Industry shows off new army combat simulation tools.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

While ground combat missions are winding down in Afghanistan, the defense industry is still churning out new training systems for soldiers that will keep them prepared for future conflicts.

Soldiers could face a myriad of threats in the coming years, and simulation training can affordably and reliably keep them ready for a multitude of situations, industry executives said.

The need for increased soldier training through simulation technology will only grow as fewer boots on the ground remain in the Middle East, said Christopher Vanslager, vice president of business development and program management at AM General.

"As we pull back, as we organize, the Army will go back into a training mode. Not totally, but they have to have environments to be able to continue to train on the equipment that they would go to war with. This is just a natural part of the preparation of going to war," he said.

Clarence Pape, vice president of training and simulation at Intelligent Decisions, an Ashburn, Virginia-based company, echoed Vanslager's sentiments.

"The military will continue to leverage simulation in their training and rehearsal environment as the budgets decrease." That may not mean it will invest in new products, he said, "but I do think they will continue to look at the simulation capabilities that they already have to enhance their training experiences and to maintain proficiency in core combat skills."

Industry has responded by upgrading and creating new training systems for paratroopers, vehicle drivers and ground soldiers.

One costly area of soldier training is learning how to free fall from a plane and parachute to the ground. Systems Technology Inc., a Hawthorne, California-based research-and-development company, has come up with a simulation tool called PARASEM to better train soldiers before they step foot on an aircraft, thus avoiding the operational hazards that go along with jumping from a moving plane thousands of feet in the air.

Wearing a virtual reality headset that incorporates 3D imagery, users are harnessed onto stations that lift and position them horizontally or vertically for different missions. They can then simulate a high-fidelity jump, said David Landon, the company's president and CEO.

Earlier this year, the company released a fifth version of PARASIM upgraded with improved graphics and new, software-controlled motorized frames, among other capabilities.

In May, it installed six jump stations and one central network...