GPS System Heightens Reality in U.S. War Games

By Brian McDonough Wireless NewsFactor
October 25, 2001

Twenty or 30 tanks and other military vehicles face off under a dusty Texas sky. They're kicking up dirt, burning diesel fuel to create smoke screens and firing at each other -- but they're not hitting anything. Such simulated exercises, using wireless technology, help the U.S. Army National Guard prepare for actual ground combat.

Independent research institute SRI International has been awarded an US$8.8 million contract by the U.S. Department of Defense to develop combat-training instrumentation systems using wireless and global positioning technology. SRI's Deployable Force-on-Force Instrumented Range Systems (DFIRST) will provide low-cost, state-of-the-art training to increase the combat readiness of Army National Guard armored units, according to SRI.

Since the Cold War, the National Guard has comprised more than half of the Army's mechanized and armored forces. Guard members dedicate a few days a month -- mostly weekends -- to the service until called to active duty. Army National Guard armored brigades are expected to be fully combat-ready within 90 days of being activated, a response time that SRI said requires the Guard to make the most of the roughly 40 training days each civilian Guard member receives per year.

'Fighting' Across the Country

SRI has been making DFIRST systems for the National Guard since 1994. The most recent contract calls for the institute to develop three new systems for National Guard units in Washington, Kentucky and Texas. Previous contracts have fielded DFIRST systems for units in Idaho, California, Virginia and Mississippi.

"We're calling this new version 'DFIRST 2.0' because it's a major upgrade," Chris Terndrup, program director for instrumentation and simulation systems at SRI, told Wireless NewsFactor. The new systems, to be deployed starting in May and finishing before summer's end, will not seem substantially different to the guardsmen using them, but will include hardware and software upgrades that make them more rugged and easier to maintain, Terndrup said.

Anticipates Enemy Tactics

Using the GPS (global positioning system) and high-speed wireless communications and advanced data visualization tools, SRI's DFIRST system will allow sophisticated tank battle simulations that can be played back later for review of a trainee's performance. The system shows the simulated battlefield, including friendly and "enemy" tank locations, at all times.

"The vehicles and crews go out as if they're fighting a real battle," Terndrup said. One side simulates potential enemy tactics, and the other is trained in how to react. A GPS transmitter on the vehicles' guns provides their angles to within tenths of a degree, allowing the virtual trajectory of imagined ammunition to be tracked.

When that phantom ordnance "hits" a vehicle, the crew inside is automatically assigned a level of damage and told to perform accordingly. For instance, a "hit" might disable a tank's mobility but leave its gun active, so the crew would be told to stop but keep firing, Terndrup said.

The communication system for all this relies on 156 kilobit-per-second (kbps) radio modems and a TDMA (time division multiple access)-based data link that can handle up to 156 vehicles. Though a National Guard exercise would deploy no more than 30 vehicles most of the time, Terndrup said DFIRST has managed actual simulations of up to 140 vehicles.

Charging into "Combat"

The GPS-based system can be installed in a fraction of the time required for conventional laser-based training systems, maximizing the Guard's limited training time. Systems of the latter type fit guns with lasers and sensors that register hits. "It's not unlike a kid's game of laser tag," Terndrup said.

The installation of laser systems takes about the same half hour per vehicle that DFIRST requires, he said, but it then must be followed by up to two hours of laser calibration.

"Reserve forces are not full time, they're out there maybe one weekend a month," Terndrup said. "You don't want them to spend all their time putting equipment on. You want them to be able to go out there and do it."