The\u00a0Lockheed Martin<\/a>\u00a0SIMRES system uses a new approach to force-on-force shooting simulation as the existing technology: the\u00a0multiple integrated laser engagement system<\/a>, or MILES.<\/p>\n Early versions of the multiple integrated laser engagement system were in testing in the 1970s, and have been the shooting simulation system used by the Army and Marine Corps since the 1980s. The system works on individual weapons such as the M4 and crewed vehicles such as the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle and Abrams tank.<\/p>\n As its name suggests, the system uses small lasers fired from the modules installed on the weapon\u2019s system. The laser strikes a sensor on the opposing force, triggering a beep and registering in the system to track hits.<\/p>\n While an improvement over blank rounds, and estimates of targets hit and damage that predated the sensor system, lasers don\u2019t perform the way that bullets and other projectiles do.<\/p>\n With a laser, the trajectory essentially is flat, with no drop that\u2019s associated with actual projectiles. The system can\u2019t effectively simulate indirect fire such as mortars or grenades.<\/p>\n And, being a laser, anything in its path will disrupt it. So, a soldier need only hide behind brush or a leafy bush to defeat the laser system. Hardly a realistic training scenario.<\/p>\n The system is reaching the end of its life and has been scheduled to become obsolete beginning in 2026, Karen Saunders, then-head of\u00a0Program Executive Office\u2013Simulation, Training and Instrumentation<\/a>\u00a0told\u00a0Military.com<\/a>\u00a0in 2021.<\/p>\n Through a combination of GPS, sensing, software and light detection and ranging \u2015 or Lidar \u2015 technologies, their system creates a kind of virtual space in live training, SIMRES Chief Engineer Dan Hyatt told Military Times.<\/p>\n By using decades of weapon ballistics data, Hyatt\u2019s team has created what they call an \u201ce-bullet,\u201d which allows them to model the real-world physics of a projectile and how it would perform when fired at certain distances, angles and even through barriers, such as concrete walls.<\/p>\n So, no more soldiers hiding behind bushes.<\/p>\n Hyatt\u2019s teams conduct a digital scan of the training area and then use sensors about the size of a deck of cards strapped on individual users to track participants\u2019 movements, weapon orientation, hits and misses.<\/p>\n That technology also allows for indirect fire. Early development has included the M4 and the M320 grenade launcher, both widely distributed small arms systems used by thousands of soldiers and Marines.<\/p>\n Hyatt said some of the systems already have been tested by soldiers at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California.<\/p>\n The system also gives trainers and observers a bird\u2019s eye view of exercises unfolding in real time.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you are watching our engagement it\u2019s like a first-person shooter or flying around with 3D view or snap to any soldier and see their view, hover above at a 20-foot altitude,\u201d Hyatt said.<\/p>\n The system is still under development and is not yet competing for a current Army contract, but it is expected to display features the Army has shown interest in during recently launched efforts to improve the service\u2019s simulation capabilities, company spokesman Mark Schaub said.<\/p>\n The Army\u2019s Cross-Functional Team-Synthetic Training Environment and\u00a0Program Executive Office\u2013Simulation, Training and Instrumentation<\/a>\u00a0have ramped up efforts in recent years to overhaul simulation technology across the force. In 2021, then CFT-STE director Maj. Gen. Maria Gervais said the service was seeking to replace MILES.<\/p>\n That same year, the Marine Corps announced it was replacing MILES with Saab Inc.\u2019s Force-on-Force-Next program, after beginning its search in 2017.<\/p>\n Nearly half of the organic weapons systems in an Army brigade combat team cannot be used with MILES, retired Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond Chandler, who currently serves as Lockheed Martin\u2019s STE campaign manager, told Military Times.<\/p>\n That tech limitation \u201climits home station and combat training center training,\u201d Chandler said.<\/p>\n The legacy system also requires hours of setup that eats up training time.<\/p>\n Chandler said something as simple as not being able to \u201clead\u201d a target when firing with a laser, can introduce negative training to soldiers. Essentially a soldier will adapt to the system and then must unlearn the bad habits introduced by the system.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things I dreaded was going out to the field and having to use MILES gear, because it didn\u2019t work half the time, it was difficult to learn how to use and employ,\u201d Chandler said.<\/p>\n The Marine Corps\u2019\u00a0FoFTS-Next system<\/a>, a contract worth potentially $248 million according to a Saab announcement, is expected to field in 2024, Marine officials told Marine Corps Times in November. The system has since been renamed the Marine Corps Tactical Instrumentation System, or MCTIS<\/p>\n Between 2024\u20132026, the Corps expects to field 16 MCTIS systems in total. Those will be delivered to Camp Pendleton, California; Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia; Japan and Guam.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/apuntando.jpg\")