Vanguard Magazine

t traInIng AnD SIMULATIon 30 APRIL/MAY 2016 www.vanguardcanada.com "A single 25mm cannon round costs more than $100," he says. "The simulator in this room has already gone through more than a hundred thousand rounds since it went up, calculate how much that would costs if were using live rounds." Through the use of simulators, training can be: • Less expensive, through the use of simulated fuel, ammunition, and reducing wear and tear on vehicles, equipment, and the environment • Less risky, because practicing scenarios in a simulator where mis- takes that would involve injury or death if carried out in the real world are identified and thereafter avoided. • More adaptable and shareable, because training resources and scenarios can be shared across organizations, results can be cap- tured for use in performing after-action review, collating the les- sons learned and identifying trends. Similar to many virtual simulators, the ICGS is employed during a training confirmation period, prior to trainees moving to the actual vehicle and live fire. Unlike other simulators in the Cana- dian inventory, however, ICGS was developed entirely in-house by ADGA, a first for this type of capability. The project used off-the-shelf hardware (computers and touch- screen monitors) to virtually represent vehicle controls in place of utilizing actual gauges and switches. Army project staff contracted ADGA through the Land Soft- ware Engineering Centre (LSEC), a Material Group organization staffed by the ADGA group personnel, to develop the simulation software. ADGA expertise and agility were key to developing and deploying the system rapidly, as well as cost-effectively and extremely fit-for-purpose. ADGA developers created a model of the LAV vehicle behav- iours in close consultation with Army subject matter experts. To present a realistic 3D environment and to seek product com- monality, the developers modified the existing army standard soft- ware for 3D: Virtual Battlespace (VBS) thus leveraging the exist- ing Canadian inventory of virtual terrains and models to be used in the simulator at no extra cost. sim-in-a-box "Simulation is an integral part of the Army's training programme," says Maj. Gen. Jean-Marc Lanthier, commander of the Canadian Army Doctrine and Training Centre at CAF Base Kingston told Vanguard. "It is and effective, efficient and very accessible way to train our troops on how to operate the vehicles they will be using in real-life situations." The armed forces, he says, is always on the lookout for new ways of providing its troops with realistic and effective training systems. Cost and accessibility are critical factors. ADGA's "simulation-in-a-box"—a portable, networkable set of simulation consoles and associated software which provides con- nectivity with the Land Command Support System (LCSS) which in turn supports various annual military exercises throughout Canada. Unlike more complex immersive simulation environments that ADgA has delivered 80 the Interim Crew gunnery System (ICgS) simulators to the Canadian Army. Aiming for the enemy vehicle Maj. Gen. Lanthier discussing simulators with ADGA's Don MacQuarrie

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