BREAKING: Army aims to deliver key training system 4 years early
Photo: Army
LONDON – Senior Army leaders are asking the office responsible for developing the service’s simulation technology to deliver its new synthetic training environment four years ahead of schedule.
Karen Saunders, director of the simulation, training and instrumentation program, said April 26 that the Army’s new training system – originally slated to go live in 2028 – now has a fourth quarter deadline. of the 2024 financial year.
“I’m pretty confident we’ll get there,” Saunders said at the IT2EC conference in London.
The Army Needs Board approved the fresh start, which was then approved by Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Joseph M. Martin, she told a roundtable. at Europe’s largest annual training and simulation conference.
The Army is pushing its program offices to execute its six major modernization programs as soon as possible. The priorities are: long range fires, next generation combat vehicle, future vertical lift, network, air and missile defense and soldier lethality. The synthetic training environment falls under the lethality of the soldiers. Army Futures Command leaders have pledged to deliver 24 key weapon systems to soldiers by 2023.
Two of the 24 systems under this deadline are building blocks for the STE, the immersive Integrated Visual Augmentation System Squad trainer and the One World Terrain simulation software.
About a year ago, the military moved the deadline for the new training system by a year to 2027, she said. Now, “they challenged us to deliver a [system] in one of our combat training centers by 2024,” she said.
“We have good momentum with industry,” she said, noting that the next “touchpoint” – when soldiers get a chance to try out prototypes and provide feedback – will come in about nine. month.
To help PEO STRI achieve this, it has established a Strike Agile Acquisition Response Team, or STAAR team, she said. “We’re leveraging this team, bringing in experts from across my PEO to see how to deliver our synthetic training environment live capability nearly four years ago,” she added.
The STE trains soldiers in 12 different tasks, which include skills such as direct and indirect fire, she said.
“We look at specific technologies and then determine how we can bring together the best of breed so that the industry is allowed to compete at all times,” she said, noting that the PEO issues contracts in cycles of three. months to speed up the process.
Industry is expected to present its offers three months later, with soldiers allowed to try them out for feedback, she said.
One such system in need of an update is the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System, MILES, a laser tag-like technology that has been widely used by the U.S. military, its allies, and law enforcement for several decades. , to simulate real shots.
Saunders said PEO STRI is investigating an alternative technology “right now.”
It could be a laser or an optical system, she noted. The system must be built in such a way that it can evolve with technological developments, she added.
Topics: Training and Simulation, Army News
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