quickly and easily.”

FLAMES can simulate large battles involving almost any type of military system. FLAMES can also directly interact with real C4I systems. These are some of the reasons why FLAMES is already being used as the foundation for so many C4I system operator trainers, said Spearing.

FLAMES scenarios are defined entirely by input data and FLAMES includes powerful and user-friendly tools for creating and editing scenarios. Among other things, Spearing said future enhancements to FLAMES will continue to emphasize ease of software customization, ease of scenario creation and editing, and support for interfaces to real-world systems.

One of the biggest trends in serious games and virtual worlds is the delivery of these capabilities within the browser, said Brent Smith, vice president and chief technology officer, Engineering & Computer Simulations (ECS). “With the release of Flash 11 and WebGL, realistic 3-D environments can be delivered safely and securely from within a standard web browser. This helps

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One of the biggest challenges is to overcome the hype. “Serious games and virtual environments are not a panacea in the training space. There are many aspects of training and education that these technologies are not appropriate for. However, they do play a role as part of the continuum of learning and provide opportunities that other forms of instruction cannot provide,” said Smith. “This presents a huge challenge for government and industry as we work toward creating blended learning solutions. How do we incorporate these capabilities into existing programs of instruction while communicating with the existing IT infrastructure for learning?”

There are a number of technologies that will benefit serious games and virtual worlds. Many of these technologies can be seen in the commercial gaming space like the use of the Kinect sensor, speech recognition engines, and integration with social media. However, Smith concluded there are a number of ancillary technologies that that will provide an amazing return on investment if proven successful. One component of the Intelligent Tutoring Research (being performed by OSD, RDECOM, ONR, University of Memphis and others) is to create individualized learning experiences within serious games by enabling the games to dynamically alter game-play to keep learners engaged by tailoring the difficulty level, triggering in-game behaviors, and providing dynamic remediation and feedback based on their performance. O

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By J.B. Bissell MT2 Correspondent

Achieving mission success through language training.

A little more than a year ago, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta visited the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) at the Presidio of Monterey in California. He was there to speak to an assembly of men and women who are studying foreign languages and cultures, a group he believes are essential to not only the military’s ultimate success, but to the future of America as a whole. “It is absolutely vital to what the United States is all about,” he said.

Admittedly, learning a foreign language is not usually the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about armed forces training.

Most people probably believe that superior firepower, unparalleled surveillance and counter-intelligence technology, and remarkable mobilization capabilities are all that’s needed for a strong military. But being fluent in Pashtu or Korean can be just as crucial to mission success.

“If we are going to advance stability in some of the countries we are fighting in today,” Panetta said, “we have to be able to understand what motivates those countries, what motivates their people, and to understand their culture, beliefs, faiths, ideologies, hatreds and loves.

So it is crucial to our national security to be able to have a strong language ability.”

Servicemen and women going through DLIFLC certainly will emerge with that strong ability. Nearly all of the instructors teach the language they grew up speaking, and virtually no English is used in the classroom. Put simply, “DLIFLC provides the most intensive foreign language training experience possible,” said Colonel Danial Pick, commandant of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center.

“Students study for seven hours per day with a minimum of two hours of homework per night for six, 12, or 15 months, depending on the difficulty of the language. The top 10 percent of our students go on a six- to eight-week overseas immersion, and many live with a host family to maximize the immersion experience.”

Beyond a Cursory Interest Seven hours per day for up to 15 months is a lot of work, but the effort is worth the outcome. “Showing up and speaking the language has an immediate positive effect in building rapport with local nationals,” said Lieutenant Colonel Kent L. Webber, commanding officer of the 229th Military Intelligence Battalion. “It projects ‘beyond cursory’ interest in the local culture; it lends importance and dignity and helps establish trust.”

It also helps save lives. “This can probably best be illustrated by the experience of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, which was deployed to Ramadi, Iraq,” 24 | MT2 17.6

said Michael Emonts, senior business development specialist at Alelo, a company that does language and cultural training for the military.

“In 2008, 3/7 assigned two members of each squad to learn Iraqi Arabic using Alelo’s Tactical Iraqi course. This proved to be highly beneficial.

In fact, this battalion became the first to return home from Iraq without any combat casualties.”

A report about their mission made it clear that the unit’s language abilities were largely to thank for the triumphant homecoming. “Language and culture training, if done effectively, can have a profound impact on the well-being of military personnel overseas, as well as the overall success of their missions,” added Emonts.

Alelo is doing this work effectively, as well as efficiently. Their Tactical Iraqi Language and Cultural Training System (TILTS) course can be completed in a matter of days as opposed to months. “Time is extremely precious for military learners,” Emonts said. “As a result, it is critical that any training solution specifically target military training objectives. Alelo is well-known for its developmental methodology, which allows us to create language and culture training solutions that are linguistically and culturally accurate, contemporary, and task-relevant.”

In other words, Alelo’s approach focuses on the communication that soldiers will use in the field. “Learners are put into 3-D virtual world environments where they can practice their linguistic and cultural skills in context,” explained Emonts. “Immersive environments play an important role in providing the context for communication, and they facilitate skill transfer to real-world situations.”

Tense Shift

The true value of language training is never more evident than when those real-world situations turn tense. Colonel Pick recalled an event during which “a soldier from a Brigade Combat Team operating in Southern Afghanistan who had studied Dari through a DLI Language Training Detachment prior to deploying was able to defuse a tense stand-off with Afghan forces and avoid misunderstanding and potential fratricide.”

Ashley Burke, vice president of communications at DynCorp International, has heard numerous similar stories. “Whether simply engaging local communities to assist in information gathering or working to defuse that sort of tense situation on the ground, cultural training—which can encomMichael Emonts pass anything from understanding appropriate greetmemonts@alelo.com ings and religious beliefs to being familiar with www.MT2-kmi.com

appropriate clothing styles and interpersonal gestures—can impact all aspects of mission success,” she said.

DynCorp International’s Training and Intelligence Solutions division teaches those greetings and interpersonal gestures to a range of clients, including professionals from military intelligence, special forces, the international business sector, and other non-governmental organizations.

Oftentimes, only a handful of individuals in any given unit will actually be fluent in the local language; it’s also common for military personnel in the field to make use of an interpreter. Still, it’s important for everybody, even those who aren’t dealing directly with the indigenous population, to comprehend the culture—and the impact their actions can have. So, part of the training provided by DynCorp “involves understanding how cultural context and language can impact assessments, intelligence outcomes, negotiations and mediations,” explained Burke. “Particularly when military or other personnel are using translators.”

The focus is on “effective interaction with non-English and nonwestern cultures, in order to enhance their mission effectiveness,” added Burke. It’s a two-part process. “Our Electronic Language Simulator (ELS) generates an artificial non-language, which creates a communication barrier similar to what is encountered in the field, to give participants a live practical exercise in the use and management of an interpreter-required event.”

Added to this are professional role players with the kind of diverse backgrounds—age, language, ethnicity and gender—that can provide the necessary mission-relevant, realistic training the military demands. “When used in the ELS exercises, the role players are totally immersed in the depicted culture,” said Burke. “They wear native clothing, incorporate native tradition and behaviors, and function completely within the exercise scenario, giving trainees an authentic feel for what they might encounter in the field—and teaching strategies they can utilize to support positive outcomes.”

that may be common in the U.S., but is offensive to the native speaker, is counterproductive.”

Indeed, and as the Navy’s Center for Language Regional Expertise and Culture Operations Officer CTICM (IDW/SS/AW/NAC) Scott D. Bond said, “On any given day, our Navy has sailors deployed to the four corners of the Earth, and in every instance their interactions with foreign cultures can potentially have lasting implications on the Navy’s mission abroad. There are few better ways to interact with people who may happen to be culturally distant from our own culture than by learning and correctly using a few words or phrases in their language.”

Whether it’s a few words and phrases, understanding the local etiquette and protocol, or being as fluent as a native speaker, communication is key.

“A common language and verbal or even non-verbal understanding between two people is a very important thing to all humans,” Bond continued. “We are, by nature or design, social creatures who think and speak in a particular manner to communicate emotion, complete a task, or seek peace of mind. Speaking to a local community member in a foreign country in his or her native language can go a long way to establish trust and influence cooperation or common goals. In many cases, even the attempt to talk to a non-English speaker in their native language can be critical to the establishment of trust. When our sailors make this attempt during a stressful time, such as a natural disaster relief effort in a foreign country, the outcome can be astonishingly positive.”

And achieving these positive outcomes, as Defense Secretary Panetta noted last year, truly is what the United States is all about. O For more information, contact MT2 Editor Brian O’Shea at briano@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mt2-kmi.com.

Lasting Implications Combining these role players with actual language training is one of the fastest ways for soldiers to internalize new linguistic skills. “In our experience, learning can be further accelerated by higher levels of immersion, such as interacting with role players while participating in cultural events or scenario-based activities in a fully-appointed, life-sized model village,” said Kelly Sauls, senior instructional systems designer with General Dynamics Information Technology, another outfit that provides a wide range of language training.

“We offer traditional in-residence classes, web-based distance learning and self-paced modules, including a scenario-based language and culture game,” Sauls explained. “We currently provide accelerated, deployment-specific, ‘just-in-time’ Mobile Training Teams on behalf of the Defense Language Institute, and online language education with live instructors via a ‘virtual classroom’ to students worldwide for the U.S. Air Force.”

Because of the vast range of offerings, General Dynamics’ classes can pinpoint the requirements of their clients and target audiences, with varying intensity levels and course lengths available. No matter what those specific requirements might be, however, the training is based on both language and culture.

“Those should always go hand-in-hand,” Sauls said. “To effectively teach language we need to also provide education and training about culture. For example, speaking the language while using a gesture www.MT2-kmi.com

MT2 17.6 | 25

NEXTISSUE

October 2012 Vol. 17, Issue 7

America's Longest Established Simulation & Training Magazine

Cover and In-Depth Interview with:

Col. Matthew Clarke Director

Simulation and Training Technology Command Profile Army Modeling and Simulation Office

Features Helicopter Simulators High fidelity simulators offer the military a cost-effective alternative to live training exercises, and the options for helicopter simulators are extensive.

Military Operations Urban Training Urban operations present a different type of challenge to achieve mission success, and the military trains extensively for these types of missions.

Land Vehicle Gunnery Our military uses a wide variety of ground vehicles. Military personnel need to be trained and qualified to use the vehicles’ tactical options.

Special Section 11th Annual Top Simulation & Training Companies This annual competition recognizes companies that have made a significant impact in the military training industry throughout the current fiscal year in simulation, distributed learning, serious gaming, visual systems, embedded training, targets and ranges, database modeling and any other training component. Companies are selected based on various criteria, which, in part, includes total military sales, end-user feedback, innovations and need for the solution.

Insertion Order Deadline: September 26, 2012 • Ad Materials Deadline: October 3, 2012 26 | MT2 17.6

www.MT2-kmi.com

The advertisers index is provided as a service to our readers. KMI cannot be held responsible for discrepancies due to last-minute changes or alterations.

MT2 RESOURCE CENTER Advertisers Index

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AgustaWestland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4 www.agustawestland.com DI-Guy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 www.diguy.com I/ITSEC 2012. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 www.iitsec.org Improvised Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 www.improvisedelectronics.com Matrox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 www.matrox.com/avio/mtt MetaVR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2 www.metavr.com Polhemus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 www.polhemus.com Rockwell Collins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 www.rockwellcollins.com Selex Galileo Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3 www.selexgalileo.com USGIF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 www.geoint2012.com

Calendar September 25-27, 2012 Modern Day Marine Quantico, Va. www.marinemilitaryexpos.com/modern-day-marine.shtml

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geoint2012.com MT2 17.6 | 27

INDUSTRY INTERVIEW

Military Training Technology

Lars Borgwing President and CEO Saab Training USA provider for training systems and support in any country.

Saab Training USA is a leading provider of military training and simulation solutions to the warfighter worldwide.

Q: What is an example of your success in the military, and what are some of your goals specific to the training/simulation industry over the next year?

Q: Can you describe Saab’s history and evolution?

A: Saab Training has provided innovative training systems to the U.S. market since our spin-off from the aerospace company in the 1960s with the development and introduction of the first laser simulators and live fire gunnery targets. Since then, we have fielded over 15,000 laser-based simulators, gunnery targets and instrumentation systems worldwide. Saab Training USA is a U.S. company with a U.S. board and operates under a special security agreement with DoD. We delivered our first armored targets to the U.S. Army in 1978 and we estimate that 500,000 soldiers and Marines have been trained on Saab products in the last decade in the U.S. alone. We have continuously improved and expanded our product line to now cover the live, virtual and constructive training domains.

Q: What are some of your key products in the DoD training and simulation industry?

A: Our key products in the live domain are laser simulators and instrumented ranges.

For the virtual domains, we have engagement skills trainers for rifles, rockets and other direct fire small arms and call for fire trainers for indirect weapons like artillery and close air support.

Q: What are some of the new training/simulation technologies Saab is developing?

A: We are fielding the newest generations of Saab laser-based simulators for all heavy combat vehicles and the communication instrumentation system for the home stations and training sites of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. Our instrumentation systems continue to evolve, allowing more flexibility for worldwide use through features such as software defined radios, variable laser code system and advanced exercise control software. The modern battle space environment with joint operations are created in a 28 | MT2 17.6

virtual, simulated environment with advanced computer-generated force using our Tactical Simulation Tool Suite and virtual trainers such as the Call for Fire Trainer and Joint Fires Synthetic Trainer.

Q: How are you positioned for the future within the military?

A: We have multi-year contracts for live domain simulator systems that require deliveries of thousands of systems with room for expanded scope to support future requirements. Our Combat Vehicle Tactical Engagement Simulation System (CVTESS) will be used to train large numbers of U.S. Army soldiers on how to tactically employ the Bradley and Abrams armored vehicles. Saab has a strong independent research and development program that feeds an active product line with state-of-the-art products and upgradable components that can be rapidly fielded. We are fielding our fifth generation of range instrumentation systems to seamlessly replace our legacy system because of our development processes that maintain configuration control, sustainability and future growth within the same product line.

Q: What is Saab’s connection with the defense community?

A: Saab has partnerships and relations with most of the major U.S. defense companies and throughout the defense community. As a highly respected partner in the defense industry, we focus on strategic growth with other complementary companies. Our reputation for on time delivery and contract execution makes us a valued contractor and partner at any level within a project team.

We have a unique position as a “full service”

A: We fielded our range instrumentation system with the U.S. Army in Europe in 2000, which was rapidly followed with similar system to the major European armies. We were able to respond to an urgent operational requirement to ship six instrumentation systems to Iraq in 2004 within five months of the contract award to support Army divisional training. These early legacy systems are still in use and interoperable with the latest fifth generation of our range systems being fielded at home station sites ranging from Texas Fort Hood and Fort Bliss to Fort Drum in upstate New York. Our armor vehicle simulators which were first fielded in 1986 by the Army are now being replaced by the Saab CVTESS at all armor training sites around the world.

Q: How do customers benefit from Saab varied resources and expertise?

A: We have a worldwide capability coupled with a local market focus. For example, we enhanced our U.S. presence with the establishment of a development facility at Saab Training USA’s headquarters in Orlando, Fla., to modify existing commercial training products to comply with U.S. Defense Department specifications. For the British Army, we man a year-round instrumented training site in Kenya and a site in Iraq to train infantry tactics and counter-IED procedures. The worldwide experience benefits our entire customer base with lessons learned.

Q: How do you measure success?

A: We measure success as providing effective and complete training solutions to the warfighter according to the specified requirements on schedule. We seek constantly to maintain a balance of soldier support success and shareholder value. O www.MT2-kmi.com

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