Marines to upgrade their live simulated training
The Marines intend to upgrade their live simulated training. They want to shift from having to go to training centers to run these simulations, towards a networked system that allows Marines to train from anywhere with collocated and remotely located Marines. The Marines also plan to roll out their Marine Corps Tactical Instrumentation System (MCTIS). This system will track every Marine, vehicle, and other assets during an exercise.
From Defense News:
On the virtual side of the training portfolio, Salm said the Corps is in the midst of an extended user evaluation involving two options to replace the Supporting Arms Virtual Trainer, previously located at the Dome — a large building that was expensive to maintain and only existed at a few locations.
Instead, Marines will move to a Joint Virtual Fires Trainer, where Marines outfitted with goggles and hand-held wands will conduct virtual training scenarios run through an application on a gaming laptop.
The Marine Corps is putting two companies through the evaluation at Twentynine Palms; Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona; and Marine Corps bases Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and Camp Pendleton in California.
Salm said this effort will unshackle Marines from having to go to a certain building for training — meaning more Marines could train at once, train from remote posts or their barracks, and run more scenarios.
The new Joint Virtual Fires Trainer will “multiply the amount of individuals that we’re training and certifying as [joint terminal attack controllers] for the fleet,” Salm said.
Similarly, Joseph Lomangino, action officer for Project Tripoli, said in an interview the service had already discontinued use of its Combined Arms Command and Control Training Upgrade System, or CACCTUS, which similarly involved a lot of computers and server stacks in a large building.
“We determined we can achieve the same training and increase the density of that training across the Marine Corps by replacing the CACCTUS with the [Marine Common Virtual Platform],” he said, referring to a common laptop with open standards that could be used for a range of live, virtual and constructive training needs.
About 1,600 laptops for combined arms and close-air support training have replaced six CACCTUS locations across the Corps. The Marine Common Virtual Platform will replace those laptops once the service chooses the final hardware, Lomangino said.
Defense News has additional information. The Army is set to field a similar concept for their training.
Wouldn’t it be more cost effective and realistic to issue blanks, blank adapters and have them train, force on force, IN THE FIELD.
What? Actually train to fight a war with guns and explosives? That’s too violent and get’s the enemy hurt.
We need high tech solutions that will hopefully convince the enemy to think twice before messing with us. That way we only have to show them how advanced we are, and we won’t have to go to war and worry about their Constitutional rights.
Nope. Soon the whole thing will be done with robots either AI or controlled by Marines direct. There will be a handful of people that have to go in person and everybody else will be sitting at home station on a console.
This is better for everybody. The robot doesn’t get PTSD, and if it’s leg gets blown off they can just stick another one right on. Contractors can make trillions. Robots can’t get drunk and get a DUI or beat their robot partner. Military leaders will no longer have to deal with real people which was always their weakness. Soldiers will no longer have to do PT, Just have good hand and eye coordination. And if they want to take a break they can just run down to Popeyes and pick up some fried chicken…. Wait, what am I thinking? DoorDash.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines…
I’ve never seen that movie in its entirety. The first was always my favorite but T2 was undeniably better produced and on a much larger budget.
Alternately, we can go with the Star Wars Clone War-type plots or whatever. Again, while I watched the originals, I fell off of that series hard with the prequels, sequels, and what have you. Same of Indiana Jones, but I digress…
We’ll get softer and softer, relying more and more on technology that’s proven to be extremely subject to failure and/or outside interference (hacking, etc.). When we base our military around robots and machines, we’ll gradually learn to trust them as they prove their combat capabilities, and we see few human casualties on foreign shores. When we decide that the technology has evolved to the point where human interaction is minimal, placing the security of our homeland squarely on the back of AI-controlled machines, we’ll be easily compromised by those with ill-intent, whether foreign or domestic. Mass-produced armed machines, controlled by a corrupted computer system and/or domestic terrorists/outside governments, and a largely disarmed populace forced to comply with all demands…
Sounds far-fetched, doesn’t it, only is it truly?
One EMP over the battlefield and its “Game Over” for the robot warriors.
Not really. We have had ways to deal with that threat for More than 50 years. You can buy a faraday isolator for your car or your house on Amazon right now for 400 bucks.
Normally I would whole-heartedly agree but from what I read, this simulation is just a call for fire trainer for JTACs. Basically an update to the old TSFO or Guardfist. An individual skill.
Simunitions.
Or, we go old school pre-blank adapter, as use wax-pellet blank rounds like the M1 Garand, BAR, etc. needed to cycle. Those things hurt and no doubt about whether you got hit or not. That would make people grab cover for real.
Paintball (with pepperball rounds, perhaps) could work, too… for those not thrilled by wax pellets, you know.
No Old Tanker… under the Biden Administration the government will divest itself of all that prime real estate and just use dormitories near urban centers. They will issue laptops and have members just log-in to train together. No more need to travel anywhere or integrate or learn to get along with people of diverse ethnic, religious, or economic backgrounds! Just like Joe always wanted.
My last assignment was with the IVAS program, of which SiVT (Squad-immersive Virtual Trainer) is part of. I know that IVAS has been improved quite a bit since I left the program, but I never really cared for it in field environments despite its potential. SiVT does have some good points, though, and despite it costing more initially than good old-fashioned blanks and such, I think it enables units to train better and–dare I say–more realistically than they might otherwise.
SiVT allows the trainers to set up virtual obstacles, enemies, non-combatants, and other objects. On Fort Belvoir we had an indoor shoot house set up for demonstrations, and the system allowed for everything from room-marking to throwing a virtual grenade using verbal cues. Dogs, goats, uniformed and ununiformed enemy combatants, civilians, and so on were all generated, and a squad can go through the shoot house and, probably best of all, review their actions and get an effective AAR, far better than that which one or two Observer-Controllers following them in the field could provide.
At M-SLC in 2017, we used a computer-based simulation not unlike that which we used at BNCOC in 2007. In ’07 we all used the Bradley version, but at M-SLC we were divided into groups, with 11-series going into a classroom and 19-series going into Bradley and Abrams simulators. Of course, I figured out a way to buck the system, so when we had the “Blackhawk Down” scenario, where we had to extricate a downed pilot and return him to a rally point, I somehow managed to choose an invisible avatar that could walk through walls, found and carried the pilot back, and laughed my a$$ off at my peers who were trying to figure out where he was and how they kept getting randomly shot by nobody. 😄
Digital can be fun stuff. There was the time they gave my platoon Javelins instead of AT-4s by mistake. We took out an entire battalion of digital tanks before anybody knew what was going on.
The Brigade Commander was really unhappy about that. I told him the real lesson here was that we should all have Javelins instead of AT-4s which kind of suck. That made him even less happy. I was that kind of lieutenant back in the day.
“You’re not old or high-ranking enough to say that!”
Ahh, training in simulators… I was a company commander training at Hohenfels in simulations. For some reason, we were able to capture an enemy dismount and control him from our blue station in JCATS. Before we committed to attacking into the Alpha (or maybe it was Bravo) bowl, I sent our turncoat digital enemy on a dismounted recon and because we could see everything he saw, we wound up with a perfect read of the enemy situation. A few fire for effect artillery missions to lead the way and pretty soon my Co/Tm was destroying OPFOR with abandon!
“A few fire for effect artillery missions to lead the way…” Be still my beating heart. Now you’re just coitusing with me.
I’m all about the combined arms. Started infantry, switched to armor with a mix of cavalry assignments in there somewhere. I’ll shoot indirect fire every time I can!! Throw in some engineers to blow breaches and maybe some attack aviation and I’m in heaven. Too bad I work the desk now…
OK, I need a cigarette now…and something to dry up this wet spot.
Kind of how the Kobayashi Maru scenario was won
Kobayashi Maru?
Are you serious?
Are you bringing a dumb sci fi reference into a real life conversation?
Would you prefer? (Couldn’t resist… )
will SiVT get fielded in its current form factor in your opinion?
I’m still trying to figure out the “live simulated” oxymoron. Is it live, or is it Memorex?
The SiVT I mentioned earlier is technically “live simulated”. When I left, it was still basically an urban operations simulator, but you can scan a building and build a scenario around it, so you’re moving through a structure, with modified but realistic weapons, and engaging with interactive virtual targets and other objects. It’s not like the computer-based simulator I used in SLC and BNCOC.
So, get overly immersed, and you might end up in a TikTok fail video, since you’re wearing a headset but otherwise “shooting”, moving, and communicating. I can imagine some Soldiers have run into walls or tripped over unseen physical objects.
Just in… Military not overrun with extremism new report says:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-military-s-phantom-extremists/ar-AA1mka5p
Yes, there less extremists in the military than there are media organizations to cover them. Certainly there are more extremist news organizations that there are extremist soldiers.
Probably why it got released on Friday afternoon on a holiday weekend.
Well, they had to do their part for this great nation. Those erroneous reports on how racist, toxic, and right-wing the military is haven’t exactly been a godsend to recruiting those the top brass seems to want. If we’re going to have boots on the ground in a major conflict this year, we need to bump up numbers.
BREAKING NEWS–The US Military is Not Racist, Report Finds: “There is no more inclusive and diverse organization in the world, says top Pentagon official. We encourage all to visit their local recruiting station and have reviewed entry standards to allow anyone capable of holding a TV remote to enlist. Do your part for America by fighting for Ukraine/Israel/Jonestown.”
Or we could train like Kyle did…
To hell with that. I’m avoiding that scenario. If unavoidable, I’m calling for backup, bringing a plussed-up combat load, and finding a defensible position. I haven’t run in a while and hate getting tired…
But good picture. I feel for the kid, though he’s gained some level of fame from the situation (some would say infamy). He made some poor choices and got in a situation that could have turned out much worse. He survived, though, rightfully avoided conviction, and is now a household name among 2A advocates.
He also has a whoooole lot more money than he used to. He got a really good lawyer, and hammered the “news” agencies who defamed and slandered him, and they got to contribute to what must be one hell of a college fund.
What is with the Army “operators” (can’t be Air Force, they have their hair back in a bun instead of loos in a Pony Tail) for the Marine Corps virtual Trainer….always good for a rainy day!
But of course, it ain’t training unless its rainin’!