The U.S. Marine Corps has moved all of its training-system acquisition
functions from Quantico, Va., to Orlando, Fla., where the military
services have based their simulation and modeling facilities, according
to Col. Joseph F. Buranosky, program manager for training systems.
The mission for the training systems office—known as PMTRASYS—hasn’t
changed, Buranosky said. It is still responsible for all research,
development, test and evaluation, acquisition, fielding, logistics
support and life-cycle management of ground training systems for
the entire Marine Corps.
The Marines, he said, have been a part of the Orlando simulation
community since 1970. Until recently, however, they have maintained
only a liaison office there.
Now, all Marine training-system acquisition activities are based
in Orlando. In January, the size of the staff in PMTRASYS doubled,
from 20 to 40, counting civilians and Marines, Buranosky said. Previously,
many of those functions had been performed at the Marine Corps Systems
Command, in Quantico.
The move “only made sense,” Buranosky said. “It
puts the Marine Corps on an even footing with the other services,”
which have major training operations in Orlando, he explained. “Overall,
we will be more effective in dealing with training systems and with
the Marine Corps as a whole.”
Orlando “is a Mecca for simulation and modeling,” Buranosky
explained. The move, he said, will enable his unit “to leverage
the training-system development efforts of the other services and
take advantage of the synergy” created by the presence of
the government, industry and academic simulation and modeling communities.
“If we’re going to be entering into agreements with
the other services, we decided that we’d rather be right across
the street, as opposed to 800 miles away,” said Daniel O.
Torgler, deputy program manager, a civilian.
Torgler, speaking to an industry briefing in Orlando earlier this
year, provided the following update on PMTRASYS programs for fiscal
year 2002.
During the current year, he said, the Marine Corps plans to spend
$9.7 million to buy, operate and maintain Combat Vehicle Appended
Trainer (CVAT) systems. The CVAT system provides simulations to
train individuals or full crews in their actual combat weapons platforms,
such as amphibious assault vehicles, light-armored vehicles and
M1A1 Abrams tanks. Current funding supports 36 systems for the tank
and 42 systems for the LAV.
A total of $2.4 million is allocated to upgrade the Improved Moving
Target Simulators (IMTS), used to provide training for three Marine
Stinger missile teams. The current IMTS system is comprised of a
tethered-launcher tube design, with a weapon orientation sensor
system and its Sky Dome. The upgraded IMTS will be dome-less, transportable
by individual Marine or by vehicle, and it will use commercial,
off-the-shelf, non-proprietary, interoperable virtual-training technology.
Another $2.26 million is going toward research and development
of a Closed-Loop Artillery Simulation System. CLASS, as it is known,
is being designed to provide deployable, interactive mission training
for forward observers, fire-direction centers and firing battery
crews.
In the year just ended, Torgler said, the Marines spent $6 million
to add simulation and command and control systems to the capabilities
of the Combined Arms Staff Trainer (CAST). The overall goals of
the project, he explained, were to add the following capabilities
to CAST:
The Marines also are developing embedded training and simulation
systems for the advanced amphibious assault vehicle (AAAV), the
planned successor to its current generation of vehicles, some of
which are now 30 years old. The AAAV will have twice the armor protection
and three times the water speed of its predecessor and land mobility
as good or better than the Abrams tank, Torgler said.
In July, the Corps awarded General Dynamics Land Systems a $712
million contract to complete the design and development of the AAAV,
build and test nine new prototypes and refurbish three early prototypes.
Low-rate production is scheduled to begin in 2005. The Marines plan
to buy 1,013 of the vehicles by 2015.