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LVC Deployer Col. Bradley M. Crites
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July 2015
Volume 20, Issue 3
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July 2015 Volume 20, Issue 3
Cover / Q&A
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special section
Avatars for Training
DoD is turning increasingly to training technology that simulates real people and situations, not only to develop skilled personnel equipped to carry out its worldwide mission, but also to help those individuals prepare in advance for and cope afterwards with the stress caused by the intense and dangerous situations to which they are exposed. By Karen E. Thuermer
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Education and Training for Cybersecurity
Both the nation’s colleges and universities and the simulation and training industry are stepping forward as key allies as the Department of Defense makes development of a skilled cybersecurity workforce the top priority in its increasingly critical mission to defend department networks against cyber-attacks. By Harrison Donnelly
16 Colonel Bradley M. Crites
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With future military operations expected increasingly to occur in the world’s burgeoning cities, military trainers and their industry partners are stepping up efforts to develop effective technology and formats for military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) training. By Erin Flynn Jay
As they become important tools for military training programs, mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones are changing the way developers create instructional software, and holding out the promise of realtime monitoring of and interaction with students as they learn. By Harrison Donnelly
The Army and the Air Force face challenges ensuring that the pilots who remotely operate their unmanned aerial systems complete their required training, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.
Training for the urban terrain
Training on the Move
Departments 2 Editor’s Perspective 3 Program Highlights/people 14 data packets 26 Team orlando 27 Resource center
UAS Pilot Training
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Commander Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation
Organization Profile: National Center for Simulation
The National Center for Simulation is a not-for-profit trade association that promotes M&S technology expansion, supports education and workforce development and provides business development aid to members.
Industry Interview Jim Takats
President and CEO TRU Simulation + Training
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Military Training Technology Volume 20, Issue 3 • July 2015
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EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE One of the most dangerous things that can happen to a pilot is to become spatially disoriented, which occurs when he or she fails to properly sense the aircraft’s motion, position or altitude relative to the horizon and the earth’s surface. Spatial disorientation (SD) causes an estimated 20 percent of significant Air Force mishaps, and has been cited as cause in a recent Black Hawk crash that killed 11 Marines and National Guardsmen. Flying experience enables pilots to gain mastery over SD, as they learn to understand what is happening to them and how to respond correctly. Until recently, however, ground-based training was of limited effectiveness Harrison Donnelly Editor in developing those skills, leaving only the option of actual flight, with all its expense and risk. In the past, pilots have trained using a Barany chair, in which the trainee was blindfolded, spun around and then asked to perform certain tasks. The 100-year-old invention was helpful in making students aware of the effects of disorientation, but did not allow for the full range of experiences and demands of a modern aircraft. In response to that lack, the Air Force two years ago launched a competition for a Barany chair replacement, in the form of a motion-based trainer with basic aircraft control and performance displays representative of generic training aircraft cockpit controls and functionality. The winner of the competition was the GYRO Integrated Physiological Trainer II from ETC, which provides a SD flight training experience in which trainees can be exposed to and learn to deal with more than 20 different disorienting situations. Air Education and Training Command recently unveiled its first spatial disorientation flight trainer at the 82nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron, Sheppard AFB, Texas, where it was hailed as an important step in developing pilots with the experience needed to meet the SD challenge. “Flight operations--especially training operations-carry inherent risk, so any time you can reduce that risk it’s good for the mission,” Captain Taylor Zahm of the 80th Operations Support Squadron told an Air Force reporter.
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Developers of virtual-reality training systems can take advantage of recent advancements in technology and computing power that depict human characters in much higher fidelity than ever before. [Image courtesy of Havok]
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Army Seeks Helicopter Virtual Maintenance Trainer The Army has awarded Disti Corp. a contract to develop a virtual maintenance trainer (VMT) for the UH-72A Lakota helicopter. The $4.4 million contract includes the development of 12 interactive student workstations with a networked Instructor station, an additional “hanger” workstation to be collocated with a hardware-based trainer, and a “reach-back” training capability to deploy virtual training content on handheld mobile devices. Since the introduction of the UH-72A into the Army’s operational fleet in 2006, initial maintenance efforts focused on providing experienced Army aviation maintainers with factory aircraft familiarization training to maintain the UH-72A fleet in an FAA-approved environment. The focus for UH-72A maintenance training is now shifting from contractorprovided familiarization training to an Army institutional training course for UH-72A maintenance. As part of that course, the Disti-built VMT will provide a virtual practical exercise interactive workspace designed to support the performance of UH-72A maintenance tasks to task standards. Scott Ariotti; sariotti@disti.com
Contract Supports Air Force Wargaming SDS International has received a contract to support the Air Force deputy chief of staff for strategy, planning and requirements and other Air Force organizations in the conduct of its mission for operational strategy concept development, operational/regional politico-military analysis, capabilities assessments, war and mobility planning and requirements development. Under this contract, SDS will support the simulations, training and experimentation program, which includes the planning and execution of Air Force Title 10 war games, unified engagement and futures game. Unified engagement and future games are Air Force chief of staff war games designed to study operational challenges from the perspectives of a joint force commander. Specific support requirements include providing subject-matter expertise in wargaming, Air Force air-sea battle implementation, modeling and simulation support, exercise support, livevirtual-constructive operational training, and war and mobilization planning.
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Air Force School Receives Immersive Display Systems 3-D perception (3-DP) has announced delivery of two of its Northstar immersive visual display systems for the Air Force Test Pilot Training School at Edwards AFB, Calif. The company delivered and installed the two Draco Northstar mini-dome systems. These highresolution devices feature a 3.4-foot radius spherical screen, and a seamless 160-degree vertical and 60-degree horizontal field of view, a dedicated heads-up display. Draco domes are 3-DP’s small-footprint automatically aligning visual display system concept, which is ideal for fast-jet applications and can be installed in standard office spaces. Adam McCard; adam.m@3d-perception.com
Contract Funds Air Traffic Control Training The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has awarded SAIC a contract with a maximum value of $727 million to provide all training and training program support services under the FAA Controller Training Contract. During the next five years, the FAA expects to hire as many as 6,000 new air traffic controllers to replace a retiring workforce. Under the contract, SAIC will provide support services to the FAA Academy and air traffic control
facilities to help FAA fulfill controller training requirements. These services include program management support; classroom training; simulation and laboratory training; monitoring of student progress; training development, maintenance and revision; air traffic training program support; administrative support; and innovation support. Lauren Presti; lauren.a.presti@saic.com
PEOPLE
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general and for assignment as commander, Air Education and Training Command, Joint Base San AntonioRandolph, Texas. Lieutenant General Darryl L. Roberson
Air Force Lieutenant General Darryl L. Roberson has been nominated for appointment to the rank of lieutenant
American Systems has hired Keith McGhee as vice president and director of the Global Training and Development Directorate, where he will oversee this group’s business development, finan-
cial management and workforce management goals. FlightSafety International has announced several executive appointments, including Gerry McRae as executive director, business development and Robert McGahan as director, business development, government training and simulation.
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Realistic virtual environments build skills and help
warfighters cope with the stress of intense operations.
By Karen E. Thuermer, MT2 Correspondent
in virtual-reality environments before they The Department of Defense is increasare deployed can significantly improve readiingly turning to training technology that ness, according to Cory Kumm, worldwide simulates real people and situations, not director of military and simulation at Havok. only to develop skilled personnel equipped to “However, the effectiveness of training in carry out its worldwide mission, but also to these scenarios often depends on how closely help those individuals prepare in advance for the visuals depict the real world,” he said. and cope afterwards with the stress caused The major advantage of by the intense and dangerous avatars—defined as graphical situations to which they are representations of the user exposed. or the user’s character—is Every branch of the milithat they provide human-like tary is employing some kind interaction, noted Bob Kleinof avatar or virtual-reality hample, director of simulatraining technology, which tion and training systems for offers benefits over convenSAIC. Military members can tional live training in terms practice complex situations of cost and scalability. where they must make splitThe need for and potenCory Kumm second decisions regarding tial of virtual reality technolcory.kumm@havok.com whether or not to use force ogy was underscored by the and how to engage potential “Squad Overmatch Study” threats. released last year by the Advocates describe avaArmy Program Executive tars and virtual worlds as best Office for Simulation, Trainused as a supplement to live ing and Instrumentation, training. “Its use opens the which looked at training soldoors to training and other diers to recognize and apply situations where availability learned techniques to manof a person with specific skills age psychological stress in a might be hard to find, costcombat-realistic, controlled, prohibitive or physically danrepeatable and reviewable Bob Kleinhample gerous,” Kleinhample said. simulated environment while exercising warrior skills. robert.c.kleinhample@saic.com “Virtual worlds can provide geo-specific or geo-typical The study focused on the experiences for personnel prevention of post-traumatic without the costs or dangers stress and improving menof personnel travelling to or tal performance at the squad working in actual locations.” level by employing gaming Virtual training environand virtual and live training ments “must replicate both technologies, combined with kinetic and non-kinetic aslearning techniques, to manpects of full-spectrum warage psychological stress in fare, lest they risk imparting combat scenarios. negative training,” observed If suitably realistic, proAndy Gruendel Andy Gruendel, program grams that expose warfightmanager at Alelo. ers to high-stress situations agruendel@alelo.com 4 | MT2 20.3
In Gruendel’s view, current virtual training technologies do not provide sufficient realism, particularly in the human dimension of training. “The military needs rigorous virtual training that replicates the social and cultural aspects of operating in full-spectrum operations, as well as the physical stresses,” he said. The Army’s Games for Training (GFT) program applies combat lessons and operational capabilities in a virtual environment. The program is managed by TRADOC Capability Manager Gaming at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., which collects user requirements from soldiers to pinpoint technology helpful for training. In its recent re-compete of the GFT flagship gaming environment, the Army specifically asked for virtual technology that is capable of emotional behavior, speech recognition and language support. “This requires synthetic training environments that are populated with socioculturally accurate virtual role players,” said Gruendel, explaining that virtual role players need to interact with trainees in a culturally accurate manner, and using speech and gestures—just as real people do. “The simulation should model the second-order effects of those interactions within the human terrain,” he added.
Realistic and Interactive Today, a host of companies offer virtual technology that is increasingly realistic and interactive. SAIC provides avatar and virtual-world capabilities across three different areas: simulation, instructional systems design/interactive media instruction and serious games. Its capabilities are found in the Transportable Reconfigurable Integrated Crew Trainer (TRICT) built by the Army Game Studio. TRICT makes extensive use of both avatars and virtual worlds in training personnel on the MRAP and other vehicles. www.MT2-kmi.com
“TRICT allows crews to drive a real vehicle through a virtual world and provides all the tactile feedback of operating the actual vehicle and its systems, from driving to communication to weapons,” Kleinhample said. “Users can experience how it brakes, accelerates and leans, and even what it is like to roll a vehicle over for real-life egress training. Avatars in the virtual world can be configured to be friendly forces, civilians or opposition forces actively engaging the vehicle with small arms to IEDs—all in real time by an instructor, thus adding a dynamic human element to training scenarios.” The technology is also being used to create culturally accurate avatars for ethics training. “The Center for the Army Profession and Ethic (CAPE) is using the America’s Army training game to train soldiers to respond to ethical challenges in a virtual world,” Kleinhample explained. CAPE is using “Moral Combat” to rejuvenate Army ethics education by injecting a series of challenging ethical scenarios into the existing maps, missions and objectives presented in the America’s Army game. “This version of the America’s Army game provides soldiers with an entertaining experience that increases ethical awareness, stimulates and evolves the moral working self, and provides a data-capture mechanism to support ethics research and moral character development,” Kleinhample said. Havok offers simulation and 3-D visualization technologies that are being used by integrators to prototype and develop highfidelity simulations for tactical and combat training. The company’s Rocketbox Library is seen as a source for high-fidelity avatar
models for simulation and training due to its high-quality stock 3-D models and animations and strong specialization on real-time characters and animations, Kumm said. A wide variety of character types, both military and civilian, are available for licensing in source file format for integration with IG systems. The library of 3-D character models and animations has also been enhanced with Havok technology, essentially giving the avatars “brains” so they interact correctly with the environments and simulation scenarios they are used in. “This version of Rocketbox Libraries is already included and fully integrated with the Havok Simulation Framework,” added Kumm. “The option to get the integration of both products into one framework makes adding animated characters to training simulations a much easier process than it was before, significantly reducing the cost for creating sophisticated simulations that contain intelligent lifeforms. This makes it very useful for the military and armed forces for the creation of highly realistic and immersive virtual training experiences.” Today, the Army, Navy and Air Force use Havok Rocketbox characters in some form for a wide variety of applications. For example, small-arms trainers use autonomous avatars as enemy forces. In command and control systems, avatars are used to help display complex missions, and for aviation, avatars or 3-D characters are used for flight crew, again helping immersion. Recent advancements in technology and computing power help to depict human characters in much higher fidelity than ever before. “This leads to new opportunities to better help prepare trainees for situations they could be facing,” commented Kumm. “Subtle nuances in character movement, up to the level of facial expressions, can make a significant difference when having to distinguish one or more potential threats from uninvolved civilians in a crisis scenario.” Highly realistic virtual characters with believable and detailed animation are also very important in training used in combination with virtual reality. “Systems such as virtual reality googles add unprecedented realism, making the trainee feel as if he/ she is really part of the scenario—literally being immersed,” Kumm said.
These factors are especially important in training where emotional factors play a decisive role.
Cultural Awareness Products offered by Alelo emphasize virtual role-playing methodology. The company offers three major product lines to train mission-critical tasks throughout the military: Operational Language and Cultural Training System, Virtual Cultural Awareness Trainers and Virtual Role-Player Military (VRP MIL). Alelo’s VRP platform trainers select virtual role players from libraries of reusable character roles, assign them to non-player characters and insert them into the virtual world, creating realistic simulations with a minimum of effort. “Briefings, after-action reviews and virtual coaches can add additional scaffolding to reinforce mission goals,” Gruendel said. “Throughout the simulation, user interaction data is collected to generate precise quantitative measures of performance.” The results have been positive. According to Gruendel, the first Marine battalion to complete a tour of duty in Iraq without any combat fatalities trained with Alelo’s Tactical Iraqi language and culture trainer prior to deployment. “Over 60,000 military members have learned intercultural skills using Alelo’s Virtual Cultural Awareness Trainer courses on Joint Knowledge Online,” he said. The VRP MIL platform populates virtual training environments with culturally accurate avatars. “The NATO Joint Force Training Center in Poland and other U.S. coalition partners are adopting it,” Gruendel stated. “It provides a foundation for sociocultural modeling in military synthetic training environments.” VRP MIL is currently compatible with the Bohemia Interactive Simulations VBS3 (Virtual Battlespace) platform, enabling trainers to create virtual role-play simulations by populating worlds with artificially intelligent virtual role players that include validated culturally appropriate behaviors. Earlier this year, Alelo conducted a trial in conjunction with a NATO pre-deployment exercise in which participants were immersed in a key leader engagement scenario using English or Pashto. The focus of the tri-
A digitally animated character’s movement, speech and gestures exactly mimic the role player, facilitating an interactive dialogue. [Image courtesy of Organic Motion]
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MT2 20.3 | 5
are driven by a real human actor or not. “The al was to demonstrate soft skills training in operator sits there like a matrix and decides a virtual environment supporting the overall where and when to play the human,” Miller accomplishment of the mission. said. “There’s nothing out there like that.” With its roots in Hollywood special efAccording to Miller, a Live digital characfects, Organic Motion is a new company ter is much more effective than an artificial in the military space. Its product, Live, is intelligence character, and more cost-effecunique in that it allows warfighters to intive than multiple human actors. teract with digitally animated characters While Organic Motion was slow in bein live training scenarios in a natural and coming involved with the military, the comintuitive way. pany was contracted by the Army last year to According to Ed Miller, vice president install a system at Fort Benning, Ga., and the of Organic Motion, most companies in this Marine Corps and Navy have shown interest space only offer branching videos with acas well. Organic Motion Live also received tors playing out scenarios. Live, on the other high marks in the Squad Overmatch Study, hand, introduces a greater level of realism by Miller said. inserting live roleplayers into training exercises in a convincing manner. “When warfighters step into a ‘room’ for Gaming Standards training, they have a conversation with that avatar where emotions and expressions pop Janus Research Group is developing a out of their face,” he said. “They will have a biometrics and forensics (BIO/FOR) virtual regular conversation because the training is training package to be completely compliant driven by an actual human in real time, like with Army gaming and virtual standards so video conferencing, and the actor or trainer that the end product will meet required DoD can be anyone they want to be. That actor specifications for training in a simulated plays multiple roles.” environment. The role player is in a capture portal “Since the start of Operations Iraqi that projects him or her as a high-definition Freedom and Enduring Freedom, BIO/ Live digital character into a FOR technology capabilities live training scenario in real have rapidly made their way time. Nothing is pre-recorded to the forward edge of the and there are no animated battlefield as an exponential scenes. The digitally animission enabler,” noted Mark mated character’s movement, Covey, Janus vice president speech and gestures exactly for modeling, simulations mimic the role player and and training. “Attaining idenfacilitate an interactive twotity dominance plays a crucial way dialogue in a natural and role in an effective counterintuitive manner. insurgency mission by workMark Covey This is not a recorded ing to reduce and ultimately mark.convey@ character, but an actual live eliminate the anonymity an janusresearch.com person interacting with traininsurgency requires to conees who view that person as any intended duct its operations.” digital character. Live uses the latest voice Properly training warfighters on admodulation software, projection and targetvanced equipment and evolving tactics, ing technology to create a completely imtechniques and procedures (TTPs) remersive training capability. quired to achieve this identity domiUp to 50 avatars can participate, but the nance is an enormous undertaking, individuals being trained cannot tell if they
Covey noted. “Effective BIO/FOR virtual training allows users to train wherever they are, be it in a deployed location or at home station where scheduling conflicts often preclude the use of mobile training teams and relegate a unit to minimal exposure at a combat training center 90 days before a deployment.” Combined with the worldwide distribution of the virtual training programs either by CD/DVD or digitally via the Web, the program being developed will provide DoD with the flexibility to train users on BIO/FOR equipment, concepts and TTPs anytime, anywhere. “This training product can be used by active, reserve, National Guard and other services to reduce the pre-deployment training burdens for these units,” Covey said. Plans also call for deploying this capability with the Army gaming Virtual Battle Space 2 and the Army Intelligence Center of Excellence’s Learning Technology Directorate Learning Management System. TRADOC Capability Manager Biometrics and Forensics (TCM-BF) contracted Janus to construct this virtual training solution and environments as a blended solution that incorporates cinematic visualization tools, interactive multimedia instruction programs and serious games technology. “It’s all developed using the COTS virtual environment engine Unity,” remarked Covey. “Janus is developing the total package in increments, and has delivered several modules to the TCM-BF, including the military decision-making process, leader and staff training, mission preparation considerations, post-mission activities, site exploitation kit, exploitation site management, biometrics
The effectiveness of training in virtual reality scenarios depends on how closely the visuals depict the real world. [Image courtesy of Havok]
6 | MT2 20.3
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gathering, building and vehicle search, forensic material handling, IED components, document and media exploitation, cache detection and homemade explosives.”
Pushing the Boundaries Within the last year, two significant developments have boosted virtual reality technologies. First, the Department of Education strongly endorsed the value of using gamebased technologies for education—based in part on documented successes within DoD. Second, the increased popularity of game development technologies has led to lower licensing costs and greater ease of use of the technology. “Both Unity and Epic (makers of the Unreal engine) have reduced their licensing fees and made the technology easier to work with,” remarked Kleinhample. “The result is that it is easier and cheaper than ever to use these cutting-edge technologies. Additionally, the proliferation of end-user devices such as tablet computers and powerful mobile phones, combined with bandwidth and infrastructure capable of delivering content to these devices, has enabled users to have increased access to these virtual worlds. “As early adopters, customers in DoD will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible and will quickly leverage advances made in other areas,” Kleinhample said. Human interaction with these technologies will continue to change, however. Kleinhample said he already sees customers asking that virtual worlds and other highly immersive technologies be able to be delivered to where the user is on their available platforms. “We are investing in these areas to leverage the power of cloud technologies and our ability to design for multiple platforms,” he said. “As these technologies become more accessible, greater functionality can be expected from them.” Alelo envisions extending its VRP platform to include higher-level sociocultural models. “This will involve modeling sociocultural dynamics at the micro-social, mesosocial and macro-social levels,” Gruendel said. “We propose to include the dependencies and interactions between the model levels to create integrated human-terrain architecture. Such an integrated architecture can model second-order effects of military operations.” Havok’s library of characters is constantly evolving, with the company adding some
30 percent more content in the past year. “We have recently added the possibility to apply dynamic injury and dirt layers to the character model surfaces,” Kumm stated. Havok has also created a flexible component system that enables the user to switch between different equipment items, headgear and other attachments with just a few clicks. “The addition of such a mix-andmatch approach makes the number of different characters that can be depicted with the system limitless,” he said. Going forward, Kumm expects continued expansion of Havok’s library and increasing levels of detail to further reduce the gap between the real and virtual worlds.
For more information, contact MT2 Editor Hank Donnelly at hankd@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mt2-kmi.com.
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“While motion-capture technology is a great tool to help in production of such animation data, we need sophisticated systems to blend this data together smoothly into fluent motion for correct movement of the 3-D characters,” Kumm said. “In most cases, a realistically moving low-resolution character model is preferable over a high-resolution model with stiff motion or disrupted transitions.” O
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Special Section
Education and Training for Cybersecurity Academic and industry programs help DoD pursue its goal of developing a skilled cyber workforce. By Harrison Donnelly, MT2 Editor Both the nation’s colleges and universities and the simulation and training industry are stepping forward as key allies as the Department of Defense makes development of a skilled cybersecurity workforce the top priority in its increasingly critical mission to defend department networks against cyber-attacks. The latest DoD strategy paper on cybersecurity, released in April, lays out a broad approach to safeguarding its own systems, while also responding to significant attacks on the U.S. cyber-infrastructure and developing cyber-capabilities to support military operations. In that effort, the first goal listed is to build and maintain both a cybersecurity cadre and supporting capabilities. Following up on its 2013 decision to establish a Cyber Mission Force, which when fully operational will include nearly 6,200 military, civilian and contractor support personnel from across the military departments and defense components, the report said that DoD now “must make good on that investment by training its people, building effective organizations and command and control systems, and fully developing the capabilities that DoD requires to operate in cyberspace.” The strategy paper also emphasizes the need for the department to work with the private sector, and in this case both academia and industry appear ready to respond. In a field once dominated by informal networks of hackers sharing security information among themselves, where only a decade ago college cybersecurity courses were a rarity, today hundreds of programs offer instruction, from basic training at community colleges to universities offering advanced degrees. More than 150 schools are currently designated as centers of excellence by the National Security Administration. The simulation and training industry also sees major opportunities in cybersecurity, and is coming forward with products designed to leverage their expertise in computer-based learning. For example, one system seeks to provide “a full, instrumented, synthetic cyber-warfare training environment.” The courses of instruction run the gamut from day-to-day operation of standard security systems to high-level strategy. Learners range from active duty servicemembers receiving DoD instruction supported by contractors to uniformed personnel and veterans enrolled in degree programs designed to prepare them for senior security positions in government and industry.
Advanced Education One issue that both customers and providers must face involves choosing between focused training targeted to specific operational needs and postsecondary degrees covering the range of technology and policy topics. While the distinction between the two approaches is not hard and fast, analysts say a correct choice based on the target group is critical to effectiveness and efficiency. For the Information Assurance Center at Iowa State University (ISU), the focus is on cybersecurity degrees at the graduate level. 8 | MT2 20.3
The institution offers master of science or master of engineering degrees, either through traditional campus-based classes or online. “When we first started the program, we felt that for security professionals who would do more of the planning and occupy positions higher in an organization, an advanced degree was the way to go— having the foundation of a computer science or software engineering as your fundamental platform, and then adding security on top of that. We targeted students who could quickly move themselves up in the security arena,” recalled Doug Jacobson, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the center. “If you look at the landscape, there are community colleges producing people in the security area, four-year schools and schools producing people with advanced degrees. They all have a different role and organization. The community colleges tend to be the ones for running the equipment, while as you move up into the advanced degrees, they are going to be more into highend design,” he continued. “Our role here at ISU is to train the people who can be higher up in the command structure as far as cybersecurity, and also to help up-train people.” Although many students are clearly bound for the much larger field of private sector-cybersecurity, Doug Jacobson the ISU program has seen an uptick in dougj@iastate.edu the number of applicants from DoD, either here on campus or through distance education, Jacobson said, adding that enrollees include people in an IT role in DoD who are looking to retrain themselves into a security role. Jacobson offered this perspective on military needs: “If you look at a place like U.S. Cyber Command, you are going to have more people who are the focused experts on a certain type of technology—the firewall person and intrusion detection person. That’s a great place for people with specific types of training. But if you look at some of the issues of broader threats or advanced persistent threats, having a broader background has a real benefit. But they’re not mutually exclusive. We graduate students all the time who then take some highly specialized courses and sit for various certifications.” Another leader in this field is Grantham University, which offers three primary programs to help students develop expertise--a bachelor’s degree in information systems security and certificates in cybersecurity concepts and advanced cybersecurity. All three programs are aligned with the industry-standard CompTIA Network+ and Security+ exams, with actual practice certification exams within the courses. The bachelor’s degree is also in alignment to the Certified Information Systems Security Professional certification. The bachelor’s degree program covers such topics as cryptography, access control, computer forensics and risk management. Students delve into the policies, strategies and tools necessary to secure www.MT2-kmi.com
and protect critical infrastructure, data and services, and virtualizations and simulation labs give students opportunities to apply theory in realistic situations. A large majority of those enrolled in the information systems security degree program are active-duty military or veterans, noted Nancy Miller, Ph.D., dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, who added, “Cybersecurity is an ideal field for transitioning military service members wanting to continue their focus on keeping America safe, and Grantham’s cybersecurity programs are a perfect complement to their military training and security-focused work ethic.” American Military University offers a broad array of online degree and certificate programs, including bachelor’s and master’s degrees in cybersecurity, information systems and information technology with concentrations on information assurance or digital foDan Benjamin rensics. Undergraduate certificates include cybercrime, digital forensics and information security planning. As for the distinction between frontline and advanced education, Dan Benjamin, dean of the School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math for the American Public University System, said “You need both. As an analogy, we need skills in both guerilla warfare and traditional, sustained warfare to contain an enemy. We offer full-degree programs to prepare seasoned professionals in the field. We also offer targeted, 18-credit certificates to address more focused cybersecurity education.”
Simulation and Training Training and simulation companies see significant opportunities in working with the military on cybersecurity issues, which are both similar and different from other types of training. “We do the same kinds of things in cyberspace that we do in the operational space, from the standpoint that you have to understand
what kinds of things people need training in, what the specifics of those operations are, how DoD is going to want to train them—what they consider basic, medium or advanced—and help them define and build those tool sets,” observed John Stevens, chief technology officer for Cole Engineering. “That’s even more complicated in cyber than in operations because this area is evolving so rapidly, which makes it that much harder to keep up,” Stevens continued. “What’s state of the art today is not what was state of the art last month, so in the conventional training systems arena of acquisition, the cycles are way too long to deal with that. We need to find ways of building more flexible systems that can be updated and adapted in a controlled fashion in the field so you don’t have to go back to the contractor for another 12-to-18-month cycle to build and field another version to deal with something that’s obsolete even before John Stevens you build the first iteration.” john.stevens@ One key challenge lies in undercoleengineering.com standing what the DoD customer needs to communicate to trainees, he noted. “That is complicated in this area, because a lot of this information is classified, with good reason. But if we don’t know what you are trying to do, we can’t help you very effectively. If you can’t tell us what kinds of things you need to train, or what the operational people are doing, we can’t help. The second piece is how to streamline the acquisition cycle so they can get things that are relevant in the hands of people who need it in this arena where things are changing overnight.” Stevens pointed to his firm’s work with the Army OneSAF program, an open-source, common constructive simulation platform. “One of the capabilities we integrated into OneSAF is for computer network operations, which allows operators to simulate denial of service and other kinds of attacks on nodes in the mission command network inside OneSAF. That affects the model’s ability to see and react to things in the battlespace, and is reflected in the mission command systems,
grantham.edu/mt2 Copyright© 2015 Grantham University • All rights reserved • grantham.edu • DEAC accredited • #207
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Special Section
because they don’t respond the way you would think or don’t do things that they should. The staff gets training in recognizing that something isn’t right.” Scalable Network Technologies, meanwhile, has developed the Network Defense Trainer (NDT), which integrates real and simulated cyberattacks, wired and wireless virtual networks, live and virtual equipment and applications and traditional kinetic warfare training simulators into a cyber-warfare training environment. Trainees, who can include everyone from commander to network administrators in the same exercise, use their real battlefield applications and network defense tools on role-player stations that are mapped to virtual nodes within NDT. The training is fast-paced for operational speeds, and is centered on awareness, reaction time, correct action, workarounds and countermeasures, along with the ability to work through a degraded cyber environment at all levels to complete a mission. It logs all trainee actions and attack successes, then reinforces lessons learned with after-action reviews that show trainees and observers what actually happened and why. The advantages are many, according to a company spokesman. Both blue and red assets and networks can be modeled and attacked, combining kinetic and cyber warfare, with damage in one domain affecting performance in the other. Accurate modeling provides high-fidelity responses to real attacks and defenses. The system integrates real exploitation tools into a safe training environment allowing trainees to detect when something is wrong, assess what is happening, contain the attack, take countermeasures and modify operations.
Another approach has been taken by RUAG Defense, which has developed a cyber center of excellence that differentiates between training for commanders, operators of systems that are connected to the cyber domain, and computer network operations personnel. Unlike training programs that focus on technical platforms and red versus blue training, RUAG focuses on training processes and inclusion of important peers, while also pushing integrated education and training in business continuity and crisis management and lessons learned. “We think that system-specific education will also be increasingly valued,” a company executive observed. “A lot of system providers these days include security training in one form or another. Harvesting the power of these singular trainings and including them in training for basic education of soldiers will greatly improve cyber-readiness. “Last but not least, we strive to educate current and future leaders about cyber and train them to use force projection through cyber effectively. This is clearly further advanced than today’s cyber emergency training. After all, cyber is not that complicated, and good decision-makers will make good decisions if they understand its peculiarities better than they would if they were only to trained follow certain processes if something bad happens,” the cyber specialist added. O
For more information, contact MT2 Editor Hank Donnelly at hankd@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mt2-kmi.com.
Earn Your Online Master’s Degree in Information Assurance > Coursework is 100% online and flexible to suit your schedule. > Affordable tuition and fees. > Learn from the same respected professors in the same classes as our resident students. > Many lab-based courses, providing hands-on experience. For more information about our degree programs and specialized corporate training in information assurance, visit www.elo.iastate.edu/infas or contact us at infas@iastate.edu or 515-294-0659.
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Industry provides challenging environments for warfighters preparing for operations in the world’s teeming cities. By Erin Flynn Jay, MT2 Correspondent With future military operations expected increasingly to occur Flexible Scenarios in the world’s burgeoning cities, military trainers and their industry partners are stepping up efforts to develop effective technology and Another key trend is to invest in the next step for urban trainformats for military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) training. ing by scaling up the single shoot house to entire villages in which “With the wind-down of U.S. direct combat operations in Iraq maneuver training can be conducted. The need is all the more pressand Afghanistan, and the re-balancing of our forces, uncertainty exing with the wind-down of operations in Southwest Asia, where reists as to how future threats will translate into the al-world missions spurred intensive development of look and functionality of our military MOUT faciliwarfighters’ skills in dense environments. ties,” said Kit Lavell, executive vice president for StraMOUT training is leaning toward greater need for tegic Operations Inc. “After September 11, we learned flexibility and for forces to train as many scenarios and that we needed to rapidly redesign and rebuild our in as many different areas as possible, observed Oliver Cold War-looking training facilities to meet the new, Meyer, senior vice president of simulation and training asymmetric threat. Strategic Operations believes the for RUAG Schweiz AG. emphasis in the immediate future will be on more “A single and permanently instrumented location affordable, re-configurable, mobile, multi-purpose operated by a third party no longer meets all the needs MOUT facilities.” of modern forces,” he said. “They need technology that To meet those needs, Strategic Operations offers is mobile, robust and easy to use anywhere, yet still capKit Lavell new products. Their patented Re-locatable Habitures all the data required for effective training and a kit@e-stops.com tat Unit (RHU) is based on a 4-foot by 8-foot comdetailed after-action review.” posite material panel system that is lightweight RUAG offers the Mobile CTC (combat training cen(less than 100 pounds), and engineered to assemble ter) concept to deliver customers the flexibility they into multi-story, complex configurations with only need. “With our concept, customers can ‘train as they one tool. fight’ using our Gladiator harness and high-fidelity 1“The RHU is designed by movie-industry profesand 2-way laser simulation for accurate ballistics for a sionals and military tacticians to faithfully replicate range of light and heavy weapons,” said Meyer. “In addiany area of the world in look, construction material tion, Mobile CTC encompasses a vehicle-based EXCON and type, offering a wide array of textures and looks,” and mobile transponders to ensure the data connection said Lavell. “An international client has asked Stratebetween all participants and provide a platform for ingic Operations to assemble a MOUT with more than depth exercise analysis out in the field.” one hundred RHUs inside a climate-controlled strucThe MOUT training market is changing in terms of Oliver Meyer ture for day and night operations.” what specific skills forces want to train and which envioliver.meyer@ruag.com Other clients have asked the company to build ronmental and situational factors need to be replicated realistic interiors inside live-fire shoot houses, similar to a first-ofin the training exercise, he added. its-kind project for a 35,000-square-foot shoot house they built for “The expectation is that more military operations will occur in a U.S. special operations client. “With 52 different zones, including urban environments, but also that this comes along with an asymresidences with furniture and appliances, a hotel with a revolving metric threat and an enemy concealed within the normal populadoor, a bank with teller stalls and vault, a school, and a medical tion,” Meyer said. “Target identification therefore becomes a skill that clinic, the interiors of the shoot house are all made of architecneeds to be increasingly trained, as does appropriate force escalation. tural foam. The result was unprecedented hyper-realism with no The challenge that forces and providers face today is to provide comricochet danger in an affordable and easily repairable environment,” prehensive and realistic training of the traditional infantry skills of said Lavell. fire and movement, within a wider framework that responds to the Other new products are merchant ship simulators built for Navy more complex nature of modern urbanized warfare and the enhanced MOUT facilities and a series of modular MOUT structures built spescrutiny soldiers’ actions come under in this age of rapid and global cifically for mission rehearsal by special operations units. Lavell said information exchange.” these structures replicate real-world facilities of many descriptions, With MOUT sites returning to combined arms live fire and debuilt quickly for timely operational requirements. Exteriors and cisive action force-on-force operations, instrumented MOUT traininteriors have realistic props, sets, and other “atmospherics,” all of ing is evolving back to what it was prior to the September 11 attacks which add to the “willing suspense of disbelief” that the operators and the global war on terrorism, suggested Gray Campbell, senior are not in the actual facility. program manager, General Dynamics Information Technology. www.MT2-kmi.com
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New opposing force (OPFOR) threats are being utilized, such as General Dynamics IT first instrumented MOUT training in 1995 offensive and defensive cyber operations and continued use of role playwith the Army MOUT site at the Joint Readiness Training Center ers. The Army also trains against the new DATE OPFOR (JRTC) at Fort Polk, La. model, which includes a wide range of threats, such as “This occurred due to the commanding general of criminals, insurgents, guerrillas, paramilitary and miJRTC and Fort Polk desiring a state-of-the-art MOUT litia forces and regular OPFOR military organizations. site that utilized technology to upgrade the training fa“The majority of these threats migrate to built-up cility,” said Campbell. “From 1996 to 2010, the Army areas, so Army MOUT sites must support this level of built numerous MOUT sites across domestic and fortraining. Additionally, military units are increasingly eign locations, where the majority of training was plautilizing actual civilian infrastructure to conduct largetoon live-fire exercises (using training ammunition) scale training exercises,” said Campbell. and/or company-level force-on-force (using blank amGeneral Dynamics IT provides low-cost, flexible and munition and laser technology).” portable instrumentation solutions to support live-fire Once units started to deploy to Iraq and AfghaniGray Campbell exercises within existing and civilian facilities. In addistan, many of the MOUT sites supported mission rehearsal exercises (MRE) for units preparing for opera- gray.campbell@gdit.com tion, the company offers a live-fire, force-on-force training system, introducing increased training stressors with live, realistic tions. The training consisted of situational training utilizing a large scenarios to support a new level of advanced training that incorporates number of civilian role players depicting Iraqi and/or Afghan civilians. judgmental shooting and rules of engagement decision-making. The CTC MOUT sites were utilized for these MREs. “Now that the Army has moved to training for Decisive Action Training Environment (DATE) operations, MOUT sites are returning to Training Feedback supporting a wide variety of live-fire operations. The level of operation has increased, with many MOUT sites supporting company-battalionAnother advance is represented by the ability of Saab’s MOUT inlevel force-on-force operations,” said Campbell. strumentation system to provide meaningful and measurable training feedback at platoon and company level, according to Steve Parrish, business development manComplex Villages ager for Saab. “The system’s hardware and software is designed MOUT villages often have more than 30 buildto deal with the overwhelming amount of activity data ings. “Multiply that by floorplans ranging from as few that is typically generated above section level, and presas two rooms up to six-story structures with over 60 ent it in a selectable manner that leads to meaningful rooms plus hallways, as well as maneuver areas coverfeedback—effectively clearing the fog of war,” he said. ing the approach and between structures, and the tech“Earlier MOUT training systems on the market placed nology required to capture video and provide training the emphasis on providing detailed positional tracking enablers within the areas of interest can be extensive,” Steve Parrish of individual exercise players, augmented with hours of said Campbell. “In response to this complex undersurveillance video that required editing.” taking within MOUT as well as for the larger training area, General Typically, the positional tracking solutions were expensive and Dynamics IT created a range management solution to promote range complex, and did not rise to the challenge of coping with hundreds of safety and support daily operations to maximize range utilization.” exercise players in the three-dimensional environment of urban terGeneral Dynamics IT’s solution is built on a COTS architecture and rain and the frequent transitions into the open, Parrish noted. These ties in peripheral solutions that configure the system to support resystems were effectively designed to train building/room entry tactics porting of daily activities, inventory control, maintenance, vehicle and and techniques and hostage rescue, but did not properly lend thempersonnel tracking and wireless network communications that can selves to the broader spectrum of larger-scale collective training. complement/supplant legacy land mobile radios. Saab’s approach has been to design a scalable system that The solution then presents a common operating picture of range can be readily configured to meet any exercise size, together with operational status and health to credentialed users through a stannodes of special interest, and software (WinExcon) that can match dard Web page. Campbell said this solution was designed to allow the surveillance video footage to timed events and multiple selectable range manager to take control of the information he receives from locations to enable timely and lesson-rich after-action reviews to down range. be conducted. Through a Web page, the range manager can get up-to-date re“WinExcon has the tools to mine exercise data to facilitate acporting on the range schedule, operational status, inventory, who is tionable conclusions. WinExcon can visually aggregate and de-agcurrently signed into the range and where they are now. The range gregate the unfolding exercise and enable pockets of interest to be manager can also receive feedback and monitor the status of the ranges viewed, view the flow of battle or at a higher level,” he said. being overseen, as well as standardize the methods used to capture and Saab’s instrumented MOUT technology not only addresses access that information. tracking and data management, Parrish noted, but also accurately On ranges as large and complex as MOUT, General Dynamics IT simulates the composition of the urban environment to enable the believes this type of capability will promote safety and support technirealistic simulation of “shoot through walls” for direct and in-direct cal and operational management of the ranges role players, support fires. Further, Saab’s unique two-way simulation of armored fightpersonnel, and technologies to help maintain a safe and fully missioning vehicles’ main gun and soldier-fired anti-structure weapons encapable training environment as the training evolves and expands into able their effects against buildings to be realistically simulated. the future. 12 | MT2 20.3
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Urban warfare is now reliant on intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance feeds to provide the crucial intelligence needed, and Saab’s MOUT system can now replicate this without the need for real-world assets. The system is not only scalable, but is also configured to be readily integrated to external virtual and constructive domains with the use of Saab’s WISE software, which enables connectivity regardless of protocols, standards and architectures. “For many years, we have been seeing armies investing in skill houses, and much attention on high-accuracy measurement systems for the individual soldier. A lot of focus has been put on high-resolution indoor tracking solutions such as ultra-wideband (UWB). Much has been an engineering approach, and when observing individuals or just a few soldiers inside a single building, this makes perfect sense,” said Parrish. The problem arises when these lessons are scaled up to a requirement for an entire MOUT training village. This has led to very expensive solutions, or in some cases uneven performance when UWB has been deployed at village size. Another lane of action has been to take video to the extreme and just have massive video coverage instead of a tracking system. But after-action reviews have proven very time-consuming and difficult to analyze with this approach, Parrish continued. “The mix of a medium-accuracy indoor tracking system combined with strategic video will enable an automated selection of applicable footage,” said Parrish. “The tactical training system gives who is shooting and who is getting hit, while indoor tracking tells us where these persons are located at that specific time and thus enables automated extraction of the correct video frames.”
The approach also means that it’s up to military users to use the pieces they need for their specific scenarios. A straightforward urban hostage rescue mission could suddenly evolve into facing suicide bombers using chemical bombs, thus forcing the response of HAZMAT teams. The concept is that the training staff will be able to apply whatever pieces of training equipment to the topical threat. The use of virtual training aids is increasing, and there is also a realization of the need for blended training involving the mix of live, virtual and constructive simulation domains. Military leaders understand that they must train for urban operations and also rehone conventional skills. Moving more and more into virtual training as a potential cost saver is certainly a growing trend. The virtual simulators are great for training where the actual machine isn’t trained, Parrish said. “By that we mean that the tank or airplane itself isn’t necessary to be put to the harsh environment. Rather, the crew should be trained. This truly applies to vehicles, aircraft and ships. “But for an individual soldier, he is the actual ‘machine’ and it is he who must be subjected to the reality of environment. There is no virtual simulator that can make you run for hours, jump and crawl in the freezing rain like reality can. So for the boots on the ground, live training will prevail as the main learning tool.” O For more information, contact MT2 Editor Hank Donnelly at hankd@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mt2-kmi.com.
Scaling Up Military training programs are now investing in the next step for urban training by scaling up the single shoot house to entire villages to conduct maneuver training. Here, Saab is seeing a trend that it isn’t just about urban skills alone, but more about the full spectrum of requirements from crowded alleys to open plains. It is becoming evident that the modern training site must offer a seamless battle flow between open and urban terrain. This means that an urban training package is so much more than indoor tracking. It is about simulating indirect fire effects on building and its inhabitants, high-fidelity shooting through walls, and ambient effects such as sounds, odors, fire and smoke. Although not a specifically new product, Saab is offering a new module to its MOUT system to enable CBRN training to be conducted. This add-on capability supports specific standalone CBRN training, and also adds another facet to collective urban training. The CBRN simulates the nature and the spread of contaminants and their effect on field detection equipment. Further, the system simulates the effects of the use/non-use of personal protection equipment and decontamination measures. Saab has always had the approach that any new training needs must be an add-on to the baseline tactical training system. The Saab Gamer system, designed for open terrain training, has been growing, with expansion packs for urban training, counter-IED and lately, CBRN. “By having this approach, we are trying to create the military training equivalent of a giant box of Legos. There will always be new pieces, but they will leverage all the pieces you already have invested in,” said Parrish. www.MT2-kmi.com
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DATA PACKETS Training Exercise Develops Stability Operations African Lion 15, a joint military exercise held in Morocco this spring, included development and training for a combined force for stability operations. During the exercise, Marines with 2nd Law Enforcement Battalion demonstrated crowd-control procedures against a group of Moroccan, Dutch and Belgium soldiers acting as an unruly crowd. Exercise African Lion 15 is an annually scheduled U.S.-Moroccan exercise designed to improve mutual understanding of each nation’s tactics, techniques and procedures while demonstrating the strong bond between the two nation’s militaries. The one-week exercise includes various types of military training, including a command post exercise and stability operations such as nonlethal weapons training and crisis/disaster response training.
High-Fidelity Image Generator Seeks Military Market
Rockwell Collins has released the EP-8100 image generation system, a highfidelity image generator aimed at the military simulation and training market. One of the key differentiators of the EP-8100 is the system’s ability to utilize customers’ existing databases. It features conversion software that allows existing Rockwell Collins synthetic environments, as well as many industry-standard synthetic environments, to run on the EP-8100. These converted environments can be executed in their original form or may be enhanced to
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take advantage of the unique capabilities of the EP-8100. In addition to the EP-8100, Rockwell Collins is showing its RealFires transportable trainer, a high-fidelity, scalable training solution designed by experienced joint fires operators for the joint fires community. This rapidly deployable training system contains up to three cases for the controller, the instructor and an optional role player. The training system sets up in minutes and is easy to use and edit. Dave Gosch; david.gosch@rockwellcollins.com
Virtual Training World Directed by Player Body Movements Engineering and Computer Simulations (ECS) has integrated technologies from two major U.S. tech firms to create a total virtual world game for training in which the player is fully integrated into the game action. ECS integrated Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect 2 hardware into the Oculus Rift headset to produce a virtual world that is directed by the player’s body movements. Lift an arm and you can land a helicopter on an oil rig. Take a step and you might rescue a buddy from peril in an active battle. The game completely eliminates the player console device, and all activity is directed by the player’s body. The Oculus Rift stereoscopic, head-mounted display provides a wideangle, 3-D perspective of the game environment, while Kinect capability registers body movements and initiates game action. This integration elevates virtual-reality worlds to their next level of sophistication and brings them closer to full virtual world integration. “We’ve talked for years about completely eliminating the line between player and game,” said Howard Mall, ECS vice president of engineering. “This is an exciting and significant step toward achieving that, and although we’ve not completely eliminated the line yet, we’ve blurred it quite a lot.”
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Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Ground Demonstrator Supports High-Efficiency Trainer
Alenia Aermacchi has unveiled the M-345 Ground-Based Training Demonstrator Device, an advanced flight simulator representative of the flight qualities of the Alenia Aermacchi M-345 HET (High-Efficiency Trainer) aircraft and offering a replica of the cockpit and the main flight controls of the aircraft. The ground-based training system, which includes aircraft flight and systems simulators and computerbased training devices, is a key component of the new M-345 HET integrated training system. M-345 HET provides air forces with an economically affordable and effective
solution, thanks to a significant reduction in acquisition and life-cycle costs, compared to those of powerful turboprop trainer aircrafts. M-345 benefits from the jet performance and from the expanded flight envelope, both in terms of speed and altitude, which ensure more training per flight hour and higher training download capability from the subsequent advanced/ LIFT phase, providing important cost savings in producing a fast jet pilot. With the M-345, flying the same number of flight hours, the student pilot can complete Phase 2 with a significantly higher skill level.
Image Software Offers Realistic Flight Dynamics Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim) has demonstrated its new image-generation software, VBS IG, for flight simulation. BISim has integrated VBS3 with JSBSim open-source flight dynamics models for the F-16 and attack helicopters. JSBSim provides the aerodynamics, flight control system, propulsion and other elements to approximate realistic flight dynamics within the simulator. VBS3 serves as the CIGI host for VBS IG. VBS3 was programmed to provide an F-16 HUD, using CIGI symbology to create a 2-D overlay on VBS IG. BISim also integrated capabilities into VBS3 for multiple inputs, including joysticks, wheels, yokes and pedals used with flight simulators and image generators. The six-channel flight simulation demo at ITEC will be displayed on a 4-meter dome provided by Immersive Displays. D-BOX Technologies is providing a motion platform with its Motion Code and has worked with BISim to integrate it into VBS3.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recently visited the Multinational Military Flight Crew Training Center in Izmir, Turkey, where he flew with simulators produced by Havelsan. [Photo courtesy of Havelsan]
Tess Butler; tess.butler@bisimulations.com
Training Game Strengthens Manned-Unmanned Operations To strengthen teaming skills for manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) operations, a new training game is being developed with the Army Research Institute by Aptima and partners Trideum Corp, ASTi, Kinex and Imprimis. The Night Vision Tactical Trainer-Shadow game is designed to prepare unmanned aerial system operators to effectively communicate and coordinate with pilots of manned helicopters, ground commanders and other manned assets. While UAS training prepares operators to fly platforms and operate payloads, such as capturing surveillance imagery, the evolution of MUM-T has placed greater emphasis on real-time collaboration with helicopter pilots. Funded
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through a Department of the Army Rapid Innovation Fund contract, the simulator utilizes the Army’s ONESAF game engine and COTS speech recognition technology, providing the Army a lower-cost, readily accessible training vehicle that can be used from any Internet-connected computer. By incorporating synthetic entities and natural language processing that emulates voice and chat interactions, an individual UAS operator can practice communications and coordination in teaming scenarios without requiring live pilots and other participants. Kevin Sullivan; ksullivan@aptima.com
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LVC Deployer
Q& A
Changing the Training Paradigm to Maximize Readiness
Colonel Bradley M. Crites Commander Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation Colonel Bradley M. “Critter” Crites is commander of the Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation (AFAMS), which is the lead agent for centralized management of Air Force crossfunctional and shared live, virtual and constructive operational training (LVC-OT) foundational capabilities and resources supporting the Air Force service core functions. As commander, Crites is responsible for overseeing Air Force initiatives for enterprise solutions that will help build an efficient foundation to achieve “Readiness Thru LVC,” and allow warfighters to maximize performance and decision-making. Crites was commissioned through Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1991, following graduation from the University of California, Irvine. During his career, he was commander of the 43rd Electronic Combat Squadron, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., and served four times as a deployed squadron commander of the 41st Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron, Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. His previous assignments include: chief of Officer Development Branch, Air Combat Command Manpower and Personnel, Langley AFB, Va.; chief of EC-130H formal training and assistant director of operations, 755th Operations Support Squadron, Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz.; wing air operations officer and AC-130U weapons and tactics officer, Hurlburt Field, Fla.; and missile maintenance officer with Minuteman III ICBMs at Minot Air Force Base, N.D. Crites has also served with the Army as part of Combined Joint Task Force Paladin and Headquarters International Security Assistance Force, Kabul, Afghanistan. Before assuming his current position, Crites served as deputy director of operations, 12th Air Force, Air Force Southern, U.S. Southern Command, Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. He shared responsibility for overseeing operations for active duty wings, as well as guard and reserve flying units; planning and executing counter-drug and ISR operations and exercise efforts throughout the 31 nations of Latin America and the Caribbean; and overseeing USSOUTHCOM’s radar architecture, medical operations and exercises. He is a command pilot with combat experience in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Afghanistan. Q: How would you define the live, virtual and constructive (LVC) concept, and what does the motto of your command, “Readiness Thru LVC,” mean to you? 16 | MT2 20.3
A: The LVC concept is a fundamental capability that should be at the heart of all training programs supporting readiness in the Air Force. Live simulations involve real people operating real systems; virtual simulations involve real people operating simulated systems or environments; and constructive simulations involve simulated people operating simulated systems. Training in the LVC construct is vital for mission success, not only in the Air Force, but in all services. The training environment that we call LVC-Operational Training (LVC-OT) links Air Force organizations and allows interaction with various military capabilities around the world. “Readiness Thru LVC” means changing the traditional training paradigm to maximize warfighter readiness in the Air Force. As budget constraints cause a decrease in live training, the Air Force needs to increase their simulators’ capacity and fidelity to achieve the readiness required for tomorrow’s missions. Furthermore, emerging fifth-generation training is bound to highfidelity simulators for both security and capability requirements. We need to be ready to capitalize on synergies that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our airmen training through high-end simulation. Q: What is the role of the AFAMS in managing Air Force LVC capabilities? www.MT2-kmi.com
A: In 1995, General Ronald Fogleman, chief of staff of the Air Force, established AFAMS as the top-level modeling and simulation (M&S) implementer and integrator. In February 2013 the secretary of the Air Force and the chief of staff signed the LVCoperational training flight plan designating AF/A3/5 and AFAMS as the lead integrator for LVC. AFAMS is now the office of primary responsibility in the Air Force, and fortunate to be based in Orlando, Fla., close to the nation’s largest epicenter of modeling, simulation and training organizations. AFAMS works closely with the Air Force major commands and supports those customers by identifying, coordinating and implementing solution options for every aspect of the Air Force Enterprise-level LVC-OT. Every year, AFAMS supports numerous service and joint exercises, such as Blue Flag, Red Flag, Austere Challenge, Key Resolve and many others. AFAMS is responsible for the implementation of polLocated in Orlando, Fla., the Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation is the lead agent for centralized management of Air Force icy, guidance and for orchestrating the Air cross-functional and shared live, virtual and constructive operational training foundational capabilities. [Photo courtesy of the U.S. Force LVC foundations and integration sup- Air Force] to execute the information security process. We are now port as stated in AFPD 16-10, Modeling and Simulation and other heavily engaged with our distributed training centers in the Headquarters Air Force (HAF)-approved authoritative sources. process of securing our LVC training systems and making them compliant with the new certification and accreditation Q: Is LVC for operational training different from other types of process called the “risk management framework.” The goal LVC, and if so, what makes it different? is to develop a certification and accreditation users’ guide in the future that will be utilized for all Air Force LVC systems. A: LVC simulation techniques have been under study by Air Force • Establishment of LVC standards. The Air Force recognizes researchers since the early 1990s. The current intricate user that it’s time to formulate a new approach and move to needs and the increased advances in technology make LVC-OT an enterprise-level process when crafting standards for the primary way to train across the Air Force’s full spectrum of LVC-OT. Currently, training organizations make standards missions. Enforcing compliance to more interoperable, related implementation decisions based on MAJCOM-specific standards could lead to a “plug and play” environment. From requirements, increasing costs and limiting interoperability. AFAMS’s point of view, there’s no difference. We use the same Because they are not synchronized across the enterprise foundational blocks to train our airmen through the array of opwhen placed in a mission scenario that requires these erational to tactical-level training. Later on, as missions evolve, disparate simulators to communicate and exchange they will adapt the training to meet the needs of the warfighter simulations information, it presents technical challenges and the ever-changing threat landscape. that impede the operational training of the event. These standards will provide a baseline to facilitate interoperability Q: You are responsible for overseeing Air Force initiatives for across systems being utilized within the enterprise. enterprise solutions that will help build an efficient foundation • Finally, the implementation of an LVC-enterprise to achieve readiness thru LVC. What are some of the current framework we call the Air Force LVC-Operational Training initiatives under way? Readiness Training Centers (RTCs). Since 2013, the Air Force A3 and AFAMS, with the chief of staff’s approval, A: AFAMS’s top three priorities to assist in realizing the vision of have been continuously working to formalize a construct Air Force LVC are: for the Air Force Distributed Training Centers. These are operationally managed within the MAJCOMS and also serve • Cybersecurity. An Air Force leadership operational concern as the portal for connectivity of LVC activities with other that must be incorporated into our training environment. geographically disparate locations across and outside the This involves everything from personal information to MAJCOMS. This initiative will help us standardize equipment operational data. Through its cybersecurity team, AFAMS and data to be more efficient in reusing authoritative data performs independent security-risk assessments on and eliminate duplicative technologies to meet readiness operational training LVC systems. With more than 150 LVC needs. Last year, AFAMS developed a program guidance letter training systems in the Air Force, our cybersecurity team is (PGL), and in conjunction with AF/A3O-C is coordinating a actively developing security control overlays for each system www.MT2-kmi.com
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new Air Force instruction (AFI) that redefines current lines of authority and realigns them to effectively contribute to AF readiness across the LVC-OT enterprise. We expect to establish seven new RTCs once the PGL gets approved. These are enduring efforts behind our driving factor—readiness. A coordinated and integrated approach to LVC is the next evolution of the AF strategy to build the best possible training environment for the warfighter. Q: How have your personal experiences as a combat pilot shaped your approach to LVC? A: I define it as a frontline perspective. My operational experiences allow me to stay plugged in with those operators currently confronting asymmetrical threats and provide the warfighter the best training possible. Q: How are you working with other Air Force commands to develop and implement standards for common access and interoperability within the LVC domains? A: Last year, Lieutenant General Burton Fields, deputy chief of staff operations (AF/A3), tasked AFAMS to develop and coordinate the Air Force LVC-OT Technical Standards Profile, which provides a good first step to achieving “Readiness Thru LVC.” These LVC-OT standards will assist acquisition and training managers to make informed decisions that influence interoperability and operational training, thus impacting readiness. This year, AFAMS partnered with participants of the Enterprise Data Service (EDS), formerly called the Rapid Data Generation program, to leverage their Common Data Production Environment. M&S EDS minimizes the time and cost required to produce data for modeling and simulation applications. It enables the discovery and reuse of data that has already been produced for an M&S application, and facilitates the integration of authoritative source data through Web services. Q: How would you characterize the state of acceptance of the LVC concept within the Air Force, and what are the factors that encourage and hold back its adoption? A: The implementation of the LVC construct for training continues to gain “momentum” not only in the Air Force, but in all services. We realize that developing independent, stovepiped capabilities, non-integrated networks and duplicative data is not efficient. The Air Force is working towards an enterprise architectural approach in which LVC simulations can be “plugged in” to support all AF mission sets, from complex to more routine training scenarios. The capabilities exist now. The challenges are many. The budget constraints and the increasing threats we face today requires a balance among these LVC capabilities to preserve operational readiness. Q: In what ways are the current and anticipated budget constraints affecting the need for and feasibility of LVC programs? A: During her keynote speech at the 2015 AFA Warfare Symposium, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James mentioned several examples of what sequestration can cause the Air Force, 18 | MT2 20.3
specifically on the training environment. Divesting the KC-10 refueler fleet, cutting total force flying hours, weapon system sustainment, simulators and high-end training, such as red and green flag exercises, might need to be enforced, with serious consequences to the warfighter’s readiness training. The final goal is to sustain and enhance readiness by enabling effective, relevant, realistic and efficient training, and test in a secure, persistent and ultimately global live, virtual and constructive domain. Q: How is your command organized, and what are some of the projects under way within your divisions? A: AFAMS is a field operating agency in support of the Operations Directorate, HAF, Washington, D.C. The agency has two divisions: LVC Foundations Support Division: Executes Air Forcelevel centralized management of cross-functional and shared Air Force LVC-OT foundations (infrastructure, standards, security, knowledge management and workforce development) to improve interoperability and prevent unnecessary duplication and redundancies across operational training enclaves. This division also provides HAF oversight of cross-functional and shared LVC-OT architecture and standards compliance for LVC operational training. LVC Operations Engagement Division: Serves as the Air Force LVC-OT focal-point for facilitating the use of cross-functional and shared LVC foundational capabilities and resources in support of Air Force distributed training and LVC-OT enabled events. This division provides global engagement and awareness through direct interface with key stakeholders (major commands, combatant commands and unit level), identifying, capturing and advocating Air Force LVC-OT requirements, initiatives and capabilities for Air Force service core functions. It also provides HAF oversight of cross-functional and shared LVC-OT architecture and standards compliance for LVC operational training. AFAMS works closely with combatant commands, major commands, Air Force Reserve Command, Air National Guard, Air Force headquarters, direct reporting units and field operating agencies to provide the necessary development and implementation standards for common access and interoperability within the LVC domains for efficient and secure global operations Q: What role does industry play in your work, and what changes, if any, would you like to see in your industry partnerships? A: AFAMS is located in Orlando’s Central Florida Research Park. This location is prime for us because we are surrounded by Department of Defense, joint, service, contractor and educational organizations focused on modeling and simulation. Proximity to these other agencies offers the Air Force the maximum leverage and advantage of the developing programs and technologies enhancing the Air Force’s ability to provide ready forces. Industry is an integral part of the triad known as Team Orlando. Industry is one leg that supports the proverbial three-legged stool (DoD, academia, industry), and without a good foundation, the LVC breaks. Collectively, we need to understand all of the challenges and constraints affecting each of us in order to realize the same end goal. It’s always a balancing act of DoD contractual regulation and business guidelines/strategies. O www.MT2-kmi.com
Training on the Move Mobile devices are reshaping how military training software is developed and delivered to students. As they become important tools for military training programs, mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones are changing the way developers create instructional software, and holding out the promise of real-time monitoring of and interaction with students as they learn. Not only do these increasingly common and affordable devices offer new platforms for conveying content Howard Mall to trainees wherever they are, say advocates, but they also can provide feed- howardmall@ecsorl.com back to help improve performance by both instructors and trainees. “These devices are becoming situational awareness machines that can keep track of things that are happening in real time,” said Howard Mall, vice president of engineering for Engineering and Computer Simulations (ECS). “Mobile should be increasingly used to immediately collect information and provide rapid after-action reviews over large exercises in order to provide even better training.” Analysts also expect that physiological and other types of sensors will continue to be a big part of innovative solutions involving mobile technology. “The ability to capture behavioral, cognitive, psychological and other data to improve training outcomes will continue to expand,” said Luke DeVore, director of business development for Design Interactive. “Mobile technologies will enable the capture of this data and will also make it easier for trainers to incorporate this data across the www.MT2-kmi.com
By Harrison Donnelly MT2 Editor
live-virtual-constructive continuum,” he said. “One challenge will be making sense of the data, or more specifically making sure that the data actually improves warfighter training by informing better training design, delivery, remediation and feedback.” To be sure, adoption of mobile devices has occurred on a limited basis in formal training programs as military trainers and developers work to surLuke DeVore mount the information assurance (IA) luke@designinteractive.net security challenges that have slowed adoption of mobile devices for other military needs as well. But they are already playing a vital informal role, noted Courtney Dean, senior scientist and A-Measure product lead for Aptima. “Officially, it’s close to nonexistent,” said Dean. “But we’ve observed mobile tools being used on an ad-hoc basis. These are personal pieces of equipment owned by the students, Courtney Dean who are using them to capture media data such as photos, which they can cdean@aptima.com discuss during performance reviews. They don’t have any formal standards or tools embedded in them, but they take photos or capture video of what students are doing.” MT2 20.3 | 19
Army Eases Mobile Training Access One sign of the military services’ interest in expanding use of mobile devices for training came recently with an Army announcement that soldiers can now use smartphones and computer tablets to access the Army’s primary website for training information. Previously, they needed a computer with a Common Access Card (CAC) to find resources on the Army Training Network (ATN). This spring, the Army began allowing users to access ATN with a username and password. Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno directed the implementation of username/password access to ATN, the Army’s single point of entry for all things training, to ensure widest access to authoritative training information. “This is a big step forward for the Army. As we create more apps and websites for training and training management, we must include the soldier and unit-level training managers at the operational point of need,” said Colonel Thomas J. Trossen, director of the Training Management Directorate (TMD), which is leading the change at ATN. All users of ATN with a CAC have the option from the ATN landing page to sign up for a username and password through the Defense Manpower Data Center. Users originally needed a CAC card for security reasons even though the information on ATN is unclassified, explained Charlie Ostrand, the technical branch chief for the Army Training Management System. Nevertheless, TMD teams needed to make some changes to ATN. They segregated information that is “for official use only,” which
is only available to CAC card users. “Some 93 percent of the information on ATN will be accessible with an Internet connection, username and password,” he said. “Units in the field can have online access, and commanders will not have to carry stacks of training documents.” ATN provides access to a number of training resources, such as Unit Training Management, NCO Corner, Combined Arms Training Strategies, the Digital Training Management System (CAC users only) and leader development materials.
available on a range of platforms,” said Carol Wideman, While still in its relatively early stages within the CEO of Vcom3D. military, the potential for mobile device use is growing “If you are thinking about delivering a training as the result of technology advances in consumer marsystem or courseware, you should have a strategy to kets. “The gaming and consumer markets are driving enable it on multiple platforms,” urged Mall. “If you and evolving the mobile technology. The military maruse that strategy up front, you can make technology ket is just along for the ride. Ten years ago, the military decisions that will enable you to adapt to the different market was convinced the only way to train maintaindelivery modes you need.” ers was to stick them on hardware-based training devices,” said Scott Ariotti, director of global marketing at Disti Corp. Mobile Playbook Scott Ariotti “Today, virtual-based training devices command the landscape,” he continued. “The military market Like a lot of companies, Design Interactive saw sariotti@disti.com has been evolving contract by contract and service by the shift from desktop to mobile and found a few service to see that there is a better way. The military niches within the mobile training domain, DeVore market needs to evolve its preconceived notions and explained. These have included Playbook, a research policies in how to use this technology.” and development effort through the Army Research Indeed, one imperative for developers going forLab that provides a rapid authoring tool for small unit ward will be to design training software from the lessons learned. ground up to work on a variety of formats, including “The goal is to pull from our warfighters’ experiencdesktop PCs, tablets and smartphones. es and provide a highly intuitive and engaging platform “We think that when designing any type of softfor them to animate, narrate, and analyze their experiware for training, it’s important to make the applicaences. It’s a peer-to-peer learning solution aligned with tion platform-agnostic. The cost of developing trainthe Army Learning Model (ALM),” he said. Carol Wideman ing software isn’t due to the fact that it’s on a tablet, In a different direction, the company is also develmobile phone or PC. The cost lies in developing the oping a product called the Mobile Collaborative Anxiety carolw@vcom3d.com cognitive task analysis (CTA) and mapping the CTA to Learning and Management system (MCALM), which is learning objectives, and then designing the architecture, gameplay a tool designed to help veterans living with post-traumatic stress disand training content. For us, it makes good business sense to make it order. MCALM connects physiological sensors with the user’s mobile 20 | MT2 20.3
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device to identify anxiety triggers, provide real-time mitigation strategies/exercises, and create an event log for the mental health professional to incorporate into treatment. There are lots of benefits to mobile use, but they depend on the application of mobile technology, DeVore observed. “One clear benefit is the ability to provide warfighters access to information, training materials and tutorials outside of the classroom and directly at the point of need. Another great and evolving benefit is the ability to socialize learning and to enable warfighters to share their expertise. This sort of informal, peer-to-peer learning is a big part of the ALM 2015.” A major challenge, he continued, is that “the military services need to provide reasonable guidelines for the integration of mobile technologies into training systems and networks to ensure that training and technology innovations are able to get out to the warfighter and are not hindered by IA and other constraints. But security is a constant and very real concern, so a balance needs to be struck between technological innovation and security.”
Assessment Tool Aptima has focused its efforts in the mobile arena on performance assessment, developing a tool called SPOTLITE, which is designed to give instructors and observer-controllers a lot of flexibility in capturing meaningful performance results for trainees when they are performing their mission-essential tasks. The tool makes sense, Dean said, because the vast majority of military domains have a coherent plan for how to assess emerging warfighters. They have a concept of what the mission-essential competencies are, and a notion of how to assess that. Those tasks are largely done with paper and pencil, however, and then transcribed into records. “But if the mobile device is developed with the performance assessment tools within it, and you have digitally captured that data, both accurately and with no loss of data, mobile tools can provide some of the assessment instantaneously. So you can have an effective after-action review just seconds after the action occurred,” Dean noted. Using SPOTLITE involves identifying the critical tasks and a set of performance measures that are relevant to the mission, and then putting them in a customized interface that meets the use case and best facilitates access to those measures in the circumstances that the trainee and instructor are under, he explained. “Sometimes instructors and students are in a simulated environment where they aren’t co-located, and the instructor is observing things through a master control room and monitors. At other times, the instructor is with trainees out in the field, possibly carrying a rucksack and sleeping in the woods. These different environments will demand different ways of interfacing with the tool in order to maximize efficiency and effectiveness. We customize the tool to the different use cases to make it a better experience for the instructor, because if it’s not being used, it’s just another weight in the rucksack,” Dean said. “The biggest challenge we face is in developing the right system for the specific use case,” he added. “This has led to a lot of variations of the performance assessment tools. It’s valuable in that way, because each unit has a tool that best fits their case. But the challenge is in identifying what the particular unit needs to meet its unique circumstances.”
to create cockpit and instrumentation content on iOS or Android devices, either as native applications or as no-plugin WebGL content. Customers use this capability to produce remote instructor operator stations, cockpit familiarization trainers and cockpit procedure trainers. In addition, the company recently productized VE Studio, a suite of tools used by its professional services team to build custom virtual environments for maintenance training applications. VE Studio comprehensively manages virtual environment development, beginning with project requirement identification and analysis and continuing through source data collection, automatic code generation, software build automation and automated regression testing. It offers templates for publishing content across desktops and mobile devices. Disti is also a launch partner with Amazon Web Services for its AppStream application streaming service, which lets trainees stream resource-intensive applications from the cloud. “Any Web-connected device that has the bandwidth capacity to stream a movie has enough horsepower to run a graphically demanding maintenance training application interactively,” said Ariotti. The company’s efforts are winning a response, with two of its last three major virtual maintenance training contracts containing requirements for content on mobile devices. The latest is a virtual maintenance trainer for the Army UH-72A Lakota that includes a reach-back training capability deploying virtual training content on handheld mobile devices.
Virtual Environments Disti offers a variety of pathways to enable training on mobile devices, such as the GL Studio ES toolkit, which allows developers www.MT2-kmi.com
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Disti is also grappling with the technological challenges involved in mobile training devices, and plans to submit a paper to I/ITSEC conference later this year that will examine the challenges and options for deploying maintenance training applications to mobile devices. These graphically intense environments often levy hefty requirements on the type of computer capable of delivering the training experience, Ariotti noted. While using a native application ensures that trainees can access the training materials even when there is no Internet connection, mobile graphics processors and limited localized memory also restrict the level of fidelity of the virtual environment.
Tablet Training Vcom3D develops all of its interactive games that are used on PCs to also work on tablets, either Android or iOS. For the military, it has developed a series called The SPOTLITE tool is designed to give instructors and observer-controllers flexibility in capturing meaningful performance results for trainees. [Image courtesy of Aptima] “Stat!” which includes a game for the emergency room. The tablet- and PC-based application enables learners to imTeachable Moments merse themselves in being members of an ER team, including technicians, physicians and nurses. ECS, whose experience with mobile devices for military training Vcom3D is also developing blended training that includes virtual goes back to a project in which it transferred some Navy course content training for developing decision-making skills as well as manikin or to a long-ago Palm Pilot, has done native, Web and hybrid applications part-task trainers for practicing hands-on medical skills. “It is similar to deliver mobile content. to live ranges—if you train on a simulator first, you are going to deFor example, the company just did some work for the Advanced velop skills that you can apply in the live training sessions,” said WideDistributed Learning (ADL) Co-Lab, which was a system called Perman. “This reduces the overall cost of training and provides opportunisonal Ubiquitous Learning System with Adaptive Response (PULSAR). ties for sustainment training after deployment. The same thing applies That system takes into account all of the sensor information available to medical simulation—the cost of purchasing and using mannequins on how a person is using the phone, such as when they are actively usis very expensive. If you train some tasks, especially cognitive training, ing it and where they travel. on a tablet or PC, you will reduce training time, travel requirements, “Based on that, it can recommend a teachable moment to deliver and total cost. content based on learning goals. That application was something that “In the near future, manikins will include sensors that create large we’re just wrapping up, and testing with some combat medic units to amounts of data based on student performance. Software on tablets get it evaluated,” Mall said. will receive the data and perform data analytics to capture medically A few years ago, ECS worked with the Joint Knowledge Online significant information. This information is then input to a physiology website to put courses on mobile devices. The courseware was transmodel that updates the patient’s medical state and returns the informaferred to the mobile platform so that it could be downloaded as a packtion to the instrumented manikin. This data is also used for assessing age, installed on a phone and then used without being connected. student performance,” Wideman added. That project offered a glimpse of some of the issues that have to As military agencies try to reduce the amount of staff needed to be addressed in order to maintain system security. “Among the things run trainers, mobile devices that can collect data and give individuals they did was to make sure that they had no personally identifiable infeedback are proving to be cost-saving, she added. formation, and that the server that collected the information was based Sensors are the future, Wideman predicted. “Today, we use tabon a unique ID, which didn’t get resolved until it got transferred to lets that embed sensors such as accelerometers, GPS, gyroscopes. another system that was under an IA capability. So they were able to Software is incorporating these sensors to train warfighters. As we get credit for taking the courses. But they had to jump through a lot of move forward, we’ll see more sensors in our mobile devices and our hoops,” Mall said. training environments.” In PULSAR, ECS leveraged ADL’s Experience API, which is a Another focus is learner-centric training, she continued. Vcom3D standardized way of reporting learning experiences. “Everything that has developed a cloud-based social media framework for learning. “This we collected was done that way, and then put into a learning record platform includes crowdsourcing information so that warfighters can store, which allows a lot of analysis to be done across all the data,” learn from each other. Information is voted up or down by the comhe added. O munity of interest, so that the most useful information or experience floats to the top. As a result, every soldier can be an instructor. We were For more information, contact MT2 Editor Hank Donnelly funded by the Army Research Laboratory to research and develop this at hankd@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives cloud-based platform. Initial use cases have been successfully tested,” for related stories at www.mt2-kmi.com. Wideman said. 22 | MT2 20.3
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Watchdog agency urges stepped-up instruction of DoD unmanned aerial system pilots. (Editor’s Note: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on May 14, 2015, released a report entitled, “Unmanned Aerial Systems: Actions Needed to Improve DoD Pilot Training” (GAO-15-461). Following are edited excerpts from the report summary.) The Army and the Air Force face challenges ensuring that the pilots who remotely operate their unmanned aerial systems (UAS) complete their required training. Specifically, a March 2015 Army review showed that most pilots in certain Army units did not complete fundamental training tasks in fiscal year 2014—a finding that GAO corroborated through discussions with pilots in focus groups and unit responses to questionnaires. In addition, Army unit status reports do not require UAS pilot training information, and as a result, the Army does not know the full extent to which pilots have been trained and are therefore ready to be deployed. In addition, Air Force training records from a non-generalizable sample of seven UAS units showed that, on average, 35 percent of the pilots in these units completed the training for all of their required missions. Pilots in all of the seven focus groups GAO conducted with Air Force UAS pilots stated that they could not conduct training in units because their units had shortages of UAS pilots. GAO found similar shortages of UAS pilots in April 2014, in particular, GAO found that the Air Force operated below its crew ratio, which is a metric used to determine the number of pilots needed in units. At that time, GAO made four recommendations including that the Air Force update its crew ratio. The Air Force concurred with these recommendations and has taken actions, or has actions under way. For example, an Air Force Headquarters official stated that, in February 2015, the Air Force completed the first phase of a three-phase personnel requirements study on the crew ratio and expects to update the crew ratio in 2015. However, at this time, the Air Force has not fully implemented any of the recommendations. www.MT2-kmi.com
The Army and the Air Force are taking actions to increase the number of UAS instructors, but the Army has not fully addressed the risks associated with using less experienced instructors and the Air Force faces instructor shortages. In order to increase the number of its instructors in response to an increase in the number of UAS units, the Army waived course prerequisites for about 40 percent of the UAS pilots attending the course to become instructor pilots from the beginning of fiscal year 2013 through February 2015. The Army originally established these prerequisites—such as a minimum number of flight hours—for UAS pilots volunteering to become instructors to help ensure that instructors were fully trained and ready to instruct UAS pilots. The Army has taken some steps to mitigate the potential risks of using less proficient UAS instructors. For example, beginning in fiscal year 2015, the Army no longer grants waivers for course prerequisites related to proficiency. However, the Army can continue to grant waivers for additional course prerequisites related to experience. As a result, the Army risks that its UAS pilots may not be receiving the highest caliber of training needed to prepare them to successfully perform UAS missions. Furthermore, as of March 2015, the Air Force had staffed its UAS training squadrons at Holloman Air Force Base at 63 percent of its planned staffing levels. This shortage is a key reason that the Air Force has shortages of UAS pilots across the Air Force, according to an Air Force headquarters official. The Air Force is studying the personnel requirements for its school and expects to report the results of this study by spring 2016. This report examines, among other things, the extent to which the Army and the Air Force face challenges ensuring that
their UAS pilots complete required training and have taken steps to ensure they have sufficient numbers of UAS instructors.
Recommendations for Executive Action To provide greater visibility over the extent to which Army UAS units have completed required training to leaders responsible for deployment decisions, the secretary of defense should direct the secretary of the Army to require unit status reports to include information on the readiness levels of UAS pilots in UAS units. To help ensure that Army UAS pilots receive the highest caliber of training to prepare them to successfully accomplish UAS missions, the secretary of defense should direct the secretary of the Army to take additional steps to mitigate potential risks posed by its waiver of course prerequisites for less experienced UAS pilots attending the course to become instructors, such as by providing additional preparation for current and future instructors who do not meet one or more course prerequisites to enhance their ability to successfully provide training. To increase opportunities to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of UAS pilot training across DoD, the secretary of defense should direct the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness to address how the services should coordinate with one another in the strategy on UAS pilot training that the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness is currently drafting. O For more information, contact MT2 Editor Hank Donnelly at hankd@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mt2-kmi.com.
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ORGANIZATION PROFILE
The NCS promotes M&S technology expansion, supports education and workforce development and provides business development aid to members.
The National Center for Simulation (NCS), located in Orlando, Fla., the world’s epicenter for modeling, training and simulation, is a not-for-profit trade association with government, academic and industry members operating as an open consortium. With a vision to be the internationally recognized leader in supporting and expanding the modeling and simulation community, NCS is committed to promoting M&S technology expansion, supporting education and workforce development and providing business development support to its members. Initially organized as the Training and Simulation Technology Consortium in 1994, its mission was to support a White House technology reinvestment program aimed at facilitating the transfer of proven military simulation technology into the private sector in order to create, preserve and enhance industry jobs. Since then, NCS has retained that original focus to support the Central Florida simulation industry, but throughout the years has experienced steady growth both in mission objectives and membership. With the modeling, simulation and training acquisition organizations for the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, as well as nine other federal government organizations all collocated in Orlando’s Research Park, NCS acts as the glue that brings its government, academia and industry partners together to advance the state-of-the-art of simulation and training. Today, NCS is leading the effort to diversify the industry, the major reason for its creation more than 20 years ago, in the areas of entertainment, digital media and gaming, education, transportation, emergency management, manufacturing, cyber and health care simulation. On September 16, NCS, in partnership with the Office of Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, will host the first Florida Simulation Summit. Focused on growing the diversity of current commercial users of modeling and simulation, this summit will give industry attendees the opportunity to be introduced or better acquainted with how M&S can be transferred and used in a wide array of industries, improving the way they train, build and learn. “We are only limited in how we use modeling and simulation by our own imagination,” said Air Force Lieutenant General Tom Baptiste (Ret.), NCS president and CEO. “As a leader in forums such as this, NCS helps elevate and build the industry base, identify opportunities for diversification and ensure a thriving simulation industry for the future.” 24 | MT2 20.3
In 2012, NCS accepted the responsibility to showcase serious gaming and digital media by hosting a gaming technology conference that had originally been a government-only event. GameTech provided the platform and raised the visibility of technologies such as virtual worlds, mobile applications, head-mounted displays and more. It brought in gaming giants such as Will Wright, creator of “The Sims,” Atari founder Nolan Bushnell and Google’s chief technology adviser Michael T. Jones, all of whom served as past conference keynotes. One of the most successful and very promising areas in technology transfer is in health care and medical simulation. For NCS’ home state of Florida, this business sector is an important and targeted area for simulation diversification. The idea of medical simulation, although ever-advancing, is not new. In fact, NCS in May inducted Asmund Laerdal into the M&S Hall of Fame for his pioneering efforts in developing the Resuci Anne manikin in the early 1950s. This early simulation was only the beginning of Laerdal’s medical simulation research, which has expanded worldwide to many areas of health care training and education. Last year, NCS member Florida Hospital solidified its commitment to the future of medical simulation through investment in a simulation lab. In addition, the state’s newest medical school, at the University of Central Florida (UCF), has integrated simulation right from the program start under the direction and vision of Dean Deborah German.
Workforce Development Since its early years, NCS has been passionate about inspiring students who are interested in pursuing an education and career in simulation. “The future of our simulation workforce lies within the brilliant minds of our young high school and university students,” stated Hank Okraski, the chair of the NCS Education and Workforce Development Committee. “It is through their innovation and discoveries that our industry will take the next leap forward and offer technology solutions that will change the world.” Okraski’s passion has been the spark in organizing this large and very active committee. It has worked tirelessly to develop a four-year M&S high school curriculum, which is undergoing certification at the Florida Department of Education. In parallel, the committee www.MT2-kmi.com
also developed a workforce accredited modeling and simulation certificate program for Florida high school students and teachers. This entrylevel certification positions high school students for internships with simulation companies, and provides them with greater access to postsecondary STEM education. Building upon two long standing NCS scholarships—the Vince Amico scholarship at UCF and the Hank Okraski scholarship at Daytona State College—NCS expanded its scholarship program this year and awarded $5,000 in scholarships to students at five local high schools with dedicated technology programs and longstanding relationships with NCS. “Our mission to elevate and advocate for the modeling and simulation industry is far-reaching,” said Baptiste. “We see the impact of simulation and training in our everyday interactions Air Force Lieutenant General Tom Baptiste (Ret.) [Photo courtesy of NCS] with government and industry as they produce technologies that are changing how we do things today. Our stuOver the years, the state of Florida has invested in the construcdents who follow the modeling and simulation program may be the tion of three UCF buildings to house both university and governvery ones who change the future of our industry.” ment workers. As the need for space continues to expand, the state is NCS plays a critical role as a member and industry representamaking decisions about future partnership facilities. tive on the Team Orlando Board of Directors. As the industry repMayor Jacobs continues to be a strong advocate for the M&S resentative, NCS participates in a number of events and forums community, establishing the Blue Ribbon Commission to help eddesigned to promote the M&S industry and the organizations that ucate business leaders about the technology, its economic impact bring technology solutions to the forefront as potential solutions to and the opportunities for further diversification. As a member of the simulation and training challenges. commission, NCS continues fulfilling its role to educate, and in turn In 2013, NCS and Team Orlando hosted its first Industry Cagiving commission members the information they need to become pability Day within the Research Park on the UCF campus. Since advocates, and spread the word about an industry that previously its establishment, five industry days have featured more than 50 was one of Florida’s best-kept secrets. small and large businesses, showcasing their technologies at this In 2014, NCS established a Modeling & Simulation Hall of Fame no-cost event. to honor the history of the industry, and recognized 10 pioneers in In February, NCS participated in a small-business forum hosted the inaugural ceremony. The Hall of Fame wall is on permanent disby the small-business office representatives of the Army and Navy. play at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. Events such as these are important because they provide access Along with Laerdal, the Hall of Fame class of 2015 inductees inthat might otherwise be out of reach to some of the most creative cluded Earle L. Denton, a lifelong advocate and promoter of simulatechnology firms. tion technology; Hank Okraski, leader and strong advocate for edu“One of our most important roles within the community is the cation and STEM; and James Shiflett, an Army visionary whose work ability to connect our simulation industry to our local, state and resulted in simulation standards and the advancement of distributed national leadership,” Baptiste said. “We take that role very seriously.” simulation and team training. NCS is the voice of modeling, simulation and training, and plays a critical role in advancing and building a strong simulation and Public Policy training industry. Through its efforts, NCS is an important resource for changing and growing Florida’s economy and the technology As an advocate of simulation and training technology, and the that contributes to making both the military and commercial induseconomic impact the industry has on the local and national econotries number one in the world. my, NCS is front and center in educating the public and its leaders Information about NCS and how to become a member is availin Congress, the state legislature and the community. able at www.simulationinformation.com. O In February, several NCS board members, along with Baptiste and George Cheros, NCS chief operating officer, traveled to Tallahassee, Fla., to reinforce the story of how simulation and training impacts the state. Armed with that message, local leaders stepped For more information, contact MT2 Editor Hank Donnelly forward to energize the legislature in providing funding for the inat hankd@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives creasing need for government office space in the Central Florida for related stories at www.mt2-kmi.com. Research Park. www.MT2-kmi.com
MT2 20.3 | 25
PM TRADE Reaches Another Standards Goal By Dolly Rairigh Glass
Throughout the years, Program Manager for Training Devices (PM TRADE) has developed standards that have helped realize cost savings and cost avoidance. Early in the 1980s, it was the work on the MILES laser code standard. In 2001, it was the Common Training Instrumentation Architecture, and in 2006 it was the Future Army System of Integrated Targets. Just two years ago, PM TRADE reached out once again to industry partners to come together to develop interface standards for the Tactical Engagement Simulation System (TESS). On March 31, Rob Wolf, PM TRADE’s strategic requirements integrator, welcomed about 100 government and industry representatives to review the Live Training Transformation (LT2) TESS Working Group Final Products. It was two years ago that this group kicked off the TESS standards journey and a goal of interoperability. Many of them, or another representative from their company, had attended that first meeting. “This is not possible without you,” Wolf told the group. “We talked about how this would be like turning a battleship because it would take a long time, and two years is a long time. But anything in the government takes patience and persistence with a vision.” Wolf shared the evolution of PM TRADE’s TESS, which was separated into two categories: the closed system architecture used for about three decades, and the migration to the component-based architecture, which began in 2013 and is the vision through 2020. “We’re not only migrating for the components that we need to have now for the current MILES acquisitions, but to have those well-defined so we can start migrating into the embedded platform applications,” Wolf stated. “The longer-term vision is happening faster than we thought, and we’re already embedding applications for various weapon platforms. If we hadn’t started this two years ago, we’d be way behind the eight ball.” For the acquisitions in the past, there was a closed system architecture. Every five years or so, when the contract was up for renewal, there would be another contractor, and for every vehicle the cycle would keep repeating 26 | MT2 20.3
because that was the acquisition life span of the contract. The options would run out and then the cycle would begin again. In the meantime, a lot of the components from various MILES contractors were pretty common and carried significant consistency across all platforms. With that in mind, the proprietary interfacing was cut, standards were opened and published to allow communication and more specificity was added to the functionality of the individual components. “Now we can begin to treat instrumenting weapon platforms like a desktop environment with plug-and-play new components, and be able to grow our training capability through technology insertion without modifying the baseline architecture.” Wolf said. “If we didn’t define the component functionality and interface control documents for the wired and wireless networks, we’d have no seamless way of supporting or migrating to embedded applications,” he said. Eventually, PM TRADE hopes to become an app manager, where the systems and the software training applications that are training-related are on the platform and managed under the LT2 product line umbrella. The journey started two years ago with a vision. Through many meetings and discussions, participants developed numerous LT2 TESS hardware component agreements that are the foundation architecture for the PM TRADE Vehicle Tactical Engagement Simulation System (VTESS) acquisition. The government and industry team demonstrated the component architecture functionality, services control and wired and wireless networking with multiple contractors’ MILES type components. The government team even provided industry with developer’s kits on a two-week checkout basis to assist them in developing and interfacing components with the network. “There are a number of things that can be done with the component development kit,” Wolf said. “You can test and verify messaging to associate or disassociate vendor specific components, host and test master controller functionality and develop future technology insertion capabilities. The main thrust is that
our industry partners can integrate and verify their LT2 TESS components.” Working together on the LT2 TESS standards, industry and government achieved their initial objectives to create a functional component architecture to support future PM TRADE live training systems/digitized training/combat training instrumentation systems acquisitions and technology insertions, while establishing an initial set of key components and interfaces for LT2 TESS. They also: • Developed an initial set of LT2 TESS Hardware Component Agreement (HCA) documents • Established common power supply HCA for use across PM TRADE • Matured Live Personal Area Network (LPAN) wire and wireless message stack • Matured Live Training Engagement Composition (LTEC) Software services • Demonstrated CA using LPAN, LTEC on products from multiple companies • Provided industry and LTEC/LPAN CA development/verification tool • Established the foundation documentation for the VTESS acquisition. One of the participants, John Garcia, who retired last year as an SAIC vice president, has been in the industry providing PM TRADE range instrumentation products for more than 30 years. “The PM TRADE Interface Standards Working Group, composed of government and industry partners, has made tremendous progress in putting together the MILES and PAN-related interface standards and components agreements,” Garcia said. “These interface standards enable the development of a MILES component-based architecture, which will provide interoperability between vendors’ components and a reduction in the overall procurement cost of the MILES systems.” O For more information, contact MT2 Editor Hank Donnelly at hankd@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mt2-kmi.com.
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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 Alenia Aermacchi........................... C4 www.aleniaaermacchi.it Aptima.............................................27 www.aptima.com David Clark Company.......................7 www.davidclark.com Design Interactive...........................21 www.designinteractive.net Grantham University........................9 www.grantham.edu/mt2
Iowa State Univ-Las Online Learning..............................10 www.elo.iastate.edu/infas L-3 Link Simulation & Training.... C2 www.link.com Simthetiq, Inc.................................27 www.simthetiqestore.com Strategic Operations.......................13 www.strategic-operations.com Learn more about Aptima in this edition of Military Training Technology:
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Human-Centered Engineering
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NEXTISSUE
August 2015 Vol. 20, Issue 4 America’s Longest Established Simulation & Training Magazine
Cover and In-Depth Interview with:
Lt. Gen. Darryl L. Roberson
Commander Air Education and Training Command (Invited)
Features Aviation Maintenance Ground Vehicle Simulation Visual Displays
Special Section Serious Gaming Command Profile: Army Center for Initial Military Training
Insertion Order Deadline: August 3, 2015 • Ad Material Deadline: August 10, 2015
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MT2 20.3 | 27
INDUSTRY INTERVIEW
Military Training Technology
Jim Takats President and CEO TRU Simulation + Training Q: Can you describe TRU Simulation + Training’s history and evolution? A: TRU Simulation + Training was established when Textron Inc. acquired two legacy flight training system manufacturers: Mechtronix, founded in 1987 in Montreal, Canada, and OPINICUS, founded in 1988 in Lutz, Fla. In 2014, Textron combined the newly acquired companies with a portion of its then-Textron Systems AAI business to form TRU Simulation + Training. All three founding companies have a formidable history of serving the aviation market’s need for advanced-technology, cost-effective pilot and aircraft maintenance training solutions—from developing and producing portable desktop devices and distance learning courseware, to fixed-base training devices and full-motion flight simulators, to maintenance courseware and training devices, to providing maintenance training instruction. The same year, TRU acquired ProFlight, a Federal Aviation Administrationapproved part-142-certified pilot training center located in Carlsbad, Calif. Q: What is your history of military and commercial aviation service? A: In its 25-year history, Opinicus has been involved as both a prime and subcontractor in the military market, producing simulators for military air transport and rotary-wing platforms and specializing in prototype development, simulator conversions and upgrades. The Textron Systems AAI portion of the company is best known for its work in maintenance training systems for platforms such as the C-17, F-22 and F-35. The company remains engaged in the ongoing support of these programs, as well as the B-1 training systems. On the commercial side, Mechtronix was principally recognized for its work in supplying aircraft OEMs and tier-one and two airlines with cost-effective and reliable flight training solutions, ranging from 2-D devices to Level D full-flight simulators for fixedwing applications. Opinicus is best known for its proprietary flight training devices and full-motion simulators for both fixed-wing and rotorcraft. 28 | MT2 20.3
Textron Systems, to name a few, serving the aviation market. Across TRU, we have retained the responsiveness to customer needs and to changes in technology that you expect from a young, unencumbered company and coupled it with legacy knowledge and expertise to give the market something it is lacking: proven performance and flexibility. Q: How are you expanding your commitment to the defense market?
What we’ve seen throughout time and what we are experiencing at TRU—and frankly across Textron—is that the crossapplication of technologies from the defense and commercial worlds leads to best-ofbreed solutions for all. Q: How would you describe your company’s position in the market? A: According to Flightglobal’s 2014 census, the civil flight simulation market has been characterized by three companies dominating 85 percent of the market, and smaller players competing for a lesser share of the device manufacturing business. In the independent simulator operator market, two dominant players command 20 percent of the market, with the remaining share divided among numerous operators. On the defense side, there is a larger number of major contenders and smaller players—all competing in the U.S. market— as well as international companies that dominate their respective markets. In the defense market, we’re seeing budgetary concerns and the availability of sophisticated technologies drive the military to adopt greater use of simulators to prepare its troops in a more cost-effective way. So it’s an exciting time for us. In both arenas, the arrival of TRU Simulation + Training threatens to shift the balance with the influence of its Fortune 500 parent company and sister businesses—Bell Helicopter, Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft and
A: The integration of the founding businesses and structure of the new entity underscore TRU’s customer-service orientation. TRU operates four niche divisions, two of which are focused on the defense industry. The TRU divisions are dedicated to air transport simulation, business and military simulation, military and civil maintenance training, and pilot training centers. Today, TRU is partnered with Textron Aviation and Bell Helicopter for a number of key pursuits requiring simulator-based training solutions, including the Scorpion and V-280 programs. Also, TRU is collaborating as a member of Team Spartan in the competition for the Canadian Forces Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue program. These programs allow TRU Simulation + Training to leverage its advanced technology platform in the rotorcraft and fixed-wing fields. One example is the Odyssey H and its innovative dual 6-DOF motion platforms. Another example of our commitment to advancing the military’s goals is the investment we have made in developing a cockpit simulator that demonstrates the V-280’s performance and an interactive multi-media instruction station that shows its ease of maintenance. Both were highly visited and well-received by military customers attending the Army Aviation Association of America conference in Nashville, Tenn., this past spring. Looking to the future, I am heartened by what I see as an entrepreneur’s dream—the ability to shape the company, and the market, through innovation and a unique way of doing business. O
jimtakatsofficeceo@textron.com www.MT2-kmi.com
MILITARY TRAINING TECHNOLOGY IMPORTANT 2015 ISSUES DON’T MISS OUT ON MILITARY TRAINING TECHNOLOGY’S BIG 3 ISSUES AT THE END OF 2015! • September (20.5) Cover Q&A with Lt. Col. Walt Yates, Program Manager PM TRASYS for our 14th Annual Top Simulation & Training Companies Competition • October (20.6) Cover Q&A with Sen. John McCain for our 20th Anniversary Issue • December (20.7) Cover Q&A with Maj. Gen. Jonathan Maddux for our Annual I/ITSEC issue
For more information contact: Lindsay Silverberg, Associate Publisher at 301.670.5700 x139 or lindsays@kmimediagroup.com
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