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Simulating SCORPION – how the French Army is training troops under its core modernisation programme

At the beginning of 2023, it was announced that Belgian firm John Cockerill Defense had completed the merger of its wholly owned French subsidiary Agueris with John Cockerill Defense France.

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Apart from ‘strengthening its commitment within the French defence-industrial and technological base’, the company said that the merger ‘aims to strengthen the position of John Cockerill Defense in the new-generation simulator programmes necessary in particular for the training of [French] forces on the new materials of the SCORPION programme’.

Agueris produces a range of simulators including a generic virtual trainer, which it describes as a mobile and scalable system with an interactive cockpit, enabling a single device to be used for different weapon systems and platforms.

This has been used for technical and tactical training of turret crews to platoon level. Agueris also produces embedded simulation systems and mobile simulation facilities.

The Agueris generic virtual trainer can replicate different platforms and weapon systems. (Photo: Agueris)

The French Army’s overarching SCORPION (Synergie du COntact Renforcé par la Polyvalence et l'InfovalorisatiON) modernisation effort covers a new range of vehicles, communications and a C2 system.

Focussed at the all-arms battlegroup level, it embraces a new tactical doctrine known as ‘collaborative combat’. This is centred on rapid sharing of information down to and between individual platforms to achieve information and tactical advantage, and presupposes that dispersed operations will be commonplace.

New training capabilities are of course part of SCORPION, with the aim of developing a networked deployment training system (Système de Préparation a l'Engagement – SPE) which can be used in barracks, at combat training centres (CTCs) or when operationally deployed.

This will utilise classroom systems, static simulators and embedded simulation in real vehicles, all integrated in a common virtual environment (CVE).

New platform simulators for SCORPION vehicles are being developed under a contract awarded in 2020 to a consortium of what was then RUAG Defence France and Agueris for development, production, commissioning and support of cabin simulators for the Jaguar and Griffon combat vehicles, and modernised Leclerc main battle tanks (MBTs).

In 2022 RUAG’s simulation business was acquired by Thales, which supplies the French army’s existing Leclerc simulators. This MBT part of the programme is called Project Serket.

The new vehicles will also have an embedded training capability. Known as Project SEMBA (Simulation EMBArquée), this will be able either to make use of the CVE injected into onboard sensors and optics to support a simulation or use augmented reality (AR) on real terrain.

SEMBA will allow vehicle crews to train individually or collectively in barracks using VR capability, dispensing with the need for static simulators. It will also allow collective training from distributed locations, with different units in separate barracks coming together in the CVE.

SEMBA will also support pre-deployment training and operational mission rehearsal by using a detailed terrain and threat database of the operational area. 

An additional part of the training package is Project SOULT (Simulation pour les Opérations des Unités interarmes et de la Logistique Terrestre), a command and staff training system based on MASA’s SWORD constructive simulator and customised for the French Army. A fresh version is now being developed with much greater emphasis on joint operations.

When deployed for live training at CTCs or on operations, the AR capability will enable crews to train with objects overlaid on real terrain viewed through vehicle optics. These could be either friendly, enemy or neutral. Using AR enables resources to be incorporated into live training which may be unavailable or undeployable in that particular location.

While vehicle simulation is being renewed as part of SCORPION, the French Army is concurrently revamping its laser-based live training through the CERBERE (Centres d'Entraînement Représentatifs des espaces de Bataille Et de Restitution des Engagements) programme. This is delivered by what was originally a Thales/RUAG consortium and is now a wholly Thales endeavour.

CERBERE is modernising the tactical engagement simulation systems (TESSs) in use at France's national CTCs, the Centre d'entraînement au combat (CENTAC) at Mailly-le-Camp, the Centre d'entraînement aux actions en zone urbaine (CENZUB) at Sissonne and the Centre d'entraînement interarmes et du soutien logistique (CENTIAL) at Mourmelon.

At Mailly-le-Camp exercises are conducted on an open terrain area of 120 sq km, while Sissonne is a specialist military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) facility with a 300-building combat village.

The modernisation programme includes renewal of the instrumentation and tracking systems at the CTCs including the CENZUB buildings, new dismounted equipment in the form of a customised version of the Thales (previously RUAG) Gladiator individual soldier TESS outfit, and a new after-action review capability.

As part of the new training architecture to support the Scorpion transformation programme, the French Army will network its urban warfare combat training centre at Sissonne in northern France with its other major CTCs at Mailly-le-Camp and Châlons. (Photo: French MoD)

The Gladiator assembly is being upgraded with electronics from the latest G13 version, first revealed at I/ITSEC in late 2021, although the personal harness remains the same.

Because the SCORPION collaborative combat concept envisages distributed, dispersed manoeuvre operations, realistic training will require large physical areas over which to exercise, particularly to replicate the acquisition of targets in depth and their engagement with accurate strikes.

Current training areas are not large enough for this – CENTAC was once large enough to host divisional-level training but is unlikely to be able to provide sufficient space for more than two SCORPION combined arms company combat teams.

The French Army is therefore networking the three training areas and simulation systems and using the zones between them to simulate empty parts of the battlefield.

By using all three CTCs networked together, live training up to brigade level employing the collaborative combat doctrine could be conducted in the SCORPION era.

Alternatively, only some elements of a unit could deploy with the rest being a virtual presence, possibly participating over the network using the embedded simulation capability while remaining in barracks.

UK seeks military truck driver training simulator

The UK MoD has issued a statement of requirement (SoR) for procurement of large goods vehicles (LGV) driving simulators for the Defence School of Transport (DSoT) at Leconfield in Yorkshire.

Truck driving simulators such as this example from KMW are widely used by US and European armed forces. (Photo: KMW)

According to the statement, the DSoT teaches over 4,500 personnel annually to drive and handle service vehicles, with a significant proportion of this work devoted to handling LGVs. Currently, practical training is delivered ‘at a maximum ratio of two trainees to one instructor in vehicles on public roads’.

The project intends to use a £500,000 innovation fund to procure a simulator system to enhance general driver training at the DSoT, and ‘maximise training resource and reduce environmental impact’. Experience of the system will be used to inform the British Army’s Driver Training Project 2025 which is led by the Land Warfare Centre.

The SoR states that the system must be able to deliver training to four trainees while ‘providing an observational facility for up to ten trainees remotely’, with central control provided through an instructor station.

The four simulators must: simulate both left- and right-hand-drive vehicles; provide a ‘high-resolution, wide field of driver’s vision through screens including rear-view mirrors’; have a full range of controls with both manual and automatic transmission options; and deliver real-time driver information such as speed and other instrument gauges.

The simulators require least three degrees of motion ‘to provide accuracy in sensation and feedback, and simulate road feel, external forces and differing vehicle loads including liquid in tanks’, and provide physical feedback through the driver’s controls. The system must be able to record trainee actions for debriefing.

The SoR specifies that the software chosen must be able to simulate a wide range of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) types including articulated trucks, and specifies in particular all variants of the MAN 6 and 9t Support Vehicles (SV), which are in service with the British Army.

The Rheinmetall group, manufacturer of the SV trucks used by the British Army, also produces a range of driving simulators. (Photo: Rheinmetall)

It also requires a comprehensive virtual environment with different types of terrain, climate, road markings and traffic conditions, as well as obstacles and events to support tactical training.

The system must offer exercise-based scenarios, simulate vehicle and load faults, and provide individual feedback on trainee performance. It must be controllable centrally from an instructor station.

In order to qualify for the innovation fund money the system must be installed by the end of March 2024, and the supplier must provide an instructor training package and 24 months of technical and administrative support.

The UK military has been remarkably slow to adopt simulators for general driving instruction despite the well-proven benefits for this type of training, which include a controlled and predictable training environment, repetition of exercises, recording for debriefing, replication of dangerous manoeuvres, and considerable resource savings.

Although the preamble to the SoR states that ‘LGV simulation in training is undeveloped’, similar simulators have been in use in Europe and the US for some time.

For example, since 2002 FAAC (part of Arotech) has provided over 250 reconfigurable Operator Driving Simulators (ODS) to US forces, many of them for LGV training. Doron Precision Systems has supplied a number of its 550 and 660TruckPlus simulators to the USAF and Army and Air National Guards, including at least one four-simulator networked system for the air force.

In Europe Rheinmetall Electronics (Rheinmetall produces the MAN SV) supplies modular systems ‘designed for basic and advanced driver training for any kind of wheeled… military vehicle’. KMW offers much the same capability, as does Thales, and driver simulators are widely used for training emergency services personnel.

Why it has taken the UK so long to adopt simulation as part of its general driver training methodology remains a mystery. 

EDA creates joint personnel recovery training simulator

The European Defence Agency (EDA) has developed a simulator to support training in joint personnel recovery (JPR) and declared full operational capability (FOC) of the system in December 2022.

A TPRMS fixed-wing aircraft workstation with a ground vehicle driver station visible behind. (Photo: EDA) 

The Tactical Personnel Recovery Mission Simulator (TPRMS) has been established at the Italian Air Force (IAF) base at Poggio Renatico near Ferrara.

The European Personnel Recovery Centre (EPRC), which also conducts training in JPR, is located at the same base, although this is not an EU organisation or part of the EDA.

Constantin Ciocirlan, EDA project officer land programmes and the TPRMS project officer, told Shephard that discussions began in 2016 between interested EU member states to identify an affordable training solution for JPR.

This led to the decision that the most efficient and cost-effective solution would be a simulator providing the ability to conduct rehearsal and practice of JPR in a fully synthetic environment with a realistic communications architecture.

Ciocirlan added that a particularly important benefit of simulation was the ability to practice night JPR operations, which he said was very difficult to achieve in a live environment due to the level of risk involved.

He also noted that the system had to provide training for all the disparate elements involved in JPR, including ground units, rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft, special forces and planning teams.

The TPRMS consists of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and a mixture of COTS and bespoke software. The principal software contractor was Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BIS) providing its Virtual Battlespace 4 (VBS4) synthetic environment, partnered with Italian firms BV TECH and Vitrociset which were particularly responsible for communications simulation.

Ciocirlan said that development of the system started in late 2019 under a four-phase four-year programme, consisting of set-up, operationalisation, testing and evaluation. Initial operational capability was achieved in November 2021 and FOC in November 2022.

The system fits in ten ISO containers providing 120 sq m of working space. Ciocirlan said the it is modular and scalable and can be used for both individual and collective training.

It is made up of 18 networked workstations configured to represent the various elements involved in JPR. Eleven of these consist of: one isolated person (the subject of a recovery mission); two two-person stations for helicopters (2x pilot, 2x gunner); one two-man station for fixed-wing assets such as AWACS (2x pilot); and four ground force stations (vehicle driver, dismount, special forces and generic) for the extraction team.

There are also six generic stations that can be configured for different roles as required, such a mission commander, UAV operators, JPR mission planner or additional force elements. The remaining station is the instructor/controller position.

The workstations use both screens and head-mounted displays for the virtual environment, depending on the role of the user.

TPRMS also has six generic workstations that can be configured for different roles required for a particular scenario. (Photo: EDA)

There are two options for after-action review (AAR). The simulation can be halted in mid-session to identify trainee mistakes and then rewound and replayed. Alternatively, the whole exercise can be recorded with a comprehensive debrief on completion.

Ciocirlan emphasised that a particular challenge of JPR is the need for force elements from different organisations to work together, using only radio communications. Providing realistic communications simulation, which can replicate the operational environment and introduce difficulties and interference, was particularly important, he said.

The final evaluation phase of the project will be conducted by running pilot courses over the next year. Ciocirlan said that each event was planned to be five days long, with two for familiarisation and three for tactical training.

The intention is to start with a scripted scenario and then increase training intensity by adding unexpected situations, such as hostile weather conditions, communications difficulties or an aggressive opposition.

Ciocirlan said that scenarios are being developed by the IAF simulation centre, which is co-located at Poggio Renatico. Instructors will be supplied by member states with JPR experience, he said, and in the first instance these will also come from Italy.

The outcome of the evaluation phase should be a TPRMS training package with a curriculum delivered by an organisation drawn from at least three member states.

Ciocirlan said that Italy has volunteered to be lead nation, and the training will be open to all participating EDA countries. He noted that trainees are ‘not coming to learn how to do [JPR] but to perfect their skills and practice working together’.

Overall the project cost was around €500,000, Ciocirlan said, not including the contribution in kind from Italy, which as lead and host nation had paid for installation, donated land and was covering the running costs. 

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