The Armored Gun System by DTAFR, DCD, & TSM-AGS Training With Technology: Armor 2000 and Beyond

. ET standardizes training by eliminating or reducing the need for other training devices in the units, and is expected to provide training equal to, or better than, planned stand-alone or appended training devices. The real plus of ET is that soldiers will literally “train as they will fight,” using the same operational controls during training that they would use in combat. Embedded training for the Armor Force will continue to focus on gunnery, tactics, driving, and maintenance. Embedded training simulation will allow soldiers to acquire, identify, and engage targets; plan, coordinate, and employ combat power, exploit mobility capabilities of the vehicle: and perform checks and fault isolation for systems hardware.

Some current Anny systems already have limited ET capabilities, including the Army’s Patriot and Improved HAWK missile systems. Embedded Training is under development for other systems, such as the Forward Area Air Defense Non-line-of-Sight System (FAAD-NLOS) and the Improved 155mm Self-Propelled Howitzer.

Embedded training is also the preferred training technology to support. the Armored Systems Modernization (ASM) program, which includes six new vehicles scheduled to replace existing armored systems. As envisioned, ET systems will be tailored to the needs of ASM vehicle crew operation and maintenance tasks. The Armor School is pushing the designers of our Future Main Battle Tank to include ET in their original design, and the test beds for our ASM effort and subsequent vehicle prototypes will include ET.

One major testbed, a contract effort that will provide ET capabilities, is the Extended Range Gunnery Fire Control Demonstration System. This is a state-of-the-art fire control system being designed to support the Future Main Battle Tank. It will contain computer-generated training exercises equivalent to a Tank Table VIII in difficulty.

Armored Vehicle Technologies Associated and Teledyne Continental Motors are currently under contract to design the Common Chassis Advanced Technology Training Demonstrator (CCA’ITD). Their designs for this testbed must be able to integrate the fire control system with the fire control simulator. If approved, the CCA”D, with its common chassis, will support all future ASM programs in the training and combat modes. VIRTUAL REALITY

A Simulating Experience Imagine visiting General Schwartzkopf in his headquarters in Saudi Am-bia as he planned the next attack in the Gulf Ww, or meeting with Colonel Creighton Abrams in 1944 as he prepam to lead the 37th Tank Battalion and the loth Armored Infantry Battalion in its counterattack to take Juvelize and break up the German advance in the Arracourt tank battles: or interacting with Patton in the battle of St. Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, where he proved his high competence for command. This kind of realism, called virtual reality, is what the Armor soldier can look forward to beyond the year 2000. No development in computer technology is as exciting as virtual reality. Virtual reality is a technology that allows a user to interact with a computer-generated replica of the real world. Sensory input, provided via a visor, glove, and perhaps a treadmill, feed the senses information about the environment. The computer-generated sensory input responds both to the simulated world and to the user’s movements in that world. The result is an experience approximating the real-world environment, but without the danger or expense that might be associated with gaining the Same experience in the real world.

In 1978, the Department of Defense developed a 3-D display simulator as part of a project called the Visually Coupled Airborne Space Simulator for pilot training. The outgrowth of this work eventually produced the Super Cockpit, one of the earliest military applications of virtual reality. In 1984, the Human Interface Reservch Laboratory at NASA’s Ames Research Center developed the first lightweight, stereoscopic. head-mounted display based on miniature liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors.

Although no past or current systems are complete virtual realities, SIMNET is an impartant farerunner to a virtual reality system. SIMNET provides a multisensory (sight and sound) immersion in a synthetic environment in which soldiers interact with many other participants. But the user’s windows into the virtual world are small -a shell representing an MlAl Abrams tank helps improve the sense of presence. SIMNET falls short of virtual reality in part because the interaction in SIMNET is limited to interactions between players?

The data base representing the world in which a SIMNET exercise takes place is dynamic and cannot be affected by the players. For example, the terrain data base is not affected by operator-induced actions: if an artillery round explodes, it does not leave a hole in the ground. Moreover, SlTvI. NET is two-dimensional. To address this issue, the Army Project Manager for Training Devices (PM TRADE) has funded several research projects8 One involves looking at the integration of low-cost head-mounted displays with several image genen-tors, including SIMNET?

Perhaps the most obvious use of virtual reality technology in support of Armor training would be to enhance training simulations. These enhancements could provide for large-sale training exercises and training in strategy and tactics and could allow armor soldiers to take part in a combined arms training exercise.

A greater challenge for virtual red-ity technology may be to provide a realistic battlefield for the individual foot soldier, or to develop a virtual environment using automated 6 ia ARMOR - No development in computer technology is as exciting as virtual reality. Virtual reality is a technology that allows a user to interact with a computer-generated replica of the real world. sandtables. Researchers are focusing on this challenge, along with greater realism for existing simulators. Virtual reality, when well done, should provide users a sense of having had real-life experiences, like the “holodeck” on “Star Trek The Next Generation.” Such learning occurs at an essential level. It will make fundamental changes in attitudes and behavior much more likely than with any other technology.

The Persian Gulf War added to an existing requirement for simulators that can be deployed with troops. The Army Communications and Electronic Command Research, Development and Engineering Center and Soldier C3 Program Offices in New Jersey are designing a “soldier’s computer” that may meet this need. It is a fully portable, lightweight, hands-free computer system designed for individual soldiers.

The device will contain a helmet-mounted display, pocket-size computer, hand-held joystick, a voice and data radio, and a Global Positioning System. It will integrate other systems, such as night vision devices and numerous types of sensors. A soldier will be able to view a map depicting infohation such as friendly and enemy positions or contaminated areas. Then he can input battlefield status information and transmit the data to a centralized data base so that other soldiers and units can be alerted. Helmet-mounted displays would permit crew members to move away from fured computer stations while maintaining access to their computer. This capability would allow a driver, for example, to maneuver his vehicle with his head out of the hatch. He could dismount and move away from the vehicle while still interacting with its computers via radio link or wire. Coupled with the appropriate software, the “soldier’s computer” could provide training to the soldier when and where he needs it. On-the-job training would be easier because soldiers could take the computer-based courseware with them into the field and could also interact with an instructor via the radio link. Repair manuals could be stored on disk, rather than on paper, and could be kept at the squad or platoon level, making transmission to the soldier rapid and reliable. More diagnostics and repair could be conducted in the field. Soldiers could get expert guidance from remote locations. Radios would permit them to send voice or text messages through the communications networks to the subject matter experts providing the guidance. Subject matter experts could even snap pictures and transmit them back. Although not projected for implementation until the mid- to late-1990s. the soldier’s computer promises to make the best use of technology to solve problems and enhance training capabilities.

The soldier’s computer, ET, and other developments will help Armor maintain its edge. The entire Armor Force takes pride in the quality of training it provides, and in the strides it has made in melding training with technology. It also realizes that much work lies ahead in maintaining quality while forging new instructional methods.

In a time of shrinking budgets and growing demands, the key challenge for military trainers will be to find the most effective, efficient uses of technology to supplement -and in some tion. That is the driving force behind cases, to supplant -traditional instruc- 2000 and beyond as we meet the challenge of the future head-on.