Mt2 20 4 final

America’s Longest Established Simulation & Training Magazine

Special Section:

Serious Gaming

Guard Chief Gen. Frank J. Grass Chief National Guard Bureau

www.MT2-kmi.com

August 2015

Volume 20, Issue 4

Aviation Maintenance O Ground Training O Projectors DoD Training Research O Army U O Constructive Simulation

MEGGITT TRAINING SYSTEMS

PROUD TO JOIN FORCES WITH THE US ARMY AND US MARINE CORPS Innovative. Immersive. Intelligent.

Meggitt Training Systems partners with defense forces around the world to deliver systems innovation, immersive virtual weapons training and intelligent technology. That position as the global simulation leader was underscored when Meggitt was chosen as the simulation system of record for both the US Army’s Engagement Skills Training (EST II) and US Marine Corps Indoor Simulated Marksmanship Trainer (ISMT).

Our small arms training systems offer 3-D marksmanship with moving eye-point perspective, an intelligent coaching application and flexible systems architecture to meet current

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and future training needs.

These innovations reflect Meggitt’s commitment to intelligent, customized training and combat readiness solutions for those who protect us.

military Training technology Features

Cover / Q&A

11

Special Section

New Needs Change Ground Training

4

Projecting Reality

As their software and visual content grows more complex, military simulation and training programs are looking to industry for projection technology able to deliver eye-popping visuals, intense colors and, most importantly, improved training outcomes.

By Harrison Donnelly

19

Constructive Simulation Training

For soldiers in the Army National Guard, training time is usually limited to a couple of days each month and a few weeks during the year. With this reduced training time, it is key to maximize the amount of collective training a unit conducts in order to maintain its proficiency and readiness.

By Major Jason Inskeep

August 2015 Volume 20, Issue 4

The next generation of warfighters will have to be prepared to operate in more complex environments, from traversing new geographic terrain to conducting security missions in cities, working with coalition partners or delivering humanitarian aid in support of NGOs. Preparing for future contingencies will require a higher level of preparation to adapt to the complexities of the future battlefield.

By Erin Flynn Jay

7

Serious Gaming

Serious gaming plays a critical role in maintaining operational readiness for the warfighter, and the developers who provide these solutions are consistently using innovative technologies to meet the needs of our military. Profiles of two of the leaders in this area—SAIC and Bohemia Interactive Simulations— are featured.

20

22

25

A DoD training official provides an overview of the department’s investment approach for military training technology research, identifying key focus areas in which efforts are being concentrated and, where appropriate, highlighting areas that are promising works in progress.

By Commander Joseph V. Cohn

Training programs for aviation maintenance workers must be extremely efficient, enabling personnel to reach high levels of competence quickly and with the least expenditure of scarce money and other resources. Training the maintainers requires smart combinations of the latest technologies with hard-won experience in instruction.

By Henry Canaday

The Army is consolidating soldier education under one roof as part of the recently initiated concept of the Army University. While not a “brick and mortar” university, Army U will maximize the educational experience that soldiers are already getting in the Army through the Army Training and Doctrine Command.

By C. Todd Lopez

Training to the Warfighter

Training for Maintaining

16 General Frank J. Grass Chief National Guard Bureau

Army Launches University

Put the true in true-to-life True 120Hz RGB operation

Departments 2 Editor’s Perspective 3 Program highlights/people 14 data packets 26 Team orlando 27 Resource center

Industry Interview W. Garth Smith

President and Co-Owner MetaVR

28

WATCH THE DEMO:

christiedigital.com /true120

Military Training Technology Volume 20, Issue 4 • August 2015

Recognized Leader Covering All Aspects of Military Training Readiness Editorial Editor

Harrison Donnelly harrisond@kmimediagroup.com Copy Editors

Kevin Harris kevinh@kmimediagroup.com Jonathan Magin jonathanm@kmimediagroup.com Correspondents

Peter Buxbaum • Henry Canaday • Scott R. Gourley Erin Flynn Jay

Art & Design Ads & Materials Manager

Jittima Saiwongnuan jittimas@kmimediagroup.com Senior Graphic Designer

Scott Morris scottm@kmimediagroup.com Graphic Designer

Andrea Herrera andreah@kmimediagroup.com

Advertising Associate Publisher

Lindsay Silverberg lindsays@kmimediagroup.com

KMI Media Group Chief Executive Officer

Jack Kerrigan jack@kmimediagroup.com Publisher and Chief Financial Officer

Constance Kerrigan connik@kmimediagroup.com Editor-In-Chief

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE While a recent study of the U.S. military training and simulation market for the rest of the decade is not exactly upbeat, it offers a brighter vision for the government and industry community over the long term.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan predicts that U.S. market revenues will drop from $13.11 billion in 2014 to $13.00 billion in 2019, at a negative compound annual growth rate of 0.2 percent. The declining defense budget overall will contribute to this trend, although the main factor fueling the downswing will be the completion of initial training system deliveries for programs such as the P-8, KC-46 and Harrison Donnelly Editor littoral combat ship.

Moreover, budget cuts and unpredictable future funding levels are reducing the services’ ability to invest in and plan for training programs, and the uncertainty regarding sequestration returning is making strategic planning difficult. Contractors, meanwhile, are being forced to operate on shorter deadlines, expect smaller profit margins and work with reduced investment in R&D, the report contends, adding that this can stifle innovation.

The primary impact of the fiscal crunch will be on live training programs, which currently account for nearly 50 percent of spending in this area, but are expected to decline as a share of the budget. Livevirtual-constructive (LVC) training programs, by contrast, will receive increasing emphasis.

The LVC approach also has its share of challenges, the report notes. Department of Defense training and simulation providers will need to create robust LVC capabilities, and the networks, frameworks, hardware and software required will be expensive to develop. In addition, more information is needed about the true benefits of LVC, as well as the types of programs for which it is best suited.

Eventually, however, the result will be a better system, the study predicts: “Once sunk costs are absorbed and systems are in place, overall annual training costs will fall to a new baseline and an optimal training mix for combat readiness will be achieved.”

Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com Controller

Gigi Castro gcastro@kmimediagroup.com Trade Show Coordinator

Holly Foster hollyf@kmimediagroup.com

Operations, Circulation & Production Operations Administrator

Bob Lesser bobl@kmimediagroup.com Circulation & Marketing Administrator

Duane Ebanks duanee@kmimediagroup.com Circulation

Denise Woods denisew@kmimediagroup.com

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An MV-22 Osprey lands during a training exercise to recover personnel in Southwest Asia. The 185th Theater Aviation Brigade conducts interoperability training missions to enhance capabilities between U.S. Army aviation and other U.S. military forces. [U.S. Army National Guard photo by Army Sergeant Michael Needham]

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Synthetic Environment Trains Merlin Aircrews AgustaWestland has been awarded a contract by the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) to supply AW101 Merlin Mk4/4a aircrew synthetic training equipment that will equip a dedicated training facility. AgustaWestland conducted a competition for the supply of the training equipment on behalf of the MoD. Following a robust assessment of the bids, involving project stakeholders and flight simulation experts, CAE was selected to supply two flight training devices, a flight navigation procedures trainer and a rear crew trainer. The training devices will equip a dedicated Merlin Commando Helicopter Force training facility located at the aircraft’s main operating base, Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton. The training devices will enable multi-aircraft and whole crew training utilizing augmented reality that will further enhance the training experience for the rear crew. The company has worked closely with the MoD’s Merlin Project Team to develop the Merlin MK4/4a training requirements and to ensure that the delivery of the training solution is synchronized with the aircraft development and manufacturing program.

Ian McVeigh; ian.mcveigh@agustawestland.com

Virtual Role-Playing to Support Afghan Leader Engagement NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) has ordered Alelo’s VRP MIL product for use at the NATO Joint Force Training Center (JFTC) in Bydgoszcz, Poland. JFTC plans to use it to prepare NATO personnel for key leader engagements in Afghanistan, as part of the Resolute Support 15-3 training exercise this summer. VRP enhances training with commercial game engines with virtual role play training capabilities. Learners speak and choose screen-based options to interact with artificially intelligent characters that behave in culturally appropriate ways. The Alelo VRP approach is grounded in proven pedagogy and social science research. Simulations include tasks and situations similar to ones learners are likely to encounter in the real world. Lifelike practice without the risk of failure ensures that learners retain and sustain their acquired skills and can confidently apply them during their missions. NATO has licensed Alelo’s VRP MIL plug-in for VBS3, together with virtual role-players for Afghan culture and the Pashto language.

Using VRP MIL, learners can walk up to game characters in a VBS simulation and engage with them in the local language.

Dr. W. Lewis Johnson; ljohnson@alelo.com

PEOPLE

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Navy Captain Stephen C. Evans, who has been selected for promotion to rear admiral (lower half), will be assigned as commander, Naval Service Training Command, Great Lakes, Ill. James T. Blake

Lieutenant Colonel Walt Yates

Lieutenant Colonel Walt Yates, program manager, training systems for the Marine Corps, has been promoted to the rank of colonel.

www.MT2-kmi.com

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Vice Admiral David Buss (Ret.)

James T. Blake, Ph.D., former Army program executive officer for simulation, training and instrumentation and head of contracting activity, has joined Cubic Global Defense as vice

president and deputy general manager, integrated training solutions, where he will be responsible for creating further differentiation of Cubic’s training solutions and services.

In addition, Navy Vice Admiral David Buss (Ret.) has joined the company as vice president and deputy to the president, where he will lead the business strategy for Cubic’s live-virtualconstructive training.

FlightSafety International has named Air Force Brigadier General Scott Goodwin (Ret.) as executive director, simulation.

CAE has appointed Andrew Jazwick to the newly created position of vice president, Washington operations for its defense and security business unit.

Defense Training Center Orders Simulation Support Cubic Defense Australia has been selected as the primary contractor to provide a managed workforce solution for the Australian Defense Simulation and Training Center (ADSTC) Simulation Support Services (SSS).

The four-year contract is valued at $18 million with options for extension. ADSTC and the contracted services are based in Canberra, Australia, but will be distributed throughout the nation and the Pacific to coalition partners. ADSTC designs and delivers end-to-end joint and combined training exercises using world-class simulations to enhance realism, stimulate command, control and communications as well as distributed mission training for the Australian Defense Force (ADF). The SSS contract is a key enabler for the ADF’s Future Simulation Capability. Cubic continues to focus on enhancing training outcomes using simulation and by working closely with organizations, such as ADSTC, to enhance exercise delivery. Under this new contract, Cubic will support ADF’s highest-level training and simulation institutions.

Mark Horn; cdaus-enquiries@cubic.com MT2 20.4 | 3

Manufacturers evolve projectors

to meet the demands of training programs’ complex software and visual content.

By Harrison Donnelly MT2 Editor

to improve both brightness and contrast at the same time As their software and visual content grows more is an ongoing challenge for system design,” Lingard said. complex, military simulation and training programs are In addition, military training needs are requiring looking to industry for projection technology able to more mission-level capabilities reflecting the current deliver eye-popping visuals, intense colors and, most operational environment, noted Dennis Hartley, prinimportantly, improved training outcomes. cipal systems engineer for Rockwell Collins SimulaManufacturers are releasing a range of new protion & Training Solutions. jector models with 4K and 3-D capabilities and a “Mission-level training requires interaction berange of colors closer to what the human eye can see tween a diverse spectrum, including other aircraft, than ever before. The goal is to provide the high levsurveillance systems, UAVs and ground forces, as well els of realism and visual accuracy needed to prepare as other partners,” Harley said. “Effective training of trainees for high-risk operations in the field. this type requires replicating secure data links and “What we’re seeing in the military market is that ensuring visual and sensor correlation among all the fidelity of the trainers is improving. It used to be just Phil Laney participants. Network bandwidth improvements and the fast-jet trainers that needed a lot of fidelity, but now more common trainers are calling for more fi- planey@digitalprojection.com achieving a truly common synthetic environment are the key challenges to realizing the full potential of this delity on display. Also, there’s more of a focus on night networked training. vision, so the projectors have to be able to simulate “There is also a desire to provide training by night vision goggles (NVG),” said Phil Laney, director adaptive learning methods as opposed to traditional of simulation and visualization for Digital Projection. schoolhouse instructor-led training,” he continued.

“There is a desire for a lot higher resolution, and “This requires more dynamics in the trainer to allow also a much higher system contrast number. They are the learning interaction, and the ability to dynamically moving more to a high-dynamic range model, where tailor the exercise to the student’s capability.” they want higher resolution but also black level for night training. In addition, there is interest in better color space,” he added.

Digital Lighting “As technology improves and allows for more Curtis Lingard realistic simulation and stimulation, the military’s Although Digital Projection offers nearly 100 difcurtis.lingard needs for visual displays become more demanding,” ferent projectors, all are based on digital light process@christiedigital.com observed Curtis Lingard, product manager at Chrising (DLP), which is one of three main technologies for tie. “What was once deemed an acceptable benchmark creating imagery. The others are liquid crystal display, for performance becomes antiquated and no longer which is found on many home televisions but is not adequate. The primary military need has always been widely used in simulation, and liquid crystal on silicon to perfectly duplicate real-world situations so that (LCoS), which is used by companies such as Sony and negative training doesn’t occur. Any technology that JVC for their high-resolution products. moves the solutions closer to perfect simulation will DLP systems come in one- and three-chip models, help raise the bar for acceptance. the latter of which Digital Projection helped Texas In“Military trainers are typically focused on any castruments develop. pability minimizing the variance between real life and “In the simulation market, most people have their simulated environments. From a display perspecmoved to DLP because it is so robust, and also mainDennis Hartley tive, contrast and brightness are common barriers. tains its image quality over time, especially with the The brighter the projection gets, the more cross-reswitch to solid-state light sources. With LED DLP dennis.hartley flections happen, resulting in reduced contrast. Trying or even laser phosphor DLP, what we see is that the @rockwellcollins.com 4 | MT2 20.4

www.MT2-kmi.com

PIXELS + PERFORMANCE DISCOVER THE

INSIGHT 4K DUAL-LED

> > > >

4096 x 2160 native pixel resolution LED illumination up to 3000 lumens IR LED Options for NVG Stimulation Wide variety of lenses including Short Throw Lenses and Dome Lenses

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“In order to achieve true images, images stay the same for long periods display systems’ bandwidth needs to of time, so the projector acts more like increase. This starts with connectivity, a monitor than a traditional projector where you need to have input connecthat you might have to fiddle with and tions that can handle the increased data change over time.” rates, and flow all the way through to the With the help of the solid-state lightimaging device. The entire signal flow ing, Digital Projection products also offer needs the increased range to allow for the a much wider range of colors, according to signal to be displayed natively without Laney. “In the past, with a lamp-based proProjection offers nearly 100 different projectors, such as this any reduced quality,” he said. jector, you would get about 30 percent of the Digital Insight 4K Laser model. [Photo courtesy of Digital Projection] Aside from the products, Christie accolors that the human eye can see. Now, with tively engages in two-way communication with the market, such as some of the LED projectors, such as the Insight offered by Digital through a seminar called “SIM U.” This multi-day seminar is offered Projection, you can see about 70 percent of the colors the eye is able in various cities throughout the year and covers key topics like system to see. If you think about fidelity of trainers, color is not a component design considerations, design process, NVG stimulation practices and that a lot of people have focused on. But I think that now the capabilchoosing the ideal visual display system components, Lingard said. ity is there, people will look at that more closely.

“The extra color space not only looks more pleasing to your eye, but research has shown that it looks brighter to your eye. If you have Image Generation more saturated colors, the display will look brighter. Many domed displays look washed out. A lot of people blame that on system conA complementary perspective on improving visual displays comes trast, but in many cases it may just be the lack of available colors on from Aechelon Technology, a provider of visual simulation image genthat projector. If it is only putting out 20 percent of the colors you can erators, associated geospecific visual and sensor databases, realistic see, it will look washed out. But if you have a lot of colors to display, it 3-D models and integration services for the federal government and will look more vibrant and realistic to your eye,” he explained. its prime contractors.

Laney offered an example of the value of the increased color range “Military trainers are evolving away from eye-candy demos and for training programs. “If you have the nuances of color, when you more into a mission focus that requires a better correlation with have a target at a distance, such as a jet that may be about the same non-visual elements, such as radar and tactical environment. For the color as the background sky, you can see it better at a distance besystems to create a realistic representation, you need to introduce cause you have the colors that separate it from the elements in the databases that are able to match the background sky. If you have a projector that can’t increased display resolution and thus an expansion separate the colors, you won’t be able to see the target of the training syllabus into the simulators,” said Jauntil it gets closer.” vier Castellar, Aechelon co-founder and vice president, business development.

In its efforts to improve visual display of military Increased Bandwidth training and simulation content, the company has focused on three areas, he said. They are increasing new Christie offers a number of products and solutions data layers, fidelity and worldwide coverage of databasdesigned specifically for the military training and es; supporting site-level datacenters with large-scale simulation market, Lingard explained, pointing to the unified management, storage and cyber-protection; Matrix lineup of projectors, which are purpose-built Javier Castellar and researching ways to use its databases within C4ISR for complex applications requiring high-frame rates, command posts and UAS ground stations. precise color matching, uniform images, seamless javier@aechelon.com Late last year, the company announced its latest blending and perfect geometric correction. multi-spectral Image Generation flagship pC-Nova v7.0, which sup“Our MatrixStIM projectors even offer InfraScene, which allows ports increased data layers in visual, sensor and tactical generation. separate signals for the visual spectrum and the NVG stimulation us“Another key product that keeps expanding our market is the ing infrared spectrum. Knowing that visual solutions for simulation Aechelon Nexus Unified Storage System, which was already adopted applications require more than just a projector, Christie offers variat multiple sites in the U.S. Navy and USSOCOM, and has ongoing ous solutions that help improve performance or reduce maintenance deliveries to additional sites in both the U.S. and Australian militarcosts. Some of the popular solutions include Christie AccuFrame, ies. These systems both increase cyber-protection and enable access to which dramatically improves motion blur; AutoCal, which optimizes very large databases for hundreds of streams, from large multichanand calibrates the viewing configuration of an arrayed projection nel, multispectral training and mission image generators as well as solution; and MotoBlend, which improves system contrast and optiradar simulation subsystems,” he said, adding that the company has mizes dark scene applications,” he said. also released several types of data generators that support live streamIn order to handle the increased information from 3-D and 4K ing of EO/IR sensors, tactical and radar information. O signals, visual display systems also need to have a larger bandwidth, Lingard noted. “This sounds simple, but is actually quite challenging.

Some try to squeeze 3-D and 4K into existing bandwidths, or they For more information, contact MT2 Editor Hank Donnelly down-sample the signal at some point in their signal flow, but ultiat hankd@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives mately they have to sacrifice something, whether resolution, frame for related stories at www.mt2-kmi.com. rates and/or color sampling.

6 | MT2 20.4

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Special Section

Serious gaming plays a critical role in maintaining operational readiness for the warfighter, and the developers who provide these solutions are consistently using innovative technologies to meet the needs of our military. Profiles of two of the leaders in this area—SAIC and Bohemia Interactive Simulations— appear on the following pages.

Science Applications International Corp.

Gaming technology expands to new industries and applications with serious games.

Serious games are rapidly entering corporate environments in non-traditional ways. But enticing employees to follow a new corporate policy by rewarding their actions with points, badges or prizes can be miles apart from serious games, which simulate realworld experiences in gaming environments for training and educational purposes.

Increasingly, companies are using serious games to train and educate their staff on how to solve a problem or train employees.

Although these games can be entertaining and engaging, the end result is for employees to master a skill and measure performance.

As a leader in serious gaming, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) has been providing training and simulation services through gaming platforms to the Department of Defense for more than a decade. Now, the company is expanding to reach other government and commercial clients through its new Serious Games Lab in Seattle, Wash.

“DoD was an early and aggressive adopter of using serious games, and the rest of the world is just coming around now to broader-scale adoption of serious games for a variety of purposes,” said Gardner Congdon, SAIC Serious Games Lab lead.

Perhaps SAIC’s most notable achievement is its role in supporting the development of the popular computer game franchise America’s Army. Developed under contract to the Army, SAIC supports the Army Game Studio located within the Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center’s Software Engineering Directorate to develop and maintain the game.

America’s Army is a first-person game that depicts the life of a solider and is available for download to the public via the online Steam platform. The latest installment, called Proving Grounds, has more than 500,000 downloads since it was launched in 2013.

“America’s Army is a serious game at its core. When you play the game, you learn Army values, you become a soldier. You learn what it’s like to go through basic training and even learn basic medical training,” explained Congdon. “The game’s purpose is to educate civilians with an interest in the Army on what it means to be a soldier.”

Expansion and New Markets Across DoD, agencies and military are anxious to begin rolling out broader-scale adoption of serious games for a variety of purposes, according to Congdon.

“Serious games can be used for education and training, but that’s really just scratching the surface of what can be done with serious games,” added Congdon.

Responding to this need, SAIC is expanding its services beyond the Army. By opening the SAIC Serious Games Lab, the company aims to pursue business opportunities across the U.S. government and in commercial markets.

8 | MT2 20.4

“Most of our DoD customers and services want a company to build an engaging game environment that is secure and cost-effective,” said Bob Kleinhample, SAIC vice president, training and simulation solutions director.

Currently, SAIC is developing serious games for prototyping, 3-D simulation and human performance for current and prospective customers. For example, SAIC links serious gaming technologies with human subjects to test their reactions in stressful situations.

According to Kleinhample, SAIC’s sport psychologists are improving human performance by using devices that monitor heart rates in stressful environments, such as explosions or running through a combat zone.

“We can improve a sharpshooter’s performance by building out a game that puts them under extremely stressful conditions, and then provide them with feedback on how to improve their performance,” explained Kleinhample.

In the future, SAIC will also host serious games in a cloudbased environment. “We want to bring these games into our enduser customers’ devices. Traditionally, serious games would require fairly high-end workstations and very powerful computers to be able to run the simulation. But now we’re deploying applications using cloud technologies so they can run on everyday devices.”

Serious Games Lab In July, SAIC opened its first Serious Games Lab to create new game-based applications for DoD, homeland security, first responders and warfighter readiness, training and education and health care. This new facility will serve as SAIC’s nerve center for creation and innovation in serious game technology and methodology for customers in the government, public and private sectors.

In the lab, SAIC employs a diverse group of industry professionals, including game designers, artists, engineers, animators, sound designers and composers.

“All our team members have worked in the gaming industry, and I believe very strongly in hiring people who have experience in this specific field because they have proven skills at shipping high-quality products. They understand games; they know what’s engaging and what people want, and we are bringing that to our customers,” said Congdon. “By coupling that depth of experience with our instructional designers, we’re able to create products which are at the same time highly engaging and highly effective at training and educating. When you create an environment where students want to learn, everyone wins.”

SAIC is in a unique position with its development capabilities, added Congdon. “You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone at a traditional game studio who understands how to work with the depth and breadth of our customers,” said Congdon. www.MT2-kmi.com

Ingenuity Plays Serious Games.

16-0347 | SAIC Communications

We bring Serious Gaming Solutions for training and education directly to you — anytime and anywhere. See all the ways we are redefining ingenuity at saic.com

© SAIC. All rights reserved.

Bohemia Interactive Simulations 3050 Technology Parkway, Suite 110, Orlando, Florida 32826, United States bisimulations.com • sales@bisimulations.com • +1 (407)­608 7000

Committed to developing state-of-the-art “game-based” technology to solve complex problems.

Since 2001, Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim) has been at the forefront of simulation training solutions for military and civilian organizations. A global software development company, BISim is committed to developing state-of-the-art “game-based” technology to solve complex simulation and training problems. BISim’s product line includes: • VBS3, an interoperable, first-person desktop simulation • VBS IG, which provides high-fidelity rendering for all types of simulators • VBS Tactics, an easy-to-use interface for doctrinal control of artificially intelligent forces in VBS3, and • VBS Gateway, the new framework for VBS interoperability.

“BISim is modularizing its products to provide our customers with simulation and training software that offers greater flexibility, cost-efficiency and customizability,” said Pete Morrison, Co-CEO, BISim. In VBS3 v3.7, the company has split the software into a separate installer, core customer-specific deployment and individual content packs. This split lessens the size of the deployment, decreases load times and allows users to focus on the content they want to use. Other products, like VBS Tactics, Morrison noted, extend VBS3 for new training possibilities.

Complementing BISim’s product line, TerraSim offers a range of software products that allow customers to rapidly create complex geospatial visualizations derived

from a variety of geo-referenced source data. BISim acquired TerraSim in 2013 and has integrated their terrain products with BISim products to make important advances in terrain performance and fidelity, including support for high-detailed terrain insets, massive terrains and runtime groupings of terrain features, such as rocks, trees and other vegetation.

Currently, BISim is undertaking an ambitious project that provides whole-planet rendering within VBS, with impressive procedural detail based upon minimal source data. This project aims to expand VBS for flight and maritime virtual training exercises. BISim looks forward to sharing even more developments on this project in the near future.

BISim is undertaking an ambitious project that provides whole-planet rendering within VBS.

Come see demonstrations at I/ITSEC 2015 in Orlando, Florida. sales@bisimulations.com

10 | MT2 20.4

www.MT2-kmi.com

Industry is developing new solutions to prepare warfighters for complex new environments.

By Erin Flynn Jay, MT2 Correspondent

The next generation of warfighters will have to be prepared to operate in more complex environments, from traversing new geographic terrain to conducting security missions in cities, working with coalition partners or delivering humanitarian aid in support of NGOs. Preparing for future contingencies will require a higher level of preparation to adapt to the complexities of the future battlefield.

Industry recognizes the complex environment U.S. personnel could have to operate in in the future, and companies are developing solutions to improve ground training to prepare them for that.

“Most understand that the battlefield today is very asymmetric. We used to train by defining friendly and enemy positions by lines drawn on the map, but those lines became blurred and now have fairly well dissolved,” said Ed Jezisek, business development capture manager, training and simulation at Saab Defence and Security USA. “The battlefield is much more chaotic and there are a large number of non-combatants interspersed as well,” he said. “In addition, vehicles no longer travel in well-defined formations. Their movement and maneuver is very sporadic, and therefore, unpredictable.”

To deal with this change, Jezisek added, the warfighter needs a training system that allows for this fluid environment and also provides a highly capable after-action review (AAR) of the actions of all participants and entities interacting within the area of operations.

For Sébastien Lozé, senior product marketing director, industrial market for D-BOX Technologies, the pressure Ed Jezisek on industry to develop new ways to deliver training content is relentless. ed.jezisek@saabusa.com www.MT2-kmi.com

“What we observed in the last year, which began as an emerging trend but more and more has become the usual request, is that while the training requirements remain quite similar to the previous year, the big change is in the way to deliver this training and how training transfer can be obtained with more innovative solutions, which most of the time are also more cost-efficient,” Lozé said. “We will see in the current year and the next one several programs reaching obsolescence, and procurements of several nations are already looking for ways to replace them with technologies that were either not present or not proven even five years ago.”

D-BOX Technologies designs, manufactures and commercializes cutting-edge motion systems intended for the entertainment and industrial markets. Its unique and patented technology uses motion effects specifically programmed for each piece of visual content, which are sent to a motion system integrated into a platform, seat or other product.

The resulting motion is perfectly synchronized with the onscreen action, thus creating an unparalleled realistic immersive experience that is used by leading training and simulation companies.

D-BOX offers motion solutions for training needs in construction, military gunnery and vehicle driving and civil aviation.

Training on Site

Sébastien Lozé

sloze@d-box.com

What industry trends mean specifically for ground training, Lozé said, is that trainees will train more often on site, where they are deployed, on systems that take only a few minutes to deploy. In the past, MT2 20.4 | 11

they had to go to training centers to reach the same level of immersive training.

“Simulators can now be deployed easily outside of the training centers. All the modality of training, including curriculum, visualization, audio environment and kinesthetic (motion and vibrations), can now be containerized and shipped on site,” he said.

D-BOX motion systems are designed to be simple to integrate to any simulation architecture. The company delivers a software development kit with its hardware solutions, but wanted to make things even easier for solutions such as ground vehicle training.

“So we improved integration capabilities of our solution anywhere it is needed. For ground vehicle simulation, we created native integration with COTS solutions like CarSIM, TruckSIM, CM Labs Vortex and VBS3 latest release,” said Lozé. “These integrations are available freely to the community to transform any desktop simulation application into a complete simulator, with motion and vibration cues sent back to the trainees to augment the training transfer.

D-BOX works with primes and end customers, delivering motion system solutions to Thales, Lockheed, DSTO from Australia, the Brazilian Navy and many other key customers.”

D-BOX is flexible and reacts quickly to evolving needs, Lozé said.

“But this would be nothing if we wouldn’t be actively reaching out to the trend-setter groups, such as NATO ACT, PEO STRI and the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization, learning from all these groups as well as the primes and end customers. We are in constant communication, which allows us to focus on the needs

existing in the field to augment training transfer, and apply our R&D to what we can bring to the curriculum and training needs,” he said.

To better serve the fluid and mobile battlefield, Saab has developed the transportable Homestation Instrumentation Training System (HITS) Man-Portable Base Station (HMPBS).

“Using the HMPBS paired with the laptop-based HITS EXCON All-in-one, the system is very easily transported, and the footprint is so small that the entire HMPBS and HITS EXCON All-in-one system can follow the exercise in any mobile/transportable carrier, such as a backpack or on a vehicle dashboard,” said Jezisek. “This transportability allows the observer controller (OC) to get position location and weapons effects data for real-time exercise monitoring and full situational awareness using both exercise control (EXCON) view and direct visual view during the exercise and afterwards for the AAR.” Prior to HMPBS, training was typically limited to a 10-kilometer radius area around the stationary HITS control tower/base station.

“With HMPBS, the OC can now follow the action wherever it goes— over fields, roads, water and, if in a rotary wing platform, the OC can follow the movement of instrumented forces as far and as long as necessary. The OC can quickly set up this small but agile system in a fraction of the time typically needed to set up for a large-unit training scenario,” Jezisek said.

Saab’s system represents the next evolutionary step in laser training systems, Jezisek said, describing it as soldier-friendly—easy to install and set up, easy to use and rugged. “Our system needs to be used by soldiers who are trained in realistic and often rough environments. The HMPBS is dependable—it’s able to endure and withstand vibrations and can be used in rain, cold and/or desert heat.

It remains fully capable even after lots of continuous use.”

LVC Environments “The next generation of soldiers will have to be prepared to operate in a more complex environment than ever, from traversing new geographic terrain to conducting security missions in mega-cities, working with coalition partners or delivering humanitarian aid in support of nongovernment organizations,” said Jim Weitzel, Lockheed Martin vice president of training solutions for mission Jim Weitzel systems and training. “Preparing for future warfare will require a higher level of preparation to adapt to the complexities of the future battlefield.”

To address these challenges, Lockheed Martin is focused on delivering more realistic, simulation-based training that can be integrated with live and constructive environments as needed. Its ground training systems include: • SV Turret Training: Lockheed Martin will soon provide a new Scout Specialist Vehicle turret training system. Using realistic, immersive simulators, the training system will help prepare commanders and gunners of the Scout SV turret.

• Digital Range Training System: “Under the Digital Range Training System (DRTS) program, we deliver a family of digital ranges that immerse soldiers and vehicle crews in realistic livefire training exercises. Last year, we debuted the newest DRTS 12 | MT2 20.4

www.MT2-kmi.com

range, the Digital Air Ground Instrumented Range, which integrates attack helicopter and ground live-fire maneuver in a digital environment and provides integrated scoring and AAR,” said Weitzel.

• Advanced Gunnery Training System: For more than 20 years, the Advanced Gunnery Training System (AGTS) has prepared U.S. and international forces to transition from simulation to live fire or combat gunnery. The Marine Corps released a study this spring that found that AGTS significantly improves proficiency while saving millions of dollars in training costs.

AGTS uses the Lockheed Martin-grown Scalable Advanced Graphics Engine (SAGE), which leverages commercial gaming graphics to deliver incredible realism for warfighter training.

SAGE provides detailed environments complete with dust, fog and haze; IED and artillery craters; and animated people who behave as they would in real life, using organic motion technologies.

• Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement Systems: Instrumented systems track every player in an exercise, transmitting realtime data from the soldier or vehicle to exercise control. “This improves effectiveness of training, providing immediate situational awareness and more detailed data to use in afteraction review. We deliver built-in multilingual capability so that customers have flexibility to train in any language they wish, making their training more immersive and realistic,” said Weitzel.

www.MT2-kmi.com

• U.K. Combined Arms Tactical Trainer: Lockheed Martin helps the British Army prepare its servicemembers using the world’s largest virtual training system. Using an immersive, computergenerated environment, up to 900 military personnel can train together in real-time on a virtual battlefield.

“As deployments come to a close and our customers return to home stations, many look to us to support modernizing their existing training assets and incorporating technology for more realistic and immersive training. We are also seeing increases in synthetic training to model future threats in ways that can challenge trainees so they are mission-ready,” said Weitzel.

Integrating live-virtual-constructive (LVC) training in the ground domain requires solutions that help customers maximize their training capability, he said, adding that this is especially important as customers move toward collapsing LVC and gaming-like capabilities into a single synthetic training environment for greater realism and affordability.

“For example, through our Enhanced Perception and Integrated Control system, we provide a user interface that seamlessly controls all LVC entities in a distributed training scenario. This solution is the linchpin that enables the benefits and training realism of integrated training,” concluded Weitzel. 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.

MT2 20.4 | 13

DATA PACKETS New Release of Database System Aids Roads Generation

Trian3DBuilder 5.5, the new release of TrianGraphics’ database generation system Trian3DBuilder, is important for all users interested in roads generation and editing. Furthermore, the Havok Vision exporter will shortly be available to all Havok and TrianGraphics customers. Trian3DBuilder’s comprehensive road generation features are unique on the market. Real-world navigation data are analyzed and parameters are created automatically to generate a road network with junctions and additional information. The software supports databases of arbitrary size, fully featured and ready to be used in driving, tank or infantry simulations. The new version, Trian3DBuilder 5.5, even goes beyond these capabilities. Generated road and crossing geometries can now easily be edited in WYSIWYG mode to fit underlying satellite imagery and exactly match each project’s visual requirement.

Users may precisely change a junction’s shape or add road lanes in 2-D or 3-D view with direct visual feedback. When editing a road in WYSIWYG mode, a lane point can simply be dragged to adjust a lane’s width or to form a curb.

Felix Fürneisen; felix.fuerneisen@triangraphics.de

Serious Game Studio to Develop Military Training Tools SAIC has opened its first serious game studio in Seattle, Wash. Serious games are applications that use gaming technologies or methods for a purpose other than strictly entertainment.

This new facility will serve as SAIC’s nerve center for creation and innovation in serious game technology and methodology for customers in the government, public and private sectors.

SAIC has designed, developed and deployed serious games for government and commercial customers for more than a decade.

Serious games offer virtual environments that enable users to learn faster and retain information longer. Currently, SAIC is developing serious games for military training, education, behavioral health care and commercial technical training. In this studio, SAIC will employ a diverse group of industry professionals, including game designers, artists, engineers, animators, sound designers and composers. Products developed will run on personal computers, mobile devices and game consoles.

Gardner Congdon; richard.g.congdon.ll@saic.com

Visual Systems Support Eurofighter Aircrew Training CAE and Eurofighter Simulation Systems (ESS) have renewed their collaboration agreement related to the provision of visual systems on the Eurofighter Typhoon Aircrew Synthetic Training Aids (ASTA) program. Under the Eurofighter ASTA program, ESS serves as the prime contractor and design authority for the comprehensive suite of Eurofighter training systems operated by the four

14 | MT2 20.4

Eurofighter partner nations (United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Italy) as well as Austria.

CAE has provided the visual systems required as part of the Eurofighter ASTA program, and under terms of the renewed collaboration agreement, will continue to work exclusively through ESS on the provision of visual systems on Eurofighter ASTA devices. The comprehensive visual solution

offered by CAE for the Eurofighter ASTA program includes the next-generation CAE Medallion-6000 image generator as well as display systems and database development tools.

Chris Stellwag; chris.stellwag@cae.com

www.MT2-kmi.com

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Virtual Test Bed to Provide Realistic Training Environment The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected Intific, a subsidiary of Cubic Global Defense, to develop a virtual test bed for the agency’s Tactical Technology Office. The virtual test bed is intended to provide a realistic virtual training environment for the evaluation of squad-level-focused technologies to be developed under DARPA’s Squad X Core Technologies program. In addition, the test bed would enable a cost-efficient and effective way to test concepts and systems in order to support combat and capability developers. It would also assist research and

development programs. Intific received the first-phase award to begin developing a prototype/proof of concept of the virtual test bed. If successful, Intific in subsequent option phases would build in gamification features, increased capabilities and scalability.

The overall effort has a potential value of more than $5 million over approximately 33 months. Leveraging Intific’s extensive background in commercial software development, the new virtual test bed would adapt the latest innovations in first-person gaming engines and add defense-specific scenarios and technology-generation systems.

[Image courtesy of Cubic Corporation/Intific]

Simulation Software Adds Performance Improvements

Army Doctrine Converted to Electronic Publishing The Army is pushing knowledge to the point of need by making e-publications (EPUB) available for download to soldiers’ mobile devices. Doctrinal publications are accessible as PDF files on personal computers and some mobile devices, but viewing them on mobile devices is less than optimal. The Army has converted many Army doctrinal publications to an EPUB format, making them easier to read on computer tablets and smartphones.

“E-publishing represents a new era for the Army,” said Helen Remily, TRADOC capability manager for the Army Distributed Learning Program. “It enables the Army to deliver training and educational materials to soldiers and Army civilians where and when they need them.”

Some soldiers currently spend their own money purchasing publications from online services or find outof-date Army publications on the Internet.

“Soldiers deserve to have the most current authenticated material at their fingertips when it’s needed and without spending their hard-earned paychecks,” said Remily, who leads the Fort Eustis, Va., organization responsible for the move to electronic publishing.

In addition to EPUBs, select doctrinal manuals will be available as e2Book Doctrine Supplements. The doctrinal publications were natural first candidates for e-publishing, as the information is essential, unclassified and non-sensitive.

Preparing publications for e-publishing is a complicated task. Remily’s team had to ensure that the publications were compatible with Android, Apple and Windows devices. The e-publishing effort will greatly increase the accessibility of publications and will reduce printing costs as e-publication gains more readers, Remily said.

VT MÄK has released VR-Vantage 2.0.1, a significant maintenance release that adds new features, makes improvements and fixes bugs. The release includes a lot of performance improvements, many of which help scenes using streaming or direct from source terrains. The way features such as buoys and SpeedTrees are loaded into the scene has been greatly improved. Features containing lights can be instanced and point features are more efficiently clustered and instanced. For maritime customers, the buoyancy model has been improved to allow for a configured LOD, which turns off the model to improve performance.

Scenes with large numbers of DI-Guy characters perform much faster. The PVD is faster, with more efficient HAT line drawing. They have made several improvements to their CIGI connection that enhance performance. In addition, SensorFX support for Linux has been restored. SensorFX now features greatly improved intensity modulation, which makes scenes using on-the-fly material classification look significantly better by blending imagery with material classification from vector data. VR-Vantage 2.0.1 now supports a monochrome camera configuration out-of-the-box, even without SensorFX. Jim Kogler; jkogler@mak.com www.MT2-kmi.com

MT2 20.4 | 15

Guard Chief

Q& A

Combining Dynamic Training and Real-World Missions

General Frank J. Grass Chief National Guard Bureau

General Frank J. Grass serves as the 27th chief, National Guard Bureau and as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In this capacity, he serves as a military adviser to the president, secretary of defense and National Security Council, and is the Department of Defense’s official channel of communication to the governors and state adjutants general on all matters pertaining to the National Guard. He is responsible for ensuring that nearly 460,000 Army and Air National Guard personnel are accessible, capable and ready to protect the homeland and to provide combat resources to the Army and Air Force.

Prior to his current assignment, Grass served as deputy commander, U.S. Northern Command and vice commander, U.S. Element, North American Aerospace Defense Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. As deputy commander, U.S. Northern Command, Grass helped lead the command to anticipate, prepare and respond to threats and aggression aimed at the United States, its territories and interests within the assigned area of responsibility and, as directed by the president or secretary of defense, provide defense support of civil authorities, including consequence management operations.

Grass enlisted in the Missouri Army National Guard in October 1969. He attended the Missouri Army National Guard Military Academy Officer Candidate School and was commissioned in the Engineer Corps in 1981. He has served in a variety of command and staff positions as a traditional National Guard soldier, in the active guard and reserve program and on active duty. In his first general officer assignment, he served as deputy director of the Army National Guard in Arlington, Va. Q: You recently completed an international trip to meet with Guard members and foreign military leaders. What is your overall assessment of the role of the National Guard in the current U.S. defense stance?

A: It’s clear that after nearly 14 years of combat, the National Guard can handle any complex mission it’s assigned, anywhere in the world. I couldn’t be more proud of the soldiers and airmen I met and observed during my recent overseas visit. Throughout the nine-day, six-nation visit, I met with deployed guardsmen from more than 25 states and territories who were performing in roles that are having a strategic impact on the battlefield. They are also building upon relationships with dozens of our foreign partners. In one location, Guard members were rebuilding a runway that will 16 | MT2 20.4

be used by all branches of the armed forces and U.S. allies. Others were helping oversee the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and training with partner nations. The best part was that you couldn’t tell the difference between a guardsman and an active component soldier or airman. This illustrates the need to keep the National Guard an operational force.

Q: After overseas deployments of some 770,000 personnel in the past decade and half, the Guard’s operational tempo is changing.

How has the reduction in international assignments changed the organization so far, and how do you see it continuing to evolve?

A: The availability of international assignments varies by service and mission, but on the whole, National Guard soldiers and airmen have always been remarkably adaptable and resilient.

This operational force has proven itself on the battlefield and built outstanding readiness along the way. It’s the best I have ever seen in my career. To allow that to decline would be a tragic loss to the nation. As we look to a very uncertain future, it’s critical that we retain an experienced National Guard through dynamic training opportunities and real-world missions so we can continue to provide capable forces to the Army and Air Force. Whatever the nation requires next, the National Guard is all-in. www.MT2-kmi.com

Q: You have warned that budget cuts could result in the smallest National Guard since the Korean War. What are you doing to prepare the Guard for possible sequestration in the short run, and for tight budgets stretching into the future?

A: Sequestration will adversely affect the ability of the entire Department of Defense to provide ready forces. This current fiscal climate provides the nation an opportunity to maintain a Guard that is proven on the battlefield and in the homeland. The National Guard gives America a great value for its defense dollar. Maintaining an operational National Guard gives the nation necessary combat capacity for the least possible cost.

Q: What are your goals for the Guard in the realm of cyber-defense, and what role do you foresee for the recently established cyber-teams?

A: The National Guard currently has cyber-capabilities in several states, which are transitioning or standing up over the next several years in support of the DoD effort to expand its cybersecurity force. Our goal for cyber-defense is to train, equip and provide highly skilled forces responsive to the needs of the nation. Through our cyber-squadrons and teams, we’ll provide trained and ready soldiers and airmen to support requirements established by the services and U.S. Cyber Command. Additionally, when authorized by proper authority, we will continue to support governors and state adjutants general for homeland-related missions.

TRAIN AS YOU MAINTAIN

Q: What role do Apache helicopters play in Guard operations, and what outcome do you expect for the Army’s Aviation Restructure Initiative?

A: The Army National Guard serves as the combat reserve of the Army. Our Apache units, pilots and maintainers have proven themselves in combat and have provided immense strategic depth of experience, capability and value to the nation. In today’s budgetconstrained environment, it’s especially critical to maintain combat-ready forces that can integrate seamlessly with the active component in the event of war or national emergency.

The National Commission on the Future of the Army is conducting a comprehensive study to assess what is best for the nation in terms of the size and structure of Army active, Guard and Reserve forces. We are confident they will do what’s best for our nation, including the future construct of Army National Guard aviation.

Q: What impact have you seen from the State Partnership Program (SPP), and how in general are you working to promote communication and cooperation between the Guard and those in other countries with whom they might have to operate in the future?

A: Through the SPP, we’ve developed deep and trusting ties that reassure, strengthen and motivate foreign friends and allies. When you

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have foreign partners who grew up together in their careers and fought together—and now are leaders in their respective countries—that’s pretty powerful. SPP events focus on interoperability with partner countries. This interoperability has enabled 15 states to successfully co-deploy National Guard forces with their respective partner countries in 79 rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan. States and their foreign partners engage several times per year, which enables them to develop long-lasting, trusting relationships—some as old as 22 years. In fiscal year 2014, there were 617 SPP events conducted between 68 partnerships, which average to 12 engagements per week. Ultimately, these mutually beneficial exchanges, where we train together and learn from each other, strengthen both forces.

SPP is a low-cost, small-footprint, high-impact program, and it’s growing; we added two new partnerships this year, bringing the total to 70 partnerships with 76 countries. The enduring quality of the SPP, along with its ability to engage in certain cases with non-defense personnel, allows us greater leverage and broader engagement than any other security cooperation program. It also maximizes our impact to meet combatant commanders’ security cooperation goals and objectives.

Q: How would you define the National Guard Bureau’s overall role in ensuring that National Guard members have the training they need?

A: The primary purpose of the National Guard Bureau (NGB) is to ensure that more than 455,000 Army and Air National Guard personnel are accessible, capable and ready to protect the homeland and to provide combat resources to the Army and Air Force. We are also responsible for disbursing federal funds in accordance with policies and guidance from the secretary of the Army and the secretary of the Air Force. Stated very simply, I believe the NGB’s most important job is to maintain the National Guard as an operational force. If we do that, we will get the leadership development experiences that our soldiers and airman want and need.

Q: How are the National Guard’s training responsibilities and goals changing as a result of changes in deployments and defense posture?

A: After 14 years of conflict, our soldiers and airmen know what “real” looks like. They will not accept anything other than realistic training, but they also have the responsibility to train the new generation using that experience. Whenever I meet with guardsmen across the globe, they tell me they’re not tired; they want to remain engaged. So our task now is to continue to offer opportunities for realistic, relevant and meaningful training, such as Combat Training Centers and Red Flag exercises.

The National Guard’s training strategy focuses on supporting a training environment that preserves the operational Guard’s ability to provide ready forces to support both state and federal missions.

We will continue to focus on leadership development at all levels and to provide progressive, challenging and realistic training. Additionally, as units convert from the legacy force structure into emerging new missions, school slots and the funding to meet the influx of students will become even more critical. And I don’t believe we can understate the importance of continued integration with the active component and reserves in all major training exercises to enhance our interoperability and expand leader development opportunities.

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Doing so will ultimately produce flexible, adaptable leaders for years to come.

Q: National Guard personnel can operate as warfighters in other countries, or as first responders in domestic emergencies. How can the Guard balance and manage such diverse training needs?

A: Balancing these roles is not difficult for the National Guard, because it’s exactly what we’re trained and organized to do. We’ve been doing this for 378 years. In fact, we do three things extraordinarily well: We fight our nation’s wars, we protect the homeland and we build global and domestic partnerships.

Q: What role does the NGB play in acquisition of simulation and training technology? If that is all at the state level, can you influence decisions, and if so, in what direction do you think training technology acquisition should go?

A: The Army and Air National Guard, respectively, are equipped by the Army and Air Force acquisition and requirements processes.

They use a competitive acquisition process instead of relying on a single vendor. In cases where the Guard has unique requirements, we procure simulation and training devices at the national level with National Guard Reserve Equipment Account funding, provided annually by Congress in support of validated requirements. Acquiring simulation and training devices at the national level ensures sustainment funding, and technological upgrades and is compliant with the Defense Acquisition System’s best practices.

Q: You have spoken of the Guard’s advantage in having personnel who are also on the cutting edge of innovation in industry. What policies can encourage the combination of civilian and military skills in Guard operations?

A: Cyber is a great example of a mission that requires cutting-edge skills. Based in nearly 3,000 communities, the National Guard remains a very attractive option for patriotic-minded cyber-professionals who wish to pursue civilian careers, but also serve their state and nation. Additionally, we offer exciting opportunities to practice cyber-skills in ways they cannot in civilian life, for example, through exercises such as the recent CyberGuard.

There are many other civilian and military career fields that transfer well or complement each other. Innovative commanders often look for ways to utilize civilian acquired skills in domestic and deployed environments. There are a variety of programs used by the services to attract and retain personnel in fields that are highly competitive with civilian industry or hard to fill. However, perhaps the best policy to highlight is that we are the combat reserves of the Army and Air Force: We provide a mature, flexible, uniquely skilled force that bridges the gap between Main Street and the war fight.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?

A: No other U.S. military component possesses our dual-mission capabilities and authorities. Additionally, we provide proven combat and domestic-response capabilities at a fraction of the defense budget. I wish every American fully understood the extent of what our National Guard does for our states, territories and nation, because it is truly inspiring and impressive to see. O www.MT2-kmi.com

The Army National Guard’s use of constructive simulations will become increasingly important in today’s environment.

By Major Jason Inskeep Training is a necessity to remain a versatile and relevant fighting force. For soldiers in the Army National Guard (ARNG), this training time is usually limited to a couple of days each month and a few weeks during the year. With this reduced training time, it is key to maximize the amount of collective training a unit conducts in order to maintain its proficiency and readiness.

The 35th Infantry Division (ID) recently did this when conducting its Santa Fe Exercise 2015, an internal command post exercise (CPX) carried out earlier this year. While these types of exercises are typically conducted during a two-week annual training or other extended period of time, the 35th ID conducted this exercise over a two-and-a-half-day inactive duty training (IDT) period, more commonly referred to as a drill weekend.

The Global Simulation Capability (GSC), a section of the National Simulation Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., assisted with this exercise. Partnering with the GSC allowed for a constructive simulation to be utilized in order to stimulate the 35th ID’s Mission Command information Systems (MCiS)/Army Battle Command Systems (ABCS) and to better train its staff sections.

A CPX is the preferred method of training for the division’s staff, and it enabled the staff to focus on multiple training objectives simultaneously over the course of the drill weekend, maximizing the small window of training time. This was the first time this type of exercise had been completed with the GSC over a condensed period of time such as a drill weekend.

This exercise was conducted utilizing Warfighter Simulation (WARSIM), a multi-resolution federation of simulations, which is the optimal simulation tool for divisions and above. While it enables stimulation of all the division’s MCiS/ABCS, WARSIM often carries a large overheard of personnel and systems due to the extensive nature of these constructive exercises.

The 35th ID and GSC were able to mitigate this overhead through a thorough review of what was required to support the exercise and extensive planning up to and including execution of the exercise. The 35th ID also coordinated with the 130th Field Artillery Brigade (FAB), one of its in-state aligned-for-training units, for support. The 130th FAB utilized its own soldiers and ABCS to man the response cell for the FAB within the exercise. This lessened the burden on the division’s fires cell while also allowing for additional training for the 130th FAB.

Modified Scenario The 35th ID also utilized a scenario that was derived from a previous Warfighter Exercise Decisive Action Training Environment 2.0 scenario. This scenario was modified in order to meet the commander’s training objectives, which saved time from developing a completely www.MT2-kmi.com

new scenario. In similar fashion, the previously published operation order from the scenario was utilized and revised in line with the changes made for the Santa Fe Exercise. Since the military decisionmaking process was not an item of emphasis for this exercise, this process along with orders production was abbreviated in order to utilize time elsewhere in the exercise planning process.

While this exercise was conducted over a drill weekend, the planning process spanned six months, with an exercise life cycle starting in September 2014. After initial coordination with the GSC and the Mission Training Complex-Leavenworth (MTC-LVN), planning conferences and in-progress reviews were scheduled in order to design the scenario and properly plan the exercise.

Planning and coordination were critical to the success of this training exercise. The ARNG has a very limited amount of time each month with all unit soldiers simultaneously available. While much of the planning and coordination was conducted by the unit’s full-time support staff, it was critical to have leadership and staff from across the division involved in this process, many who were traditional IDT ARNG soldiers. This required forward thinking, scheduling and resourcing in order to ensure all involved personnel and entities were able to meet and plan for this event. Additionally, as the GSC had previously worked with active duty units rather than the ARNG, it was a learning experience for all to better understand the funding, manning and time constraints that ARNG units have compared to their active duty counterparts.

The key to success with any constructive exercise is communication and coordination with the supporting agencies and activities, such as the GSC and the local MTC. These organizations have many tools and personnel that can assist the unit being trained as long as the proper coordination is made ahead of time. The Santa Fe Exercise was the beginning of many constructive simulation exercises for the 35th ID to prepare for its warfighter exercise in June 2016. These exercises will be conducted over both drill weekends and ADT periods.

The 35th ID intends to continue to partner with the GSC and the MTC-LVN in order to utilize constructive simulations to better train and prepare its staff. In a similar fashion, all brigades and above, whether active or reserve components, should consider how they utilize constructive simulations to better train their staffs. This will become increasingly important in today’s resource-constrained environment. O Army Reserve Major Jason M. Inskeep is a training officer for the 35th Infantry Division G-3.

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.

MT2 20.4 | 19

Department of Defense science and technology training efforts focus on delivering quality and effectiveness.

This article provides an overview of the Department of Defense’s investment approach for military training technology research, identifying key focus areas in which efforts are being concentrated and, where appropriate, highlighting areas that are promising works in progress.

These investments are a direct result of a combination of drivers, including fiscal realities that impact both DoD’s mission sets and the manpower and personnel assets available to conduct those missions, advances in the weapons platforms being fielded and under development and the changing global security landscape.

Over the past century, we have witnessed a profound shift away from the conventional warfare models typical of the First and Second World Wars, where the United States had an active force of more than 10 million warfighters, many of whom were drafted, towards a full-spectrum warfare model typical of today’s engagements. These are characterized by irregular and asymmetric engagements, uncertainty and cognitive complexity at all levels, joint and coalition mission requirements and reliance on rapidly evolving technologies—supported by an active force of just more than 1 million volunteer warfighters.

Not surprisingly, this shift brings with it unique operational challenges: Fewer warfighters are available to perform a growing number of complex tasks, which require them to be as cognitively prepared as they are physically ready. Our warfighters must be comfortable coordinating and working across service and national boundaries, which requires preparation for flexible, creative decision-making at every level—strategic, operational and tactical. Modeling, simulation and distributed training technologies that enhance the cognitive readiness of our warfighters to attain a decisive advantage over our adversaries are critical components of the DoD approach to meeting these challenges.

Delivering effective training is essential for human capital management in the U.S. military. Unlike other sectors, which can directly hire talent into the level of capability and competency they require, from mailroom clerk to CEO, the U.S. military must grow its talent through a process that requires a long-term cycle of classroom/instructor-led and on-the-job training. There is no easy way to “direct hire” a ship’s captain or a battalion commander.

From a science and technology (S&T) investment perspective, training—along with its close cousins, personnel selection and classification—is one of four elements, or sub-areas, of the DoD human systems research portfolio. The other three are protection, sustainment 20 | MT2 20.4

By Commander Joseph V. Cohn

and warfighter performance; systems interfaces and cognitive processing; and human aspects of operations in military environments.

Together, these elements focus on providing innovative, humancentric science solutions to enhance the readiness and reduce the cost of our all-volunteer force. While the latter three elements have the potential to enhance a warfighter’s performance capabilities at distinct points within a mission, only training provides a way of raising a warfighter’s overall performance potential to new and higher levels at every point within a mission.

S&T Areas Currently, DoD’s training S&T activities focus on four areas: the science of learning, which drives innovation and is key to assuring training effectiveness; personalized training, which emphasizes technologies that adapt training content and instructional strategies to each students’ particular needs; integrated training, which enables effective “anytime, anywhere” training beyond the level of the individual, scaling to service, joint, and coalition levels; and affordability/ return on investment, which focuses on approaches for validating the cost- and performance-effectiveness of the training technologies being developed and demonstrating their value.

Science of Learning. Just as the characteristics of the operations in which we engage are evolving, so, too, must our approaches for training warfighters evolve. Luckily, the foundational paradigms upon which the learning sciences are based continue to evolve as well, providing deeper insights into how to structure training techniques, design and develop training techniques, and measure their effectiveness. In the past, the science of learning has focused on applying a single theory or approach to the challenge of delivering effective training. Today, DoD’s science of learning efforts emphasize a blended approach, synthesizing repetition and reinforcement with information processing management and active, authentic problem solving to deliver personalized and integrated training that is tailored to the needs of the individual or group.

Personalized Training. The main focus of research activities supporting personalized training rests on a three-step approach. Step one focuses on model development—dynamic, evolving models that represent an individual student’s learning processes, progress and needs; models that identify and apply instructional techniques that maximize www.MT2-kmi.com

the learning progress and attainment of individuals; and models that simulate the interactions between expert instructors and individual students to provide a one-on-one tutorial experience. Step two concentrates on driving down the cost of generating training content, focusing on tools that allow for easy elicitation of training domain knowledge and the rapid creation of training scenarios from that domain knowledge. Step three centers around implementing these capabilities in a software and hardware framework that will support the current suite of training technologies and is able to integrate future technologies.

Integrated Training. This area expands the research efforts covered in personalized training efforts to a larger training audience—crews, teams and operating units of warfighters working across different platforms, services, and even international boundaries. The focus of these efforts includes ensuring that training content is accessible and sharable across these different domains, thus enabling an “anytime, anywhere” training capability, developing learning management systems that can accommodate a wide and diverse range of training applications and developing performance measures to assess readiness at the individual, team and larger aggregate levels.

Training Value. Perhaps the most important, but frequently overlooked, aspect of developing training technologies is a demonstration of their value, measured as the long-term return on the initial S&T investment. This is likely a result of confusion over the distinction between “lower cost” and “value.” A system’s value is more than just the sum total of its components’ cost. Rather, it is measured in terms of the monetary and operational value that the resultant training brings to the organization. The issue is not cost alone. Training S&T investments must be judged in terms of their monetary and operational or mission-effectiveness returns. This applies whether it is reducing the time needed to train students to some standard, increasing the level of student competency over a fixed time, or a mix of the two.

Consider a training system that costs $50 million and five years to develop, and then has an annual support cost of $1 million—but also reduces by a factor of 10 the time needed to train to standard. The upfront costs certainly appear prohibitive. Yet if the training system can reduce by tenfold the time needed to train multiple cohorts of students—often numbering in the thousands per military specialty per service per year—to a set of standards, then these upfront development costs lead to significant monetary and operational returns. This is a result of moving more capable warfighters into the operational environment sooner, reducing instructor and other overhead-related costs, and avoiding on-the-job training and operational costs associated with requiring mentors to delay their own tasks in order to guide their mentees.

Training technologies are an important tool in the department’s toolbox for enhancing and sustaining warfighter performance. Yet, the department also recognizes that there is more to delivering effective training than simply connecting various hardware and software components. Delivering effective training, especially against the backdrop of a smaller all-volunteer force executing increasingly complex, joint and coalition missions, requires a fundamental shift away from a onesize-fits-all, task-based focus to a tailored, personalized and integrated approach that provides our warfighter with a cognitive advantage over our nation’s adversaries. O

Joseph V. Cohn

Navy Commander Joseph V. Cohn, Ph.D., is deputy director, Human Performance, Training and BioSystems Directorate, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. government.

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.

Next Steps Of course, there is still work to be done. We must treat seriously front-end analyses to determine training requirements and objectives.

These analyses form the basis for developing any kind of training technology and also provide the basis for conducting effective return-oninvestment assessments. We need to develop approaches and tools to support tradeoff analyses between training and other approaches for enabling and improving human performance—for example, looking at tradeoffs between training versus selection, training versus system design, and training versus job-performance aids—and all of these together. More broadly, we must also better understand how to integrate and optimize our investments across the full suite of activities intended to sustain and enhance warfighter performance. www.MT2-kmi.com

MT2 20.4 | 21

Industry offers new virtual, visual and simulation technologies for developing aircraft mechanics.

By Henry Canaday, MT2 Correspondent instructor-controlled malfunctions that facilitate training mechanics Sustainment of assets is an ever-larger portion of the military in fault isolation and the removal and replacement of failed compobudget and needs to be done as efficiently as possible. Among other nents. CAE has already delivered an MH-60R avionics maintenance things, that means maintenance must be performed to the highest trainer to RAN for transition and readiness training on the rotorstandards. But the military personnel that do maintenance turn over craft’s avionics. much more frequently than their civilian counterparts, and training CAE’s primary military customers for maintenance training are is a huge burden. thus air forces that operate C-130Js and A400Ms and operators of heAs a result, training programs for aviation maintenance worklicopters such as the MH-60R. But Morant said military customers ers must be extremely efficient, enabling personnel to reach high also benefit from CAE’s extensive civilian training. For example, the levels of competence quickly and with the least expenditure of scarce U.S. Air Force uses CAE Simfinity Boeing 737 VMTs in a classroom money and other resources. Training the maintainers requires smart at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., to train maintainers of C-40 Clippers, combinations of the latest technologies with hard-won experience in the military variant of the 737. instruction.

Any training solution must integrate well with the Defense forces are thus eager to enhance live operatraining environment, Morant emphasized. Simulations with simulation-based, virtual training, integrattion, though highly economic and safe, must always ed with interactive courseware and advanced learning meet customer objectives. For RCAF C-130J mainmanagement systems, noted Chuck Morant, vice presitenance training, thorough analysis of training tasks dent of strategy and business development at CAE. determined the mix of virtual and hands-on training.

The company’s aviation maintenance training comOne CAE solution was a self-paced, game-based interacbines the latest simulation technologies with highly tive learning module for repair of airframe composite experienced instructors. For example, CAE recently structures that incorporates virtual equipment, process delivered 10 classrooms of Simfinity Virtual Mainteanimations and scoring. nance Trainers (VMTs), totaling more than 100 workChuck Morant For the A400M, CAE’s simulator trains on the most stations, for C-130Js flown by the Royal Canadian Air chuck.morant@cae.com difficult maintenance tasks for the aircraft. The comForce (RCAF). VMTs are fully interactive with aircraft pany has also been designing a generic avionics virtual courseware and compatible with the RCAF’s integrated maintenance trainer for initial training. For this task, CAE has prolearning environment. duced a flexible, virtual trainer that addresses the four most demandMoreover, some VMTs are coupled with hardware-based part-task ing avionics systems and includes procedures, virtual tests and tools. trainers that familiarize trainees with aircraft systems and diagnostics “Next-generation maintenance training will use actual aircraftand let them do hands-on diagnostics and testing on these part-task portable maintenance aids for training,” Morant predicted. Combintrainers. The RCAF had specifically required all maintenance training ing these aids with shared learning content and electronic publications be done virtually or on maintenance trainers, with no training on acwill enable CAE to continually enhance its Virtual Instructor Toolkit. tual aircraft. The VMTs’ blended approach enables this approach.

The building-block approach, using a suite of devices, flexible enviIn developing training solutions, CAE partners with aircraft OEMs ronment and tools to facilitate scenario development and instructional such as Lockheed Martin and Airbus Defense & Space. For RCAF Cdelivery, allows CAE to combine the latest technology with training 130J training, the company worked closely with Lockheed. CAE also experience, Morant said, thus enabling the company to offer blended recently delivered cockpit operations maintenance simulators for the training worldwide.

Airbus A400M Atlas.

In June, CAE agreed with the U.S. Navy to provide the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) with an MH-60R Seahawk composite maintenance High-Fidelity Interaction trainer. This MH-60R CMT will be a modified MH-60R that was provided to CAE by the government. CAE will use the modified aircraft L-3 Link Simulation & Training offers total training solutions for to create a hardware-based mechanical maintenance trainer for the both operators and maintainers of complex military platforms and sysMH-60R. tems. This includes aviation maintenance training that produce fully The MH-60R CMT will train RAN mechanics to perform mequalified military mechanics, according to Vice President of Engineerchanical, electrical and hydraulic system maintenance. It will include ing Frank Delisle.

22 | MT2 20.4

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jet fighters like the F-35 Lightning II and F/A-18 Hornets and Super L-3’s services include turnkey schoolhouse operations that comHornets, patrol or cargo aircraft like the P-8 Poseidon and C-130 Herbine instructors, management, sustainment and support staff. cules, and rotary-wing aircraft such as the CH-47 Chinook and UH-72 The company’s products include L-3’s Maintenance Training InteLakota. grated Development Environment (IDE). This IDE is a real-time virtual Disti virtual environments also support maintenance training maintainer environment that provides high-fidelity interactive aircraft for the F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, AH-64 Apache and MQ-1C structures and virtual avionics, support equipment and tools. IDE also Gray Eagle. offers representations of maintenance manuals and L-3’s RITE-Train The richness and complexity of Disti’s virtual environments ensuite of instruction capabilities. L-3 can provide full-scale aircraft repable training on hundreds of maintenance procedures, and in the case resentations for training tasks requiring practice on hardware. of the F-35, more than 1,000 procedures. “These virtual aircraft serve L-3’s maintenance training covers all types of aircraft: fast jets, as direct computer-based surrogates for the real-world wide-body aircraft, rotary wing and unmanned vehicles. aircraft,” Ariotti explained. “They facilitate operational “For example, we are currently developing the [MQ-1C] checks, troubleshooting and removal and replacement Gray Eagle maintenance training system for the U.S. down to line-replaceable units. The environments Army, on contract through General Atomics, and have have hundreds of pieces of virtual support equipment.” a long history providing F-16 [Fighting Falcon] mainte The functionality of Disti’s virtual environments nance training solutions,” Delisle explained. depends on training requirements and which proceL-3 training is provided for every maintenance skill dures need to be taught. Procedures dictate which code, including electrical/electronic, propulsion sysvirtual doors need to open, which virtual panels must tems, avionics, composites, refueling systems, fuels, be removable, which cables disconnect, which pins hydraulics and structures, he added. to probe, which support equipment is displayed and The company has recently been exploiting advances Frank Delisle which system schematics function. “Our software in 3-D scanning and processing virtualization to improve the fidelity of its training systems and transmit frank.delisle@l-3com.com provides traceability of this data all the way to the finished system, ensuring functionality meets requirerich training content to multiple tablet devices wirements,” Ariotti said. lessly and securely. This reduces training acquisition, For a decade, all these capabilities of VE Studio operations and sustainment costs, Delisle said. were available only when Disti engineers were under The L-3 engineer pointed to the value of L-3’s RITEcontract to develop virtual environments for mainTrain integrated and adaptive capability, saying it acceltenance training. At last year’s Interservice/Industry erates training by more effectively engaging students Training, Simulation and Education Conference, and giving instructors real-time data on performance of however, Disti made VE Studio available as a comindividuals and groups. This prompt feedback enables mercial tool. Ariotti noted this was partly in response timely, task-relevant coaching. to requests from nations that wanted virtual mainte“Our technology immediately alerts students and nance training but could not export aircraft data to instructors when a procedural step from the manual Scott Ariotti the United States. is skipped, done incorrectly, out of order, or in a manSimilarly, Disti’s graphically intense 3-D enviner not recommended by subject-matter experts and sariotti@disti.com ronments have traditionally been delivered through instructional analysts,” he said, adding that L-3 is seehigh-end, gaming-style computers at training facilities. But the coming significant interest in taking this training solution to maintenance pany has recently been working with Amazon to deliver its applicahangars for just-in-time use. tions from Amazon’s cloud-based rendering solution AppStream.

This new service delivers an encoded video stream to user devices.

Virtual Environment “Essentially, it’s an interactive streaming video feed that runs on any Web-connected device, including low-end desktops and laptops, tabBehind every great virtual training system is a superb virtual enlets and phones,” Ariotti explained. vironment. But making it easy for students to learn virtually is a lot Combining Amazon’s infrastructure as a service and VE Studio harder than the virtual wizards make it look. will allow trainers to easily produce and distribute virtual mainteThose truths are part of the philosophy at Disti, whose name has nance training in the form of “training as a service,” he said. long been virtually synonymous with creating virtual environments The virtual environment development process enabled by VE for aviation maintenance training, according to Scott Ariotti, the comStudio is critical to making training more effective than just a bunch pany’s director of global marketing. of game engines, pretty pictures and wow factors. “The picture is just “We’ve perfected the process of constructing these demanding virthe last phase of a complete virtual maintenance training applicatual environments by producing a software development kit that mantion,” Ariotti said. ages a database-centric content creation architecture,” Ariotti said.

Doing it all right begins with requirements analysis and continDisti’s VE Studio is the commercialized version of the suite that ues with content development, on-demand and automated builds and manages virtual environment development. It starts by identifying and automated regression testing. VE Studio manages the entire producanalyzing project requirements and continues through source-data tion pipeline. It parses procedures and populates its database with all collection, automatic code generation, software-build automation and the needed objects, such as doors, cables, hoses and line-replaceable automated regression testing. units, as well as required actions, such as removals, installations, Disti virtual environments are preferred solutions for almost a dozprobes and connections. VE Studio then associates behaviors and en aviation-maintenance training platforms, Ariotti noted, including www.MT2-kmi.com

MT2 20.4 | 23

constraints with the objects and manages the automated building of the virtual environment.

Maintenance Simulator

Finmeccanica’s Alenia Aermacchi unit both makes and maintains a variety of civil and military aircraft and components. Military models include the C-27J Spartan, MC-27J Praetorian and M-346 advanced jet trainer. The company has partnered on the Eurofighter Typhoon, the The developers at NGRAIN offer a 3-D visualization platform used F-35 Lighting II, the AMX fighter-bomber and the Tornado GR4. in development and deployment of augmented reality (AR) and virtual For the C-27J, MC-27J and M-346, Alenia Aermacchi offers cusreality (VR) technologies for industry, according to Product Marketing tomers a complete training package for maintenance. This package Manager Jonathan Hornsby. includes computer-based training (CBT), a virtual maintenance trainer The company’s products include the NGRAIN SDK, a 3-D volumet(VMT) classroom to learn maintenance tasks and procedures through ric rendering engine available under license for creation of customvirtual instructor-led lessons on a traditional PC and maintenance simized AR and VR applications. There is also NGRAIN Vergence, a COTS ulator. All training devices are linked with technical publications and product that allows subject-matter experts and technical leads to create maintenance manuals and driven by training needs analysis so technicustom AR or VR and interactive 3-D content without writing a single cians are trained in compliance with their technical duties. line of code.

Alenia Aermacchi developed its maintenance simulator in the past Finally, NGRAIN’s industrial applications offer AR and VR benefits 18 months. It is a full 3-D environment where the trainee can apply to specific enterprise activities. For example, NGRAIN’s Consort enwhat he or she learns on CBT and VMT, just like onables teams to quickly and accurately conduct visual the-job training. Moreover, the trainee can navigate inspections and damage assessments on vehicles, heavy into the aircraft structure and system, or section it and equipment and other complex assemblies. remove all the skin and discover what will not be visible For operations support, NGRAIN’s Envoy provides when working on the aircraft. just-in-time access to enterprise information and liveMore training options are on the way for military data feeds required for crucial field decisions. And Scout utility aircraft. TRU Simulation + Training has esdelivers real-time data and analytics to factory workers tablished an aircraft-maintenance training facility at optimizing manufacturing quality and minimizing proTextron Aviation’s Mid-Continent campus in Wichita, duction risk.

Kan., due for completion this summer. The facility has Although not restricted to aviation, NGRAIN techover 35,000 square feet of climate-controlled space, five nologies support several aircraft maintenance funcJonathan Hornsby individual classrooms, an avionics test lab and a sepations, including training, in-field repair and inspections. rate exam room. Courseware features the latest 3-D “By visualizing operational data at the point of need on jhornsby@ngrain.com modeling and animation. tablets, mobile devices or wearables, the NGRAIN platThe first class, scheduled to begin in early October, will train meform allows maintenance technicians to interact with their physical chanics on new King Air 350i/ER turboprops with Pro Line Fusion avienvironment in a way that was previously impossible,” Hornsby said. onics, explained Vice President and General Manager Kyle Crooks. By Whether running though refreshers on maintenance procedures mid-October, he added, a second course will provide avionics training in the field or visualizing reference data on part availability, repair reon the same aircraft. cords and procedures, NGRAIN software can connect users to informaBefore the end of the year, the curriculum will include training for tion they need to act quickly and efficiently.

McCauley propeller aircraft, and in 2016 will expand to include new Lockheed Martin has used NGRAIN Consort to transform damage King Air 250 and C90GTx turboprops. In 2017, TRU will train on adassessment and repair processes for the F-22 Raptor and F-35. Consort ditional Cessna aircraft. provides a visual reference that enables technicians to quickly identify, The curriculum will feature classroom lectures, lab training and catalogue and annotate damage done to the fuselage while it was in hands-on instruction. “Over 54,000 hours of courseware is being deflight. “When reconciled with aircraft records, maintainers are able to veloped to support maintenance training on all major mechanical syseasily determine airworthiness and mission readiness before aircraft tems, engine run and taxi, and so forth,” Crooks said. release,” Hornsby said.

The company expects to train Textron employees and customers NGRAIN has recently made several improvements in its core COTS and private fleets initially, later serving defense aviation customers. platform, Vergence, and introduced its industrial applications suite.

Crooks stressed that courseware developers and instructors will This suite was developed in collaboration with industry leaders, inhave direct access to the Cessna, Beechcraft and McCauley engineers cluding aerospace and defense officials. NGRAIN plans to expand its and production teams that build the aircraft, ensuring continuous upindustrial applications to address additional business challenges and to-date instruction. And students will have access in climate-controlled introduce new features. adjacent hangar space to actual aircraft systems.

The NGRAIN platform provides a wholly new and unique way for “In combination with the latest touch screen technology and elecend-users to interact with organizational data, Hornsby noted. “Rather tronic materials, this produces an optimal learning experience comthan present records in a static form or table, the software delivers inpared with what is available today,” Crooks said. O teractivity that converts data into actionable information and retainable knowledge. By displaying data on tablets, mobile devices or wearables, NGRAIN redefines what it means to learn on the job.”

For more information, contact MT2 Editor Hank Donnelly Organizations using NGRAIN reduced training time by up to 30 at hankd@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives percent and increased first-time-right job performance by 75 to 96 perfor related stories at www.mt2-kmi.com. cent, he reported.

Visualization Platform

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ArmyU seeks to raise the academic rigor of the service’s many professional military education programs.

The Army is consolidating soldier education under one roof as part of the recently initiated concept of the Army University.

While not a “brick and mortar” university, ArmyU will maximize the educational experience that soldiers are already getting in the Army through the Army Training and Doctrine Command. The plan for ArmyU is to organize the Army’s professional military education programs into a university system to increase academic rigor, create greater opportunities for accreditation and enhance the quality of the force, according to leaders of the Combined Arms Center (CAC) on Fort Leavenworth, Kan., who will administer the program.

ArmyU will integrate the education already provided in the Army for enlisted soldiers, officers, warrant officers and Army civilians of all components. Included in ArmyU are all the Army “centers of excellence”: aviation, cyber, fires, intelligence, maneuver, maneuver support, mission command and sustainment. ArmyU also includes the Army Sergeants Major Academy, Defense Language Institute, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, Army Management Staff College, Warrant Officer Career College, Army Command and General Staff College and Army Press.

“We will work with them, and we are looking at how we can make the instructors better and make the curriculum as relevant and as current as possible in order to meet the need of the operating force,” said Colonel Michael J. Harlan of the CAC. The new university will coordinate with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Army War College, Cadet Command, initial military training, Army Reserve Schools, Army National Guard Schools, Army Medical Department Center and School, Judge Advocate General Legal Center and School and the Special Warfare Center and School. www.MT2-kmi.com

Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel A. Dailey, who signed the university’s charter along with Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh and Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno, said ArmyU will be nationally accredited, and will eventually provide a “universal transcript” to make it easier for civilian colleges and universities to understand the education and training soldiers have received in the Army, and help them build a degree program. The Army and other military services currently offer a Joint Services Transcript (JST), which provides to civilian universities a description of military schooling and work history in civilian language.

Dailey said the JST will not be eliminated, but will be augmented with a transcript from ArmyU. “Our goal is to have the Army transcript have the same value as any other university [transcript] in America,” Dailey said. “It’s long overdue. The soldiers are excited about this too.”

Harlan said a universal transcript, along with ArmyU accreditation, will mean that many, though not all, of the types of training soldiers receive in the Army will be able to be converted into civilian education credits. One of the goals of ArmyU is to ensure that the training provided across the Army meets the rigor required in the civilian academic world.

This will make it easier for ArmyU to provide accredited courses, which in turn means it can provide universal transcripts of soldier education that document coursework credits that civilian universities will be more willing to accept. When that happens, the education soldiers complete in the Army will save them both time and money when they transition out of service.

“When they walk in to that school, they have this universal transcript from the ArmyU that shows legitimate accredited credits, and they can take those and apply them

By C. Todd Lopez

towards a degree program of their choosing,” Harlan said. “It’ll save them money ideally if that soldier, now a civilian, doesn’t have to pay a second time for training they already possess. It may get them a degree faster because they don’t have to take as many classes, because they have already gotten that training and experience and the civilian university will acknowledge it.”

Harlan also described what he called a “degree engine,” which would be part of ArmyU. The degree engine would use the universal transcript and compare it to the requirement for getting a particular degree at a particular university, and could help soldiers determine what other courses they would need to take to achieve that degree, and even possibly the cost of attaining that degree. “It’s a tool to help that soldier understand how close they are to getting a degree they want from an institution they want,” Harlan said.

In a tri-signed letter, McHugh, Odierno and Dailey described the creation of ArmyU as the next logical step in the continued professionalization of the Army. “Understanding the historical importance of this effort, we are committed to transforming one of the largest academic systems in the United States into a premier university system that harnesses the tremendous energy, experience and intellectual capacity in our Army to produce the professionals that the nation will need for a complex and uncertain world tomorrow,” they wrote. O C. Todd Lopez writes for the Army News Service.

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.

MT2 20.4 | 25

UCF Looks to Team Orlando Partners for Cyber Graduate Program Amid the growing concern over cyber-attacks, whether on private corporations, government or the military, Team Orlando member University of Central Florida (UCF) recently announced the addition of a graduate certificate in behavioral cybersecurity as part of the UCF Modeling and Simulation graduate program, which is one of the most respected programs in the country.

The graduate certificate in modeling and simulation of behavioral cybersecurity is a 13-hour certificate program that provides students with specialized training and knowledge in M&S fundamentals, techniques and applications toward the behavioral aspects of cybersecurity, with a special emphasis on proactive planning, as well as reactive strategies to minimize damage.

“At University of Central Florida, we focus on human-centric modeling and simulation,” said Peter Kincaid, Ph.D., co-director of UCF’s M&S graduate program. “This new certificate is similar and pays particular attention to the behavior that characterizes and contributes to this kind of activity, in addition to the traditional aspects of cybersecurity, such as firewall protection. Our entire M&S program is highly interdisciplinary, and this certificate will be as well.

We will use modeling and simulation as a major tool for analysis.”

UCF is considered one of the premier academic institutions in the United States to offer truly interdisciplinary graduate studies in M&S. It was initiated in 2001-2002 with directions from university officials to create a multidisciplinary program, and although most of the modeling and simulation graduate programs are part of the computer science or engineering departments, the program currently draws classes and faculty from a dozen or more academic areas.

“The certificate is being offered on a part-time basis, requiring one course each semester for four semesters,” said Sabrina Kalish, M.A., coordinator for the M&S graduate program. “We hope to attract a mix of working professionals and students from a variety of other programs at UCF.” National market research has identified a demand in supply for certified specialists, Kalish noted. “The recent headlines about major hacks into large corporations are making everyone aware of how vulnerable they might be; now, we need educated specialists to help mitigate that.”

One of the unique features of the program is what surrounds its home at UCF in Orlando. The Central Florida region is the world’s epicenter for modeling and simulation, and an important part of that ongoing and growing success is the partnership between the university and Team Orlando, one that dates back many years.

Pair that with the M&S expertise that surrounds them in the Central Florida Research Park, a campus-like environment adjacent 26 | MT2 20.4

By Dolly Rairigh Glass

to UCF that houses hundreds of M&S companies, and the result is a strong university program supported and complemented by institutions and corporations providing real-life experience.

“Cybersecurity is an emerging area in which we need to grow our workforce, and we are always looking to improve the skills of our workforce,” said Team Orlando’s Captain Wes Naylor, commanding officer of the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division.

“This is good for Central Florida and our Team Orlando partners.

Cyber-awareness and cybersecurity are issues the Department of Defense will continue to press, especially with the recent hackings within the government.

“Team Orlando has the opportunity to partner with UCF, look at the road ahead and conduct real-world research on emerging issues affecting not only DoD, but also the economy and the world of cyber,” said Naylor. “What we learn together, whether that’s with regard to course development or research, will bring qualitative and quantitative academic rigor to understanding and learning about cyber-defense, and that’s a good thing.”

“We expect those who complete the certificate will be more marketable,” Kalish said. “And because we anticipate students with a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, earning the certificate will accomplish different goals for each of them. For example, we have a few cybersecurity professionals enrolled because while they are strong with technical skills, they are hoping to gain more experience with identifying behavioral aspects, such as motives for cybercrime and possible insider threats.”

“On the other end of the spectrum, we have folks in other programs at UCF, such as criminal justice, who want to learn more about the technical aspects of cybersecurity so that they can help to inform policy,” Kalish said.

As an interdisciplinary program, students will be assigned to work on complex, hands-on projects as interdisciplinary teams, so they will be encouraged to form groups with others whose backgrounds are different.

“These groups give our students the opportunity to consider challenges from many perspectives, and utilize that spectrum of perspectives and information to arrive at a conclusion,” Kalish said. “We feel this is one of the biggest strengths of the certificate.”

The first graduate class in the behavioral cybersecurity program begins in August. For more information about the program or to apply, visit www.ist.ucf.edu/grad. 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.

www.MT2-kmi.com

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

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Calendar

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August 30-September 5, 2015 Fall Simulation Interoperability Workshop Orlando, Fla. www.sisostds.org

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September 14-16, 2015 Air and Space Conference National Harbor, Md. www.afa.org

September 22-24, 2015 Modern Day Marine Quantico, Va. www.marinemilitaryexpos.com November 30-December 4, 2015 I/ITSEC 2015 Orlando, Fla. www.iitsec.org

September 2015 Volume 20, Issue 5

NEXTISSUE America’s Longest Established Simulation & Training Magazine

Cover and In-Depth Interview with:

Col. Walt Yates Program Manager PM TRASYS

Features Virtual Marksmanship Image Generators Part-Task Trainers

Special Section 2015 Top Simulation & Training Companies

Insertion Order Deadline: August 28, 2015 • Ad Material Deadline: September 4, 2015

www.MT2-kmi.com

MT2 20.4 | 27

INDUSTRY INTERVIEW

Military Training Technology

W. Garth Smith President and Co-Owner MetaVR W. Garth Smith co-founded MetaVR with Richard M. Rybacki in 1997. Smith holds the position of chief operating officer of MetaVR, overseeing all corporate operations, new business development and product development strategy.

the ship exterior in VRSG’s first-personshooter mode and oversee deck activities such as aircraft takeoffs and landings, the unloading of cargo, or disembarkation of vehicles. These model features are crucial for amphibious training operations.

Q: Your company recently released new versions of your Virtual Reality Scene Generator (VSRG) and Scenario Editor.

How will the changes and enhancements benefit users?

Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges to effective use of georealistic visual simulations for military training?

A: Our move to the 64-bit platform means that users can run ultra-high resolution (sub-inch per-pixel) terrain databases with culture-dense scenes at 60 Hz for much larger areas than previously available.

VRSG’s new NVENC-based H.264 streaming plugin takes advantage of the H.264 now encoded on the GPU of NVidia graphic cards, and provides a superior-quality video for a given data rate over our previous video plugins.

VRSG has had persistent track/wheel impressions for a while, but we improved this feature so that users can now specify track impressions for single-track entities (motorcycle tracks, human and animal footprints) and modulate the intensity of the track impression. Scenario Editor has new tools for scripting the movement of behavior entities, which include creating looped paths and grouping an entity’s waypoints. The latter is useful for moving the entity and its entire path as a single unit.

Our 3-D content libraries that are installed with VRSG continue to grow to meet customer requests and CAF DMO requirements. For VRSG version 5.10, we added more than 310 new models for a total of over 5,100 models in our model libraries.

Q: Your business partner, Close Air Solutions, recently announced the successful (full-day/night) accreditation of its Immersive Close Air Support Simulator (iCASS) training system as part of the U.K.’s FAC/JTAC Training Program. What role do your company’s products play in that system?

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A: We added features to VRSG and our content libraries and provided VRSG development licenses, all at no charge, to meet Close Air Solutions’ requirements over a one-year period. Their iCASS has been adopted by the Joint Forward Air Control Training and Standardization Unit at the RAF Station Leeming, North Yorkshire, England. This partial-dome trainer uses 12 VRSG channels for the projected (out-the-window and sensor) views and for a simulated laser target designator and range finder. The system also uses our 3-D content. The iCASS will be used to fulfill the U.K. Ministry of Defense’s forward air control training requirement. The facility is analogous to the U.S. Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) schoolhouse at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., which also uses VRSG in its JTAC training simulators.

Q: What are some other innovative capabilities your company is delivering to military training programs?

A: We continue to improve the realism to our military models. For example, we recently added several new models of U.S. and U.K. ships to our military model library.

The texture resolution of these models is 2 centimeters per-pixel for the body, and 1 centimeters per-pixel for the deck. The realism is such that one can walk around

A: The biggest issue is countering the marketing misinformation that claims products from game companies can render 3-D terrain larger than a small play box to meet the simulation requirements of military training exercises. At ITEC this year, we saw the presentation of one such game company of a multi-channel system that could not maintain 60 Hz and had visible and significant texture and structural anomalies. Their ads, videos and marketing messages claim much to the contrary. It is difficult to prevail in a merit-based manner when your competition advertises such misrepresentations.

Q: What results have users achieved with your technology for collecting and processing sub-inch per-pixel resolution aerial imagery for geospecific real-time terrain?

A: We recently delivered to the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center at NAS Fallon, Nev., high-resolution geospecific terrain of two target ranges on the Fallon Range Training Complex that are used for field training in the facility’s JTAC qualification course. The 2-centemeter per-pixel imagery of the ranges was captured by our remote-controlled portable aircraft. With this source imagery, we compiled fullresolution (2-centimeter) terrain of the ranges with our Terrain Tools for Esri ArcGIS. During simulation training, students can readily see on the 2-centimeter terrain such details as bullet holes in vehicle targets, small shrubbery and small craters left from ordnance. O

wgsmith@metavr.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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