MILES is widely used by the US and allied nations, but only supports a limited number of weapon systems and cannot replicate real-world ballistics using its laser-based approach. (Photo: US Army)
No more lasers? Rethinking live infantry training with realistic ballistics
Widely used in tactical engagement training, laser-based systems such as MILES have always struggled to replicate essential aspects of small arms fire. A key element of the US Army’s flagship synthetic training enterprise could be about to change all that.
Lockheed Martin utilised the 2024 AUSA Annual event to provide an update on its work supporting the Live Training Systems (LTS) pillar of the US Army’s Synthetic Training Environment (STE). One of the force-on-force training demonstrations involved the introduction of new geo-pairing technologies to replace the current laser-based MILES training system... Continues below
This analysis article originally appeared in October's Decisive Edge Military Training Newsletter.
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David Cogdall, a business development representative for ground training at the company, noted that an army infantry battalion currently has 16 different weapon systems that it can employ. Pointing to his own 25 years of active duty with a high number of Combat Training Center (CTC) rotations, he said that ‘only six or seven’ of those systems can currently be used in training with MILES.
‘However, with a Weapon Orientation Module [WOM] for geo-pairing, we will be able to bring all those weapon systems to bear in either a home station training environment or at a CTC,’ he said.
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Lockheed Martin demonstrated the capabilities of its geo-pairing Weapon Orientation Module at the recent AUSA Annual event. (Photo: author)
Cogdall added that this solution will eliminate the Small Arms Transmitter (SAT) as well as the ‘halo and harness’ of laser receptors used with MILES, noting that soldiers were enthusiastic about the fact that ‘the only thing they'll have on their weapon is our Weapon Orientation Module’.
Dan Hyatt, chief engineer for land training at Lockheed Martin, explained that MILES ‘engagements’ are a physics-based event, where the laser comes out of the weapon and hits a receptor.
‘But lasers don’t act like real bullets,’ he said. ‘They go way too fast. They only go in a straight line. And they stop when anything gets in their way, a leaf, a twig, anything. So we are bringing a higher realism with the Weapon Orientation Module. It's about half the weight of the SAT that goes on the weapon today. And this module is how we're tracking that rifle at all times in a Synthetic Training Environment.’
In addition to monitoring the orientation of the weapon, the WOM also allows the establishment of proper ballistics.
‘So now, when I've got a target 200 metres away that's running, I have to lead that target, because we're going to fly out the ballistic trajectory in a virtual world with proper timing and a proper ballistic drop,’ Hyatt added. ‘And it's going to penetrate the objects that it should penetrate and not penetrate what it shouldn't penetrate, because we can simulate that in our synthetic environment. When all the soldiers are running around, we see them in our synthetic world.’
Lockheed Martin has partnered with Epic Games on the project, using the latter’s Unreal Engine 5: ‘That’s what we pour over into that gaming tech to be able to manage all the physics.’
Hyatt continued: ‘We can put the same exact piece of [WOM] hardware onto any weapon. So now, for example, we can bring an M320 grenade launcher into the fight. So instead of having the soldier running around in collective training only using their secondary weapon, we put this on and, with software, we say: “You're no longer an M4 [carbine] now you're an M320.”
‘So now that [grenade] fly-out is a parabola. And it's going to land where it should land and apply a blast radius to any soldiers in that area… applying whatever damage we want to apply to them.’
Hyatt also pointed to new possibilities in battlefield visualisation: ‘From the instructor’s point of view, we will have a wealth of data. By comparison, with a laser-based system today, you can hear 300 shots go off. You can see several people have been hit. But you have no idea what actually happened, unless you instrument the range and look back at camera feeds. But in the synthetic environment, we can put that virtual “God's eye” cam anywhere for watching the engagement happening live and for playback.
‘So why did XYZ happen? Why did we think the [Blue Force] was going to annihilate the [Opposing Force] when they got to this area? What actually happened with the soldiers? How are they moving? How are they aiming their weapons? All that data is available and can be visualised.
He continued: ‘Beyond that, now we have different metrics that we can be tracking - who was in your line of sight at what times? What was the shot that you could have taken but you didn't take? Now that we're in a virtual world, we have all that data to time how long it takes soldiers to put their barrel on target and how long it takes to pull the trigger. There's a wealth of training information to help our squads, our companies and our battalions become more lethal.’
Hyatt and Cogdall explained that Lockheed Martin has been investing R&D funding into the technology that tracks the rifle as well as prototyping with the US Army under OTA (Other Transaction Authority) contracts.
‘We are part of the STE LTS solution, where we are on a direct-fire OTA, and we're also on a counter-defilade OTA, where we've been downselected as the preferred vendor,’ Cogdall said.
Hyatt added that other evolving efforts are exploring application of geo-pairing technology to ground vehicles, such as the M3 Bradley, where it could enhance the CVTESS (Combat Vehicle Tactical Engagement Simulation System) laser-based engagement system.
Comment
A system using less hardware than MILES, offering inter alia ‘real world’ ballistics and detailed scope for after-action review looks set to address many of the shortcomings of current tactical engagement training technology. The next challenge will be moving it from the developmental stage to volume production and roll-out.
The system can only be truly effective if all participants in a scenario or exercise are using it, and there will almost inevitably be a transition phase where some facilities or units will continue to field legacy MILES equipment, potentially leading to two different tiers of training within the overall force.
As MILES is arguably an international ‘standard’ across Western militaries, once its replacement has been matured and fielded in the US, global adoption of geo-pairing may take some time, especially in nations facing budgetary constraints.
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