User:GBGangsta/Sandbox

=America’s Army Government Applications (AAGA)=

Due to the success of the America’s Army (AA) video game, a U. S. Army program was developed to repurpose and leverage AA’s repository of virtual assets and game levels for effective and engaging virtual learning. In 2005, the Army Game Project partnered with the Software Engineering Directorate (SED) and the Army’s Aviation and Missile Research Development Engineering Center (AMRDEC) in Huntsville, Alabama to manage the commercial game development process and use the AA game platform to create government training and simulations. “America’s Army has pushed to reuse the same elements for many purposes,” said Colonel Wardynski, originator of the Game,   “We can build one soldier avatar and use it again and again. When we build something in America’s Army, the U.S. government owns it completely ... and [it] can therefore be used for any application or use of the game. So costs keep going down. ” After AA went live, requests started coming in to use the game for purposes other than outreach, such as training.

The partnership with SED, an Army software lifecycle management center, allowed the Game Project to repurpose the commercial software to meet the needs of Soldiers preparing for deployment. The AA platform provides an enterprise solution that supports education, outreach, simulation and training for a variety of government applications that has been met with a very positive response. SED engineers developed customized applications used by many different Army and government organizations including the JFK Special Forces School and the Army’s Chemical School. By creating training simulations linked to tactical hardware, Soldiers are able to learn to use sophisticated, and often scarce, equipment such as PackBot robots, Common Remotely Operated Weapons Stations (CROWS), and Nuclear Biological Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicles (NBC-RV) in a safe, vivid, simulation. "Trainers and simulators allow for modified versions of the game to be used almost anywhere, especially if a financial resource is limited," said Col. Wardynski. "This allows for all sorts of variables to be included at virtually no extra cost."

These trainers were so well received by Soldiers, the Project team researches opportunities to use America’s Army simulations for outreach at Army events. Because repurposed code can be applied to almost any project, firms external to the AA game project have approached SED for custom applications such as convoy training, personnel recovery, combat readiness command and safety training, thus saving valuable time and money.

America’s Army Government Applications (AAGA) is led by the AA Software Management Team based at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The team, overseen by Program Manager Frank Blackwell is applying the AMRDEC SED Software Development Process to gaming software development. The following are some of AAGA’s proprietary customized solutions:

=Adaptive Thinking and Leadership (ATL)=

ATL is an interactive multiplayer AA computer simulation created to teach Special Forces Soldiers leadership competencies. The ATL training application consists of both single-player and multiplayer immersive environments designed to teach negotiation and consensus-building skills, effective communication, critical thinking, self-awareness, and problem solving skills. It is “designed to allow players to discover their strengths and weaknesses” in these areas. “By role-playing in a dynamically changing environment, users sharpen their ability to anticipate the consequences of different courses of action to problems that may not have a ‘right’ answer.”

=Air and Missile Defense (AMD) Convoy Trainer=

Under the guidance of the Air and Missile Defense School, the Army Game Project adapted AA into an AMD Convoy Trainer. The trainer uses the America’s Army platform to place high fidelity air defense vehicle models in a virtual battlefield. It simulates driving conditions to include navigation tasks as well as radio communications with AA scenarios in which the convoy will interact with the civilian population and potential enemy combatants. The AMD Convoy Trainer also includes instructor/leader capabilities to train Soldiers on convoy mission planning tasks. The instructor is able to tailor the training exercises and modify training scenarios on-the-fly to enhance learning and engender adaptive thinking in the training audience.

=Army Center for Enhanced Performance (ACEP)=

The United States Military Academy at West Point created a Center for Enhanced Performance (CEP) in 1989 as a means of educating varsity athletes in peak performance skills. At the direction of the Army Chief of Staff, this program was expanded in 2007 to create ACEPs at Ft. Bragg, Ft. Jackson, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Ft. Sam Houston, and Ft. Lewis. In 2008, ACEPs opened at Ft. Bliss, Ft. Hood, Ft. Knox and Ft. Gordon.

ACEP teaches individuals to acquire and master the mental and emotional skills that underlie human performance. Using America’s Army simulations coupled with biofeedback, educational best practices, and applied sport psychology techniques, Soldiers, family members, and Warriors in Transition learn to employ a systematic process to enhance the mental skills essential to the pursuit of personal strength, professional excellence and the Warrior Ethos.

In partnership with ACEP, the Army Game Project has developed a suite of products to train mastery of performance enhancements skills within the context of military operations. AA technologies are included in existing ACEP training and are used in the kinesthetic rooms at ACEPs so participants can practice these mental skills in simulation environments. These AA technologies are integrated into the Live Fire Shoot House, convoy trainers and Future Soldier Trainers. Soldiers are given After Action Reviews (AARs) with biofeedback information that evaluates the Soldier’s stress/coherence in different scenarios. This information enables trainers to pinpoint where a Soldier would benefit from additional ACEP training. At Walter Reed Army Medical Center, an adaptive driving simulator built by AA assists Warriors-in-Transition make the adjustment from in-theater to civilian driving environments. The hospital partnered with the Army Center for Enhanced Performance to help these Soldiers learn the basics of performance enhancement, such as goal-setting, attention control and energy management, and apply these skills to speed their recovery. A warfighter “must drive offensively and defensively at the same time,” said Major Bruce Bredlow, assistant director at CEP. “When they come back from battle, they must almost go through decompression to learn how to drive normally again.”

=Commonly Remotely Operated Weapon System (CROWS) Basic Skills Trainer (BST)=

Army engineers have leveraged the AA platform to develop the CROWS BST. CROWS is a stabilized, remotely controlled weapons mount that allows a gunner to effectively engage targets in 360 degrees of coverage while remaining within the protection of an Up-Armored HMMWV. It integrates “optics, zoom and thermal capabilities”. Virtual training ranges and convoy maps were developed including the reuse of the Virtual Army Experience (VAE) map for CROWS gunner training. The CROWS BST enables Soldiers to train with the current tactical hardware in realistic America’s Army virtual environments. According to SGT 1st Class Gary Woodruff: “The tool makes it possible to link three users together in training so they can practice working together in the same scenario. It trains for multiple skills, including the whole combat experience, not just operating the weapon.”

=Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) Experiment =

America’s Army was chosen by the National Simulation Center to support their testing of the effectiveness of training devices based on first person 3D gaming technology in a constructive simulation environment. To support this effort, the Army Game Project modified AA by adding a DIS interface that allows AA to interact with external constructive simulations like JCATS (Joint Conflict and Tactical simulation). This effort successfully demonstrated the feasibility of creating training scenarios that leverage the strengths of both constructive and virtual simulations.

=Future Soldier Trainer (FST)=

The FST was developed to provide a gaming experience to engage Future Soldiers and potential Future Soldiers. During 2007, the Army Game Project completed fielding 420 Future Solder Trainers (FST) to lower Future Soldier attrition and promote lead generation. This multi-purpose, mobile, recruiter support workstation features scenarios designed using the AA platform combined with Military Skills Engagement Trainer hardware so recruiters can quickly create engaging local recruiting events. FST systems use laser emitting recoil weapons to interact with on-screen simulations. FSTs currently include nine scenarios ranging from single-player training experiences to multiplayer missions such as UH60 door gunner. During 2007, the Army Game Project enhanced all FST systems with software and hardware upgrades to include addition of Xbox 360™ game stations with the America’s Army: True Soldiers game and a subscription to Xbox LIVE™.

=Future Soldier Training System (FSTS)=

Launched in June 2007, the FSTS is a web-based, online training system for Future Soldiers. It consists of a web portal, pre-basic training online courseware, and AA game-based training scenarios that prepare Future Soldiers for Basic Combat Training (BCT) and beyond. The objective of FSTS is to “prepare you, the Future Solider, mentally, physically, and emotionally for the rigors of Initial Entry Training and Beyond”. Additionally, the site provides information to assist families of Future Soldiers.

This training includes courses on Military Time, First Aid, Land Navigation, Army Rank Insignia, Phonetic Alphabet, Drill and Ceremonies, General Orders, Army Values and History, and Risk Assessment. All content and interactions stress Army core values and positively present Army lifestyles. At the end of each course, Future Soldiers complete a final examination that is recorded in the FSTS database.

=Live Fire Virtual Targetry (LFVT)=

The AA LFVT program is designed to revolutionize urban combat training by allowing live ammunition to be fired in a virtual environment. Soldiers engage life-size, computer-generated targets in virtual urban combat environments that are projected on the walls of a live-fire shoot house.

Instructors challenge Soldiers with combatants, non-combatants and opposing forces controlled by artificial intelligence or a live multiplayer mode to create immersive, dynamic environments for developing Soldiers’ close combat skills. “It’s almost akin to a live, hostile force,” said Col. Casey Wardynski, director and originator of the America’s Army program.

The system was deployed at the JFK Special Warfare Center and School at Ft. Bragg and, in 2007, two new America’s Army modular Live Fire virtual shoothouses were established at Ft. McClellan and Ft. Leonard Wood.

=Nuclear Biological Chemical Recon Vehicle (NBC RV) Trainer=

Nuclear Biological Chemical (NBC) Reconnaissance teams must successfully identify and eliminate nuclear, biological and chemical contaminants in hostile environments. Real world NBC training is limited due to its inherent risks and costs. The AA team developed an NBC RV Trainer to enable Soldiers to train on tactical hardware and perform all their NBC duties, within a flexible AA virtual environment. Soldiers drive vehicles “through simulated contaminant zones while interfacing with a chemical, biological and nuclear mass spectrometer detection device”.

In 2007, the NBCRV Trainer was accepted by the Commandant of the US Army Chemical School as an approved training device and was successfully fielded to Army and Marine Corps Chemical Schools.

=Rapid Response Missile (RRM) Simulation=

The Army Game Project adapted AA to create an interactive concept demonstration for the RRM to simulate the RRM Fire Control System, route planning, sensor selection, and missile guidance system on the RRM weapon system. The prototype showcases the ability of the RRM to strike with precision in complex urban environments in a fully playable environment. http://defensesystems.com/articles/2008/05/much-more-than-a-game.aspx  Sensors are mounted on fixed platforms, UAVs, and an Aerostat. “Without America’s Army, we would have to build a custom computer, custom software, all our own graphics and all the scenarios, so there would have been lots of upfront costs,” said John Meadows, who heads RRM prototyping at AMRDEC.

=Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided (TOW) Improved Target Acquisition System (ITAS) Collective Skills Trainer =

The TOW ITAS Collective Skills Trainer is a simulator that places Soldiers in realistic environments and trains them to use the tactical hardware of the TOW ITAS, the most commonly used anti-tank guided missile system in the world. Using the TOW ITAS Collective Skills Trainer conserves Army training funds by reducing the need to fire live missiles in training exercises.


 * Rehearse and conduct collective tasks and missions
 * Evaluate and score mission training exercises

The AA software provides a platform for Soldiers to rehearse and conduct collective tasks and missions and evaluate and score mission training exercises. A fully configured ITAS trainer consists of an instructor station, two driver and ITAS stations, and a Platoon Leaders station. It is equipped with “integrated day optics and infra-red thermal sights, an automated target tracker, and a laser range finder to provide a highly mobile, day or night capability” that allow soldiers to experience the “real feel” of the system.

=Urban Unattended Ground Sensor (U-UGS) Experiment=

The National Simulation Center Futures and Integration Directorate (NSC-FID) used America’s Army to conduct an experiment on training the employment of unattended ground sensors within a first person gaming environment. The U-UGS are spin-out technologies from the Future Combat System (FCS) Program. The U-UGS provides remote monitoring and warning capability to small units (fire-teams, squads, and platoons) in a Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) environment. The U-UGS system consists of sensors and network gateways linked through a wireless local network. The gateways organize and manage the sensor network, communicate sensor data to FCS Command and Control (C2) systems and to local dismounts. The Intrusion Sensor detects motion of intruders while the Imager Sensor provides electro-optical (EO) visual imaging.

Results of the experiment indicate that game technology has applicability in training teams to employ U-UGS. Combat veterans participating in the experiment were enthusiastic about the potential to use games like AA to train Soldiers on new equipment that may not be available for pre-deployment training.

=External Links=


 * Future Soldiers Website
 * Americas Army Projects Website

=References=