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February 2006

Leathernecks Upgrade Combat Training Equipment

By Harold Kennedy

TWENTYNINE PALMS, CALIF.—The Marine Corps Air Ground Task Force Training Command here, is installing a number of new devices that are designed to help Leathernecks headed to Iraq and Afghanistan improve their fighting skills.

The Corps is acquiring the devices after awarding a series of contracts over the past several months to Lockheed Martin Corp. The agreements require the company to provide a variety of live-fire and virtual training systems.

Twentynine Palms—the largest installation in the service—is where most Marines receive their final combat training before deployment.

The new systems are intended to make the training as realistic as possible without putting lives at risk, said Andre Elias, virtual training program director at Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training and Support, of Orlando, Fla. Included, he told National Defense, are combat-vehicle simulators, virtual convoy trainers, live-fire training systems and advanced gunnery training systems.

In January 2005, Lockheed Martin received a $5.1 million contract to deliver four Virtual Combat Convoy Trainers, or VCCTs, to Twentynine Palms. The VCCTs—modified to match the Marines’ Humvees—are being used to train troops deploying to Iraq to recognize and respond to ambushes and improvised explosives.

Each of the Marines’ VCCTs occupies a 53-foot, self-contained, deployable commercial trailer. Using a full-scale Humvee and a simulation system that replicates scenarios troops might encounter, it enables combat crews to communicate, maintain situational awareness and acquire targets while moving at highway speeds in a convoy.

The same system is being used by the Army, Elias said. “To date, 25,000 soldiers and Marines have been trained on VCCTs,” he added.

Lockheed partners with Firearms Training Systems Inc., of Suwannee, Ga., to provide the firearms included in the VCCT system.

In May 2005, Lockheed won a five-year job worth up to $17.1 million to provide live-fire training systems for Twentynine Palms. The company’s plant in Huntsville, Ala., produces, deploys and supports a variety of live-fire targets and simulators, including infantry and armor pop-ups, shoot-back devices, black smoke and dust generators, and three-dimensional representations of military vehicles, explained Yousef Imam, Lockheed’s live-fire targets business manager.

“To train as they fight, Marines have to shoot real bullets at real targets,” he said. “These devices provide the means to do that.”

This past August, Lockheed landed three more Marine contracts totaling $15.2 million, including a follow-on order for two VCCTs and two Advanced Gunnery Training Systems, or AGTS.

The AGTS is a simulator designed to train individuals, crews and platoons in the skills of precision gunnery, Imam said. It allows them to transition rapidly from electronic training to live-fire schooling or combat gunnery.

Lockheed was scheduled to deliver four full-fidelity AGTS systems for light-armored vehicles and 17 deployable systems by December 2005. Another order, for 10 deployable MA1A Abrams tank-training systems, is slated for delivery by April 2007.

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