LVC PoP to Train Units on Urban Terrain

Bruce W. Uphoff (MAJ, USA-Ret.)
Mr. Uphoff is the Chief of Live-Virtual-Constructive Integration, Futures Integration Directorate, National Simulation Center, at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.

PoP Training Objectives

Units from the 1/25th Infantry Stryker Brigade Combat Team 2 (SBCT2) conducted training last July during a proof-of-principle (PoP) of a Home Station Live-Virtual-Construction (LVC) capability at Ft. Lewis’ Leschi Town—the Army’s largest urban combat training center. The unit’s training objectives focused on battle command for the SBCT Infantry Rifle Company in support of security operations and cordon and search. The company operations were focused in and around the Leschi Town MOUT (military operations in urban terrain) site, with eighteen Stryker infantry carrier vehicles (ICVs), and approximately 180 dismounted soldiers, opposing forces, and civilians on the battlefield (COB). The participants’ instruments for the PoP were Cubic Defense Systems’ DSTAR Live Instrumentation System. The infantry platoons conducting operations in Leschi Town were supported by the Mobile Gun System (MGS) platoon operating in the Virtual environment via the Battle Command Skills Trainer (BCST). The BCST was also used in a Stryker Command Variant (CV) mock-up for the SBCT Battalion Tactical Command Post, demonstrating the value of placing leaders, in this case the 3-21 Infantry Battalion Commander, in the Virtual environment. The PoP used Constructive simulations and C4I interfaces (Joint Conflict and Tactical Simulation [JCATS], Scaleable Entity Level Simulation [SELS], Simulation-C4I Interchange Module for Plans, Logistics, Exercises [SIMPLE]) to portray the remainder of the SBCT and additional OPFOR/COB.

LVC Accomplishments

The unit achieved significant accomplishments in all areas.

For example, in the Live environment:

• The unit achieved a one-way feed of instrumented entities into the Virtual and Constructive environments, with unique representations for friendly and enemy forces and civilians.

• Live-Live engagements (fire and detonations) were able to be tracked using the Vision XXI AAR system. Live-Live engagements were also able to be seen in Virtual (e.g., BCST) and Constructive (e.g., JCATS, SELS) simulations.

• The Live feed was able to reflect the minimum of two health states (alive or dead) for instrumented entities.

• The Live player Situational Awareness (SA)—the position reports for friendly systems—for the eighteen Stryker systems was generated on the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade (FBCB2) surrogate systems on the tactical land local area network (TACLAN) line supported by Virtual and Constructive simulations.

[Photo] Desktop setup of the BCST, a rack-mounted system that is deployable and offers a plug-and-train capability for Virtual mock-up configurations of the Stryker, HMMWV, Abrams, or Bradley fighting vehicle. (Photo courtesy of Bruce W. Uphoff.)

In the Virtual environment, the units demonstrated:

• The ability to operate several BCST simultaneously on the simulation network.

• The BCST AAR capability, with the ability to selectively “eavesdrop” on any system’s visual channel view (e.g., commander, platoon leader, driver, gunner) during execution and playback.

• The ability to correctly project Live entity locations and orientation at Leschi Town onto a specified area of the Baghdad virtual terrain database.

• The value-added of the Virtual environment simulation to enable MGS platoon drills and the battalion commander Virtual view of the battlespace in the
Battalion Tactical CV mock-up.

[Photo] Platoon leader and gunner in a Stryker CV mockup, configured as the platoon leader’s MGS. The screen views show the FBCB2 (left) and the gunner’s sight picture (right). The platoon leader is wearing the head-mounted 3D (360º view) viewer. (Photo courtesy of Bruce W. Uphoff.)

In the Constructive environment, the PoP enabled the unit to:

• Provide effective 3500-plus entity simulation wrap-around for company Live-Virtual operations in and around Leschi Town.

• Demonstrate the ability to track Live and Virtual entities in the Constructive environment. JCATS screen captures were integrated into unit AAR products.

• Conduct two-way fires interactions, which were injected effectively through the use of SELS. These interactions were initiated through the SELS graphical unit interface and via an Advanced Tactical Artillery Tactical Data System at the Tactical Command Post.

Lessons Learned

The SBCT2 PoP exercise also yielded many lessons learned for the Army’s LVC capability.

For example, in the Live environment:

• More time and effort is needed to achieve all required unique entity and munitions enumerations for battalion- and brigade- level scenarios.

• Company and below operations in the MOUT site are best supported by video capture for AAR.

• Additional fidelity is required to better report entity information to Virtual-Constructive environments (orientation, velocity, appearance states, etc.)

In the Virtual environment, the unit learned that:

• A BCST on-board crew intercom capability is required.

• One ASTi radio network (company network) was insufficient. A platoon network is required for platoon drills.

• The capability for rapid terrain generation is required for mission rehearsal, with heavy emphasis on the current area of operations.

• Terrain features must be provided in sufficient fidelity to allow the crew to navigate the terrain. The areas of the Virtual terrain database were satellite images placed on top of elevation data. The imagery was not of sufficient fidelity to easily discern roads, trails, etc., for the area surrounding the MOUT site.

In the Constructive environment, the units learned that:

• For the next event, the battalion- and brigade-level staffs will require other Army battle command systems to include a Global Command and Control System–Army (GCCS-A) feed. (The C4I simulation was limited to available systems—AFATDS and FBCB2.)

• Database synchronization with Virtual and Live components for enumerations, Probability of Hit/Probability of Kills (Ph/Pk), etc., is required.

Ft. Lewis LVC Proof-of-Principle Architecture

In Summary

During the LVC PoP exercise, B Company, 3-21 Infantry, was able to effectively train its identified tactical tasks in the Live environment, while receiving additional SA feed for the remainder of the battalion and brigade (in Virtual-Constructive simulations) via their Live FBCB2. The LVC environment did not hinder the company in accomplishing their training objectives, and the 3-21 Infantry Commander held the opinion that the environment provided strong potential for enhanced full-up Battalion/Battle Command team (BN/BCT) Command Post Battle Command training. The LVC PoP architecture was a great first step toward achieving a LVC capability at Home Station that prepares units for CTC rotation and deployment, but it needs to extend in capability in several areas—including the Live instrumentation system, Virtual-Constructive simulations, and unit communications/Army Battle Command System (ABCS)—to adequately support a BN/BCT-level LVC event.

E-mail: sim-ops@hqda.army.mil • Web Site: www.fa-57.army.mil

Headquarters Department of the Army
Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7, ATTN: DAMO-SB
Simulation Operations Proponent
400 Army Pentagon • Washington, DC 20310-0400
Phone: 703-601-0005 • FAX: 703-601-0018