Vanguard Magazine

T TRAINING by Chris Thatcher COMBAT VEHICLE CREW TRAINER A TECHNOLOGICAL LEAP Lakatos is well suited to lead a vehicle simulation technology project that the Canadian Army believes will transform the deliv- ery of training. He's worked at the leading edge of defence simu- lation systems long enough to understand where the technology is heading and how the army can harness it. Lakatos heads up the Land Vehicle Crew Training System (LVCTS), a Directorate of Land Requirements project that will de- liver fi ve high-tech facilities to force generating bases in Edmonton, Shilo, Petawawa, Valcartier and Gagetown to house a fl eet of new simulators for the upgraded Light Armoured Vehicle, the Leopard A2 tank and the yet to be determined Close Combat Vehicle. Once completed, LVCTS will offer vehicle crews a shared syn- thetic environment, integrated into existing simulations and, at some point, networked across the country. Gone will be the old appended task trainers, perched on top of training vehicles to rep- licate driver, gunner and commander skills. A "The greatest thing for me as a troop leader was the ability to get into the fi eld, to take my guys out there," said Lakatos, a graduate of the University of Victoria and the Canadian Forces Staff College in Kingston. "But with simulators, we can do the training scenarios whenever we need to, before we go into the fi eld. Individually, you can do your driver training, your gunnery training, your crew commander training. Once the system is net- worked, collectively we can make them into one call sign and then s a combat offi cer who has lived in the worlds of Defence R&D Canada, the Directorate Land Synthetic Environ- ments and the Combat Training Centre, Major Mike network them to other call signs, into what we call a troop or a platoon vehicle confi guration. We will eventually work our way up to company exercises." Despite the multi-million dollar outlay for the fi ve new cen- tres and networked simulators, Lakatos believes the savings due to "cost avoidance" in the training system could be immense. A recent estimate by the U.S. Army suggests savings of about $113 million since 1993 when an Abrams Tank Driver Trainer system was introduced. Driving a typical mile in a M1A1 training tank cost the army about $155; a virtual mile in the Tank Driver Simulator cost $5.44, and the simulators in Fort Knox have now logged over one million simulated miles. "To be able to jump into a simulator and spend hours of train- ing time prior to going into one hour of training in the fi eld is priceless," Lakatos said. "To repeat scenarios, to repeat exercises, to repeat training you need until you are comfortable with it – you can't quantify that." Live exercises can't be replaced, but they are costly. Fuel, am- munition and wear and tear on vehicles – to say nothing of envi- ronmental damage – are just some of the costs that will be miti- gated through greater use of simulation. And much as pilot trainers can now recreate any airstrip in the world, the level of realism in vehicle simulators can now replicate geo-specifi c terrain, says LCol (Ret'd) Jim Youngs, a consultant on the project who has worked extensively with the simulation and training industry since retiring after 22 years of service. "You can recreate the environment you are going into, right down to a farm house and a tree." Photos: Rheinmetall 18 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2012 www. vanguardcanada.com

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