Battlefield gear: deploying marines tell vendors how to make more useful wares.

• Author: Jean, Grace
• Position: TECHNOLOGY

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- As chief of staff of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force during two tours in Iraq, Col. John C. Coleman processed more than 400 "urgent needs requests"--ranging from computer equipment to protective clothing.

As he surveys a recent military hardware exhibition here, Coleman, who now is the commander of the base, notices that many of the technologies on display are items he would have appreciated during his time in Iraq. "I'm seeing answers to things we were describing two or three years ago that we didn't have," he says.

He points to Oregon Aero Inc.'s Kevlar helmets as an example of an answer to one of those requests.

"If you look at the suspension system that was in the original Kevlar helmets we had, it transferred a great percentage of the shock the helmet absorbed to the cranium. They designed a system that significantly reduced that shock from the helmet to the brain. I can tell you I wore one of their systems for the few years I was in Iraq, so, that's one small example. But a very valuable one," says Coleman.

A large display housing MPRI's "virtual convoy trainer" attracts a long line of Marines eager to climb into the Humvee cab for a turn at driving down the streets of Baghdad, shooting from the rotating gun turret or defending the vehicle by firing handheld weapons out the windows.

"Everything in there is like the real thing," says Cpl. Adam Jaworski, who spent seven months in Ramadi, Iraq. During his turn in the turret, the gun jams on him, just as it might in actual combat.

"Whatever they need, we're able to simulate that very accurately," says Gregory Nelson, senior software engineer for MPRI.

The cab of the vehicle sits in the center of four large screens that display the scenario. Side-view mirrors that "reflect" the unfolding scenes add another dimension of realism.

A Windows-like interface allows simulation designers to click and drag what they need on a computer desktop, which dramatically reduces the time it takes to develop training scenarios. The system can replicate small Iraqi villages in a seven-by-seven kilometer area and can also do geo-specific environments for mission rehearsals, says Nelson.

The simulators are used widely by the Army, but the Marine Corps has not yet acquired any.

Jaworski says his convoy training encompassed several classes and participation in mock convoys. But none of that preparation contained the level of realism that he saw in the MPRI trainer.

"I'm really...