The Olympian, Friday, March 23, 2001

Ready, aim, virtual fire, -- New computer at Fort Lewis simulates combat” by John Graber

“It’s like a video game, but it’s training.” – Spec. Robert Turner. The simulator is so sensitive that it can read firing patterns and tell when soldiers are breathing, when they pull the trigger or if they are squeezing too hard. It’s also cost-effective because soldiers get the training without firing live, expensive ammunition,” Morris [Gayle Morris, simulation instructor].

The Bayonet, Friday, March 2, 2001

News and Features, “New system aids in marksmanship training” by Pfc. Mark Watson

“More than showing where the bullets hit, the EST [2000] simulates the ‘same physical, functional, operational characteristics and capability of service weapons.’ Along with preloaded urban scenarios, the system also allows users to create their own environment – in some cases using photographs of city streets or terrain to customize the scenario.”

National Defense, March 2001

Firepower – “Army Sets Sight on Small Arms Simulator” by Virginia Hart Ezell

“With its three-dimensional targeting and wide array of training scenarios, the EST 2000 simulator provides a level of sophistication to small arms tactical training that will help prepare the U.S. infantry soldier for missions and threats of the 21st century.

NTSA Training Industry news, Vol. 12, No. 6 – December 2000

“Army Buys Marksmanship Help”
“The system, based on laser transmitters and screen impact sensings, allows infantry to employ weapon combinations that could not be done as safely during live-fire exercises, such as pairs of machine guns.”

Defense News, November 6, 2000

“Trainers and Simulators – Army Buys Marksmanship Help” by Jim Starling

“Targets and terrain vary. Included are woodlands, desert, urban and mountain-simulated terrain. Shoot-no-shoot exercises include 40 different situations ranging from guard-post intruders to bank robbery. The training is good for training soldiers in proper performance at check-points in civilian communities, such as in Bosnia. The system allows individual soldiers to determine a sight setting to their own needs and store that sight setting in the system for later recall.”

Military Training & Simulation News, Vol. 5, Issue 5 – October 2000

“Safe From Harm”

“Service program descriptions indicate that the Army is obtaining 368 EST 2000 systems to be used primarily as unit/institutional, indoor, multi-purpose, multi-lane, small arms, crew-served and individual anti-tank training simulators. System capabilities will allow EST 2000 to provide initial and sustainment marksmanship training, static unit collective gunnery and tactical training, as well as “shoot/no shoot” decision training.”

Military Training & Simulation News, Vol. 4, Issue 1 – February 2000

“Small Arms Trainers – Getting the Basics Right”

“With its 3-D image generation system, complete with animated Opposing Forces (OPFOR), EST 2000 has a bank of 209 marksmanship exercises, 178 tactical squad exercises and 40 judgmental exercises. Exercises may be conducted in variable lighting and meteorological conditions.”

Training & Simulation 2000 Armed Forces Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1 – Spring 2000

“In Focus – STRICOM Gets Ready for the Army’s Transformation … Virtual Reality Battlefield” by Daniel G. Dupont

”The Engagement Skills Trainer is used for.…training of individual soldiers and units – up to 15 soldiers at a time can be “on line” in what Barlow [Col. Wells Barlow] likens to a virtual ‘Hogan’s alley.’”

National Guard, Vol. 54, No. 10

ECC to Begin Delivering Small Arms Training Systems

“An extremely accurate weapons training system, the EST 2000 can provide training on 11 different weapons, including rifles, pistols, machine guns, shotguns, anti-tank weaponry and grenade launchers. Simulated environmental conditions include rain, snow, fog, hail, wind and time of day.

GUIDON, Vol. 1, No. 45, Thursday, November 11, 1999

“Filmmakers stage violet crimes here – scenarios to be part of weapons training system” by Spc. Kelly Whitteaker

“The Army is about to welcome a new training system designed to improve marksmanship skills. The Engagement Skills Trainer 2000 will build skills on a number of weapons the Army uses. The EST 2000 will replace a couple of simulators currently in use. It’s an excellent system, it provides a lot of opportunities we just don't have right now.”

by Pfc. Charles D. Meseke

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Army News Service, March 13, 2003) -- The Engagement Skills Trainer 2000, an indoor weapons training simulator, opened for use March 8 at Bagram Air Base.

The EST 2000 uses computer software, realistic weapons and a pair of 13-foot long projection screens to simulate a variety of battle scenarios and weapons range training.

The system offers more than 200 scenarios of programmed battle situations, but with a fully customizable interface there are virtually unlimited numbers of scenarios possible, said Jesse Salvatore, a software engineer for ECC International Corp., a simulation training company that developed the system.

Simulated weapons compatible with the EST 2000 are the M9 pistol, M4 carbine, M1200 shotgun, M16A2 rifle, M203 grenade launcher,M249 squad automatic weapon, M240B machine gun, AT4 anti-armor weapon, MK-19 automatic grenade launcher, and M60 machine gun.

"It is important because the more training and practice a soldier gets, the better," said Maj. Ray Compton, Program Executive Office. The Program Executive Office conducts development and fielding of new equipment for the military.

"When deployed, you can't always go out to a range due to safety, environmental issues, limited ammo supplies, or any number of other issues," Compton said. "With this system we can provide soldiers with a controlled environment to practice in."

Although the system has been used for the past three years, the EST 2000 in Bagram was the first to open in a combat zone. Using the trainer during deployments was the primary idea behind the development of the system, Compton said. Not only does the EST 2000 offer realistic computer-generated troops, vehicles, aircraft and battlefields, but weapon functions are also accurate.

The system uses real weapons that have been modified with electronics to make noise and kick with each fired round. Feedback from soldiers at Bagram was positive.

"It is pretty realistic," said Spc. Jesse Clark radio operator for Coalition Task Force-82.

"It's not as loud as the real thing, but it still has noise and some kick when firing," Clark said. "The battle scenarios, with the vehicles and aircraft were awesome."

"(The EST 2000) is definitely going to help me with my marksmanship," he said.

Although the system cannot fully replicate actual range training, the EST 2000's detailed graphics, computer-calculated wind speeds, and bullet physics offer an alternative when going to a range is not possible, Compton said.

"The ESt 2000 is the most realistic training option to actually going out to a range and firing a weapon," Compton said.

(Editor's note: Pfc. Charles D. Meseke is assigned to the Coalition Task Force-82 Public Affairs Office.)

About 3,000 people will attend the three-day conference, which features 140 displays of military gadgetry and weapons, from night-vision goggles to Apache Longbow helicopters. The show is by invitation only.
''T1he Army and military industry share ideas to better support the soldier in the field and to improve the survivability so that if they're put in harm's way, they have as much of a chance as possible to come out of it healthy,'' said John Grady, director of communications for the association, a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, Va.

One idea being developed is a laptop strapped onto the soldier through pockets in his fatigues. The computer software can be accessed through an eyepiece connected to the helmet, allowing a soldier to send e-mails, check maps and even access the Internet.

Soon Special Forces soldiers won't even need to speak.

A headset being worked on now uses bone conduction sensors to interpret vibrations in the vocal cords so that when a person mouths words, with no sound, the person's voice is received loud and clear on the other end.

''It's a ventriloquist's dream,'' said Jeffrey Thomas, a researcher with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

Some of the body armor technology has already saved lives.

A 16-pound vest saved the life of Army Spc. Jason Ashline of the 10th Mountain Division. Ashline was in Afghanistan participating in Operation Anaconda, to block exit routes of enemy Taliban guerrillas, when the force of two bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle knocked him down. ''I looked for blood and a hole, I didn't realize I had been hit until later,'' said Ashline.

Unmanned vehicles, such as the Spinner Ground Combat Vehicle, are electric tanks which are remote-controlled and can collect intelligence information on targets in rough terrain miles away but can also fire Neptune missiles at targets. They can even operate if they're flipped over.

And unmanned aerial vehicles can collect information and send back pictures and aerial maps from thousands of feet above the air. The newest prototypes cost only $5,000 and can be shot like a rocket into the air.

''You want to see the enemy before he sees you,'' Harvey Perritt, spokesman for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.

``In the Persian Gulf War, we would see and destroy Iraqi tanks before they knew we were there.''

Training has also gone high-tech.

The Engagement Skills Trainer 2000 allows soldiers to train in simulations, with the guns they will actually use, on any terrain or combat situations they choose.

Weapons from assault rifles to grenade guns can be fired. The simulation systems are in place for soldiers in Kuwait and Afghanistan.

''It allows us to train and fully qualify soldiers without shooting a single round of ammunition,'' said Rick Blaylock of ECC International, a simulation training company based in Orlando

	April 2003  Combat Trainers Shipped to Afghanistan, Kuwait  by Sandra I. Erwin The Army’s training and simulation program office in Orlando, Fla., recently shipped several new trainers to be used by soldiers in Afghanistan and Kuwait. These deployable trainers will help soldiers maintain the war-fighting skills during down time from real-world operations, said officials. Units based at Bagram Air Base, in Afghanistan and Camp Doha in Kuwait will receive urban-warfare training systems that replicate the facilities where they typically rehearse city fights. Deployable MOUT (military operations in urban terrain) facilities are made out of shipping containers, explained Col. Robert Reyenga, Army program manager for training devices. His office shipped the trainers in March. The 40-foot containers are stacked to simulate buildings, he explained. “They are consistent with fixed MOUT facilities.” The basic setup is for a platoon to train. But it can be expanded by adding more containers. A platoon set includes three to five buildings and a separate area for the after-action review, said Reyenga. In Kuwait, for example, the containers replicate the type of housing found in that region. In Afghanistan, they are made to resemble “compounds,” Reyenga said. A family, for example, will build a compound on one to five acres, consisting of a mud wall and several houses within the mud wall. Members of the family live in different huts. “We will fabricate the containers to replicate the compounds,” he said. In the training containers, soldiers can practice live demolition for breaching. The walls are lined with plywood, to support live fire and force-on-force training with blank rounds and laser-tag systems. “There is a limited amount of battlefield effects,” Reyenga said. But the containers, although rudimentary, have windows and stair wells, to make the training realistic. During reconnaissance missions in suspected enemy compounds, U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan often encounter false floors with weapons caches and holes in the ground, or a trap door with a rug over it. “We’ll put that in the trainer,” Reyenga said. In the months ahead, he said, “we’ll assess whether there are requirements in other places as well.” Soldiers on the front lines also will receive seven new marksmanship trainers called Engagement Skills Trainer 2000. Four will go to units in Afghanistan and three to Kuwait. The trainer originally was requested by the 18th Airborne Corps. The EST 2000 is the Army’s “only validated marksmanship” trainer that can replicate every type of small arm that the Army uses today, said Lt. Col. Joseph A. Giunta Jr., product manager for ground combat tactical trainers. Each system has an instructor-operator station, a high-resolution projector, a detection system, air compressor, screen, cables and hoses to connect to lane-position weapon boxes. The EST is not just for individual marksmanship training, Giunta said. It is used for collective training (squad tactics) and decision-making skills. Military police trainees, for example, are exposed to various scenarios where they must decide whether to shoot or not. The system replicates 14 different terrains and simulates all types of weather, said Giunta. So far, the Army has bought 157 trainers, most of which are in the United States. The goal is to have 1,104 by 2009. The manufacturer of the trainer, ECC Corp., in Orlando, Fla., will receive a $35 million order in 2004 for 230 systems.
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Virtual checkpoint can prep soldiers for dangerous duty
3D sim as close to real as it gets

By William H. McMichael
Times staff writer

NORFOLK, Va. — A green Jeep approaches slowly, weaving its way past white Jersey barriers and the nearby armed guard. You, guarding the checkpoint, watch it pull up and stop alongside the guard shack and in front of the crossbar. The bug-eyed driver stares at you.

The exchange is direct and to the point.

“Let me see your ID,” you say.

“Here it is,” the man replies, holding up the correct card. “Go ahead,” you reply. “OK,” says the man, who drives past.

The man and the scene behind him are a three-dimensional simulation. The crude figure in the car is straight out of an early 1990s version of the computer game Doom. But psychology researchers at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., say that people who enter the 10-foot-square checkpoint trainer they call the “cave” quickly become immersed in the virtual setting and learn from their mistakes.

Military checkpoint training, save for police forces, is nonstandard across the services and generally left to individual units. Yet it’s an area fraught with potential problems, as deadly checkpoint incidents in Iraq have demonstrated.

The graduate program director of ODU’s Psychology Department, Mark Scerbo, who helped direct a five-year study on using virtual environments for training, said the checkpoint duty troops are performing in Iraq is a continuation of duties they have been performing for the past 20 years.

“They’ve been peacekeeping missions, nation-building … where most of what they’re doing is going out and manning checkpoints. And we’re actually the ambassadors for the United States in a lot of these countries.

“So that’s really the reason we selected this problem,” Scerbo said. “Because when things go wrong, they tend to go wrong and create headlines. And right now, there isn’t any formal training for these kinds of activities. A lot of it’s on-the-job.”

The ODU researchers began the study, funded by the Office of Naval Research, well before the war in Iraq began.

The Army and Marine Corps use in-house simulation to train drivers, fliers, intelligence specialists, commanders and staffs, small-arms shooters, tank gunners, bridge builders and others. But most of the work in military virtual environments, Scerbo said, is related to navigating across oceans or through buildings. The ODU trainer, military sources say, would be unique.

In the “cave,” trainees confront more than 30 scenarios one might face on checkpoint duty. Realism is enhanced by voice-recognition software, video cards, multiple monitors and a motion sensor that detects changes in the magnetic field the trainee inhabits.

The latter changes the trainee’s perspective on the driver and the surrounding scenery — modeled on the mobile operations on urban terrain facility at Quantico, Va. — just as moving from the front of the vehicle to the side would change one’s real-life perspective.

No researchers are in the room during the sessions, which helps simulate stress levels. Researchers also tried to replicate the boredom of guard duty, so most encounters are routine “neutral scenarios.” Others gauge nonroutine — but not potentially deadly — activity, to address specific training objectives. These include trainees’ powers of observation, ability to recall briefed warnings and recognize when they appear, situational awareness (What’s the guy in that second vehicle doing?) and ability to deal with ambiguous situations.

The researchers say participants — all were civilians — bought the illusion.

“There was a significant level of immersion,” said Jean Catanzaro, an ODU doctoral student working on the project. “The participants felt like they were in the scenario, enough so that they could wave the cars through, motion to people to pull up, and they were trying to reach out to grab IDs. There was definite emotional involvement and flow.”

Some participants took part in two 45-minute sessions; the second tested their level of retention. A control group performed only the second session. The group took part in two sessions had a 60 percent drop in errors, Scerbo said.

This would be a sign of the payoff Army trainers say they’d be looking for — they call it “training transfer” — in any sort of simulation device.

“We tend to want to put soldiers in as realistic an environment as possible before they do the real thing,” said Harvey Perritt of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command.

For instance, military police at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., use Engagement Skills Trainer 2000, a small-arms simulator that includes a “shoot, don’t shoot” scenario. Like similar trainers employed by the FBI and civilian police departments, EST 2000 forces the trainee to make a quick decision on whether to pull the trigger of a weapon.

“Those who perform well on the simulator perform well on the live range,” said George Anderson, chief of Military Police Warfighter Modernization at Fort Leonard Wood. “That’s training transfer.”

Scerbo said the ODU team hoped to test that — to run participants through the “cave” and then through live checkpoint training at Quantico — but limited time and resources prevented it.

Anderson said he’d like to see the ODU trainer in action. Cost could be a factor in any decision to acquire it. The cave cost $2 million to build, with much of the expenses going for a sophisticated silicon graphics computer. Scerbo and his students have created a scaled-back PC version as well, although the subjects performed more poorly with it.

Still, Catanzaro said, “This has a lot of potential for being able to train military checkpoint personnel in a way that may allow standardization of training … on events that are hard to train on in the real world, but are real threats.”

William H. McMichael is the Hampton Roads bureau chief for Navy Times. Reach him at (757) 223-0096 or by e-mail at bmcmichael@navytimes.com