Training Aids Mounted on Trucks and Tanks.

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Date: 01 November 2000
• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

Mobile laboratory equipped to prove the utility of transportable simulators

The availability of sophisticated computer-based simulation on board combat vehicles will become a reality for Army crews in the near future, officials said.

Under a program spearheaded by the Army's Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM), a Humvee truck has been equipped with built-in simulators, in order to prove that "embedded" training technologies easily could be incorporated into tactical vehicles. If the program moves forward as planned, soldiers would be able to push a button and conduct training missions on a simulator, without having to leave their vehicles.

The prototype Humvee (AM General M1097A2) simulation lab was assembled by Orion Advanced Simulation and Intel Systems, in Merritt Island, Fla. The company eventually plans to field similar technology in a main battle tank. "We are developing a mobile crew-station test bed, to be able to prove out simulation and training technologies embedded into a Humvee first, before we embed it into an M1A2 Abrams tank," said Jorge L. Cadiz, manager of programs and business development at Orion.

If the Army approves the next step of the program, it would rake 12 months to transition the simulator to the tank, he said in an Interview.

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