Training for Gunslingers

For today’s “gunslingers” in the Army and Marine Corps’ armored vehicles, the fastest draw wins. Tank and other armored vehicle crews must practice their quick draw drills constantly — so it’s imperative that the simulators on which they rely stay concurrent with the real systems sent into combat.

The U.S. Army has announced they’ll begin upgrading Gunnery Training Systems used by both the Army and Marine Corps in 2021. These high-fidelity simulators combine physical mockups of the real thing and virtual environments that showcase a full range of realistic combat situations.

The upgrade is an ideal opportunity to build a common software architecture across all gunnery simulators in use today — and cost-effectively create continuous concurrency between operational vehicles and trainers.

There are multiple approaches to providing physical fidelity in gunnery trainers. Fully immersive physical simulators precisely replicate the inside vehicle form factor, separate desktop simulators replicate the gunner or commander stations, and immersive virtual simulator headsets can now provide haptic controls.

While the physical fidelity of each system is distinct, the synthetic fidelity of the video that fills weapon sights and vision blocks can now be consistent across all platforms.

This means the most realistic operational environments can now be used in virtual military training, and that the realism of these environments can be regularly updated to keep pace with commercial virtual reality and gaming — not locked into legacy proprietary imagery components. With highly realistic visualization in all-sensor spectra simultaneously and battlefield effects and stressors for multi-sensory immersion, crews can effectively train for quick draws in heated combat on today’s battlefield.

Using a single architecture across all trainers enables heavy automatic weapon platforms to incorporate the best high-fidelity visuals used in large-caliber (tank) simulators. It also allows the large caliber to get the complex environment realism from the medium-caliber (infantry fighting vehicle) simulators.

Until now, trainers have always lagged in their ability to stay concurrent with the live platforms they supported, and to use the latest virtual technologies. Today, modern software processes, continuous integration and continuous deployment are changing that.

Modern software architecture will also allow trainers to be embedded on combat systems and connect to the U.S. Army’s Synthetic Training Environment (STE), which seeks to create a single environment that connects live, virtual and constructive training across the globe.

Updating gunnery trainers with a single software architecture that enables integration of rapidly advancing technology is a game changer, resulting in a tougher, more realistic training capability — and a more lethal Army. In the process, the Army gets continuous concurrency with combat systems and lower long-term sustainment costs.

These training advantages will help crew clear leather first to win the gunfight, and enable commanders to deploy with ready crews and win in combat.

Learn more about Raytheon Intelligence & Space Synthetic Training Environment STE.