Seeking to expand soldiers’ access to simulation-based trainers,
the U.S. Army is making investments in transportable training systems.
Examples include a trailer-contained, combined-arms simulator and
a deployable training device for helicopter pilots.
An interactive simulation for Army combined-arms training that
has, for many years, been installed only at fixed sites now is becoming
available to soldiers at their home bases, saving them the time
and expense involved in traveling to permanent training facilities,
industry officials said.
The close combat tactical trainer (CCTT) is part of a family of
virtual, distributed interactive simulations for collective training—including
armor, mechanized infantry, and cavalry units from platoon through
battalion and squadron echelon. The goal is to teach the members
of a platoon or a company how to fight together. The system also
has a dismounted infantry capability.
The prime contractor is Lockheed Martin Information Systems, in
Orlando, Fla. Last January, the company received a $34.6 million
contract from the U.S. Army Simulation, Training and Instrumentation
Command (STRICOM), for production of 51 CCTT modules.
The work is scheduled to be completed by August 2001. Lockheed,
so far, has delivered 225 CCTT systems and expects that number to
reach 325 in the future.
Access to CCTT increases the frequency of training-unit collective
tasks and accelerates the “learning curve to enhance actual
field-based training,” said Nick Guerra, Army project director
at STRICOM.
The CCTT system is deployed at six sites: Fort Hood, Texas, Fort
Knox, Ky., Fort Benning, Ga., Fort Stewart, Ga., Camp Casey, Korea,
and Grafenwoehr, Germany. Additional modules are planned for installation
in 2001, at Fort Carson, Colo., and Fort Riley, Kan. CCTT modules
for the M1A1 Abrams tank and M2/M3 Bradley fighting vehicle have
been deployed to the U.S. National Guard.
Troops typically undergo training in the CCTT before they engage
in a major field exercise at ranges such as the National Training
Center.
The program’s original research and development contract—valued
at $120 million—was awarded to Lockheed in 1992. It was for
38 simulators to be installed at Ft. Hood and two mobile platoon
sets deployed with the Army National Guard. Then came a series of
developmental contracts, leading to a $70 million low-rate, initial-production
contract for 54 units awarded in 1998.
The United Kingdom is developing a counterpart system called U.K.
CATT (Combined Arms Tactical Trainer). Lockheed Martin also is working
on this program in partnership with the U.K. Ministry of Defence.
A deployable version of CCTT was part of the initial contract,
said George Olson, a program executive at Lockheed Martin. There
are currently six platoon sets of mobile trainers. They are customized
48- by 10-foot-long trailers, each being a two-person module, with
its own power supply. The trailers have been moved around the United
States but never overseas, Olson said in an interview.
The mobile CCTT, he explained, allows the Army to bring the training
to the troops, so the troops don’t have to travel to the fixed
sites. A platoon set of mobile M1 Abrams training modules costs
about $5 million. According to Olson, the mobile systems have the
“same technology as the fixed site, the same configuration.”
One major difference is that the fixed site has an enclosure around
it. In the mobile version, the trailer is the enclosure.
The company’s CCTT contract is renewable on an annual basis,
said Olson. The company currently is building trainers under a fiscal
year 2000 contract, but no systems have been funded so far for fiscal
year 2001, he said. The image generators are provided by Evans &
Sutherland Corporation.
Image resolution is critical in CCTT-type trainers because the
environment—with elements such as trees and vehicles—has
to be simulated with high fidelity to appear real.
About a year ago, STRICOM awarded a contract to then-Raytheon Training
Systems for an Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (AV-CATT),
a reconfigurable simulator program valued at about $30 million.
Raytheon Training was acquired by L-3 Communications Link Simulation
& Training.
Reconfigurable simulators are those that can be adapted for training
on more than one platform.
Bonnie Hirtle, program manager at STRICOM, said AVCATT "provides
both active Army and National Guard aviation units with a realistic
virtual combat training environment for helicopter pilots."
The system, she said, is "fully mobile, transportable."
The Army’s current plan is to have AVCATT suites "delivered
to sites worldwide," said Hirtle.
The contract awarded to Link was for one development suite. There
are options for building 17 additional suites, she noted. The first
suite currently is in development.
The reconfigurable simulator would be able to replicate the cockpits
of the AH-64A Apache, AH-64D Longbow Apache, OH-58D Kiowa Warrior,
UH-60A/L Blackhawk and CH-47D Chinook. A future contract option
would incorporate the Army’s next generation attack helicopter,
the RAH-66 Comanche.
A Link Simulation spokesman declined to provide specifics on the
AV-CATT program’s current status.