By Jon Harper
The Army is shortening its timeline for delivering novel synthetic preparation engineering that volition aid warfighters ready for battle. The synthetic preparation environment, or STE, is a next-generation paradigm for enhancing readiness. The Army plans to utilization a combination of gaming, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, virtual as well as augmented reality as well as other technologies to improve enable soldiers to improve their skills, said Maj. Gen. Maria Gervais, deputy commanding full general of the Combined Arms Center-Training.
“Units are constrained past times time, preparation surface area availability, relevant operational environs information as well as also resources required to brand preparation iterative, realistic as well as relevant,” she said during a presentation at the Association of the USA Army’s annual convention inwards Washington, D.C.
“We demand to hold out able to render our soldiers, leaders as well as units the mightiness to send hundreds of repetitions wherever they are located, hence they tin improve musculus retentiveness as well as increment proficiency,” she added.
In Oct of final year, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley called for a rapid expansion of the service’s synthetic preparation capabilities.
Since then, the Army has established a novel Futures Command inwards Austin, Texas, focused on its transcend 6 modernization priorities: long-range precision fires; next-generation combat vehicle; hereafter vertical lift; the network; air-and-missile defense; as well as soldier lethality.
A STE-focused cross-functional team, led past times Gervais, was established to aid advance these efforts. It is most closely aligned amongst the soldier lethality portfolio, but is also geared toward the other modernization priorities, Gervais noted during a roundtable amongst reporters.
The Army increased its engagement amongst contractors over the past times year, hosting several manufacture days to facial expression at synthetic preparation technologies. That led to 7 other transaction potency agreements which are designed to cutting through reddish tape as well as speed upward the acquisition of novel capabilities past times circumventing the Pentagon’s traditional acquisition system.
The 7 OTA agreements were for reconfigurable virtual trainers as well as a novel “One World Terrain” simulation environment.
“We did that inwards tape fourth dimension hence that nosotros could teach to a user assessment” amongst soldiers as well as other stakeholders inwards March 2018, Gervais said. “We had original gunners, nosotros had aviators, nosotros had technical experts, nosotros had pump of excellence [officials] — as well as yous got instantaneous feedback.”
The Army has since downselected to 4 vendors. Another user assessment is slated for March 2019 next additional engineering evolution as well as modification.
Army leaders codified the synthetic preparation environs inwards their most recent vision statement, Gervais noted.
“You’ve seen alignment of priorities,” she said. “You’ve seen alignment of funding, you’ve seen alignment of the vision, as well as at nowadays … we’re postured to execute quickly.”
The service initially envisioned having the fundamental components of its synthetic preparation environs inwards house past times 2030, but those are at nowadays expected to arrive at initial operating capability inwards financial twelvemonth 2021.
Additional engineering evolution as well as refresh volition follow, according to the Army’s strategic roadmap for the STE.
“We withdraw hold been able to … figure out that nosotros tin push clit this timeline to the left, teach this inwards the hands of soldiers quicker, because that’s how we’re going to improve lethality as well as that’s how we’re going to improve readiness,” Gervais said.
The Army has several transcend priorities for the STE including a squad immersive virtual trainer.
The military machine branches withdraw hold advanced virtual trainers for pilots, but the Army wants that type of capability for dismounted soldiers.
“We withdraw hold non had a virtual trainer for our squad,” Gervais said. “The goodness intelligence is that based on what we’re seeing inwards damage of technology, nosotros believe that nosotros tin deliver that much quicker” than the previous target appointment of 2025.
The capability volition include a novel visual augmentation organisation that volition render troops amongst “mixed reality” tools using a heads-up display known every bit HUD 3.0.
Mixed reality systems tin blend synthetic computer-generated images or information amongst existent images inwards existent time. For example, a soldier wearing a heads-up display during preparation could consider as well as interact amongst synthetic objects spell maintaining situational awareness of what their squad mates are doing, according to experts.
Virtual as well as augmented reality engineering has come upward a long means inwards recent years, amongst latency problems having largely been solved, said Brad Swardson, director of mobile as well as immersive engineering excogitation at Northrop Grumman.
There is “lots of hardware as well as software coming out,” he said. “It’s definitely a large component division of the future.”
Increased figurer processing mightiness is enabling smaller headsets amongst expanded fields of view, he noted. The equipment volition hold out commonplace inwards the military machine inside 5 to 10 years, he predicted.
The Army plans to send a user assessment of nearly 300 integrated visual augmentation organisation prototypes adjacent year.
For vehicle as well as helicopter crews, the service is looking for reconfigurable virtual trainers that volition enable a unmarried organisation to copy a broad diversity of soil or aerial platforms.
Raydon Corp. has developed a epitome that tin back upward gunnery as well as maneuver preparation for to a greater extent than than thirty unlike vehicles, according to a society press release. It is built on 5 portable base of operations stations amongst interchangeable dashboards, panels, weapons as well as other equipment.
The organisation is fully integrated amongst Bohemia Interactive Simulations’ VBS Blue IG game engine.
The Army wants to supervene upon large simulators amongst highly portable alternatives that leverage virtual reality, explained Pete Morrison, co-CEO as well as principal production officeholder at BISim.
“If yous desire to withdraw hold your preparation simulators into house … yous can’t pack upward these large tank simulators or helicopter simulators,” he said inwards an interview. “They are inwards these massive, huge trailers. This [reconfigurable trainer] would enable this variety of portability.”
The Army also wants its soldiers to hold out able to tap into a novel One World Terrain simulation environs that would render them amongst a high fidelity, 3D virtual rendering of existent places throughout the globe. That would facilitate multi-unit preparation amid unlike forcefulness components.
Gervais said the military machine wants something similar Google Earth, an app where imagery of whatever location inwards the public tin hold out easily accessed.
“It’s inwards a commercial format as well as you’re able to convey it straight off into your 3D simulations — non only your virtual trainers but also our big, large-scale” wargames, she explained.
Michael Enloe, principal of engineering scientific discipline for the STE, noted that the Army currently lacks well-formed 3D terrain to enable rapid mission planning as well as mission rehearsal.
“That’s been the Achilles heel for Army simulations,” he said. “If nosotros withdraw hold an immediate threat come upward up, nosotros lack the mightiness to hold out able to create unlike echelons of preparation to hold out able to answer to that.”
Gervais added: “We withdraw hold 57 unlike terrain formats currently inwards our virtual trainers. So every fourth dimension nosotros demand to create an practice we’re trying to teach those terrain formats to line up, as well as that’s only [consuming a lot of] fourth dimension as well as money.”
BISim was lately awarded a six-month evolution contract using an other transaction potency understanding to create a One World Terrain epitome that is expected to hold out delivered inwards Apr or May.
“The Army is actively seeking out companies similar Bohemia, Microsoft as well as Magic Leap to essay as well as convey to a greater extent than or less of this … engineering into the military machine space,” Morrison noted. “We’re inwards a whole novel world.”
Enloe noted that the One World Terrain volition require a large amount of information collection, processing, storage, distribution, execution as well as 3D content development.
“We’re seeing bully advancements inwards commercial manufacture to hold out able to come upward up amongst creative ways to come across those type of needs,” he said.
A related requirement is preparation simulation software as well as management tools. To ready for multi-domain battle inwards megacities, the service needs engineering that volition enable the creation of all the virtual entities that soldiers could await to encounter if they were fighting inwards a real, dynamic urban environment, Enloe noted.
Cloud computing as well as artificial intelligence volition hold out critical, he said. Industry needs to render specialty code as well as the mightiness to develop algorithms to rapidly develop novel content as well as gaming scenarios.
Gervais said AI could render of import feedback nearly how good soldiers as well as units performed diverse tasks during preparation events.
“For that information to hold out consolidated, to hold out analyzed as well as and then to give yous tendency analysis as well as also to give yous predictive analysis is going to hold out a game changer,” she said. “It tin aid yous sympathize where yous demand to develop as well as where yous don’t demand to train.”
Going forward, the Army wants to movement away from buying expensive platforms.
“We are really hardware intensive, nosotros are facilities based, nosotros are contractor heavy,” Gervais said. “That is non conducive to where nosotros desire to movement amongst STE.” The subdivision would prefer “software intensive” technology, she noted.
Bob Witzler, line of piece of employment concern evolution director for L3 Technologies’ Link preparation as well as simulation division, said his society is already moving inwards that direction.
The company’s line of piece of employment concern portfolio is shifting from beingness heavily hardware focused to a to a greater extent than balanced mix of hardware as well as software solutions, he noted.
Advances inwards computing capability are turning software-enabled tools that only a few years agone were “interesting toys” into engineering that tin hold out used to send effective preparation with, he said.
In its bespeak for to a greater extent than portable as well as toll effective technology, the Army is also looking at handheld equipment similar iPads as well as mobile devices that could flow preparation content, Enloe said.
Gervais pointed to the Netflix line of piece of employment concern model every bit something that could potentially create goodness the Army. Netflix customers don’t create whatever of the back-end work, she noted. That is the responsibleness of the content provider.
“I don’t worry nearly all the infrastructure that goes behind it,” Gervais said. “Why couldn’t nosotros withdraw hold wages of something similar that?”
Contractor-owned as well as maintained systems could potentially come across to a greater extent than or less of the Army’s needs spell reducing overhead as well as maintenance requirements, she noted.
“We withdraw hold several examples that are already inwards utilization out inwards the acre correct at nowadays that are really beneficial inwards damage of preparation every bit a service amongst the correct [simulation] fidelity,” she said. “We’re looking at all of those options correct at nowadays every bit we’re developing the STE.”
The Army wants the synthetic preparation environs to withdraw hold opened upward architectures as well as mutual standards hence that the Defense Department doesn’t teach locked into buying from a minor release of vendors amongst proprietary systems, officials withdraw hold noted.
Meanwhile, the Army volition happen to leverage other transaction potency agreements whenever possible to chop-chop epitome as well as inform requirements for programs of record, said Brig. Gen. Michael Sloane, programme executive officeholder for simulation, preparation as well as instrumentation.
“We volition apply … the personnel resources as well as the dollars that are needed,” he said, adding that minor as well as large firms are encouraged to piece of employment together. “We’re looking for a lot of nontraditional companies out at that topographic point to come upward to us amongst technologies.”
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