Saturday, November 01, 2008

True-To-Life Training: British Army Tests Deployable Simulation System In Kenya

True-to-life training: British Army tests deployable simulation system in Kenya (NSI News Source Info) November 1, 2008: The British Army successfully trialled Saab Training Systems' new Deployable Tactical Engagement Simulation (DTES) system in Kenya for the first time in October. A support team and company's worth of individual soldier fits were deployed as part of the British Army Training Unit Kenya's (BATUK's) latest Exercise 'Grand Prix', the first battle group (BG)-level exercise of a newly accelerated training regime. Under this, BATUK is now responsible for seven BG-level exercises a year, up from three in 2007, as part of a British Army requirement to increase the amount and fidelity of light role infantry training in a "contemporary operating environment", according to Lieutenant Colonel Rex Sartain, BATUK commanding officer. As the name would suggest, DTES is a deployable version of the TES instrumented simulation system installed on Salisbury Plain in the UK, modified with lighter-weight soldier harnesses linked together with modular, transportable radio masts. According to Bevan Roberts, Saab's DTES team leader deployed in support of the exercise, two 21 m masts were sufficient to "bathe the whole 50-60 km Lolldaiga exercise area" in coverage. He adds that the masts could be dismantled and transported to a new location within hours. The individual soldier fit comprises a harness and helmet rig with hit sensors - sufficient to warn the wearer of hit location and severity - as well as a battery pack, weapon fit, GPS receiver and a radio-frequency package to transmit location and status information back to exercise control (EXCON). It also features a small, solid-state memory package that records all of that data as backup and to track events when a soldier moves out of radio or GPS coverage, uplinking it back to control when coverage returns. Roberts adds that existing, instrumented structures can be 'plugged' into DTES EXCON coverage and new buildings, caves and other GPS blackspots can be instrumented relatively quickly to ensure continuous coverage of movements and indoor fire effects, should that be necessary. Versions of the system have already been trialled on three exercises in the jungles of Belize, but this marked the system's first use with a company-sized group of equipment with BATUK.

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