A look across the so-called Navy Command Center of the Future, a prototype facility being built at the SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific in San Diego and which is intended to show senior decision makers in the Navy and other military services, what is possible when it comes to actionable working environments.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)SAN DIEGO--I have seen the future of military command centers, and it is small rooms with glass walls and video screens with built-in artificial intelligence.
That's probably a gross oversimplification, but those are certainly some of the elements on display at the Navy's Command Center of the Future, a prototype project currently under way at the Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center Pacific here.
For those not familiar with SPAWAR, it is a Navy laboratory tasked with "creating an unfair advantage for our war fighters," according to Jim Fallin, the facility's director of communications, that designs "systems, infrastructure, sensors and the means needed to create a fully netted combat force that operates and interlaces all the domains of warfare, from seabed to space."
With clients and partners that include the U.S. Army, Marines, and Air Force, as well as many universities and other institutions, SPAWAR is a growing--and hiring--research institution that aims to give America's military services "the ability to disrupt any adversary's ability to conduct warfare."
And given that these are the guys recently tasked with reworking the White House's famous Situation Room, they also seem like the right ones to take the traditional military command center--with huge rooms, row after row after row of desks with computers and huge video screens--and flip such environments on their head. In other words, SPAWAR has nothing short of a major assignment on its hands: to build the kind of center that will best serve the soldiers and decision makers of the future, all while minimizing the physical space necessary for such rooms and maximizing the use of technology.
Showcasing the technology of the future
The Command Center of the Future (CCoF), which has had a budget so far of a couple of hundred thousand dollars, first opened its doors just four months ago and is clearly not yet finished. But given that it's a prototype of the kinds of military action centers that are likely to be in use five or ten years down the line, it's probably best that the SPAWAR folks not rush to finish their work.
Upon entering what turns out to be a pretty small room deep inside a nondescript SPAWAR office building, visitors are greeted initially by a wall of military insignia and then by a dimly-lit, quiet, room with gleaming glass walls and banks of video screens installed behind the glass.
According to my host, SPAWAR research engineer Jeff Clarkson, who is leading the project, the CCoF has as one of its main purposes the highlighting and showcasing of the technologies of the future.
Notwithstanding the visit of a CNET News reporter, the typical visitor since the doors to the CCoF opened four months ago have included VIPs like Navy admirals, the secretary of the Navy, the chief of Naval Operations, and others eager to see the kinds of facilities likely to be featured on warships and in Department of Defense facilities a few years from now.
And the idea behind this room--which is far from operational--is to convey, in its small space, what a future command center may well look like, Clarkson said.
One clear goal of the CCoF is to show how military decision makers no longer need to be together in a single room in order to work on actionable intelligence, make strategic decisions, or communicate with subordinate personnel around the world. Rather, the room is designed to bring together those who need to be involved in discussions surrounding specific military engagements, regardless of whether they're local. Indeed, the room's very mission statement is to make it possible to rely on video teleconferencing and artificial intelligence in such meetings.
And while the CCoF is still in its early stages--its many video screens are still tuned to cable news channels rather than remote Navy locations--Clarkson and his team are hopeful that they will soon move to the next stage and build into the room the technologies that will showcase just how the people who will use it will interact with the tools of the future.
For example, while the video screens today are nothing more than TVs with shiny glass covers, they will soon feature multitouch overlays that will mean many of the glass surfaces will allow decision makers to manipulate data and other information simply by running their fingers over the glass, much as users of iPhones do today.
Similarly, while it's still in a presentation stage, the CCoF will be used for things like mocking up Flash representations of the control system of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) so that decision makers can see how much control they have over such assets from far across the world.
'The art of the possible'
Just after entering the room, visitors notice an area that is separated from the main space by its own set of glass walls. In normal circumstances, this is where to place junior staff members in front of a couple of computers.
But the idea behind this sub-room is to give decision makers a private, secure, place to go for classified discussions. And while it might initially be counter-intuitive to have such discussions in what at first appears much like a fish tank, Clarkson explained that in fact, that room is designed with glass that can automatically turn dark, as well as sound-proofing that can make it entirely secure.
And the point of this, Clarkson continued, is to make it possible for such senior officials to be able to huddle together for highly sensitive discussions without having to leave the command center, saving a great deal of time for everyone involved.
To be sure, this room inside this San Diego building is by no means a final product. In fact, even when future command centers are being constructed, they will likely have an infinite number of sizes and configurations that will match their surroundings: smaller rooms on Navy ships and larger ones inside Department of Defense buildings, Clarkson said.
But for now, as military VIPs show up to see the prototype, the idea is really to give them a sense of "the art of the possible," as Fallin put it.
Changing mission needs
Clarkson said that one of the major focuses of the CCoF is to prove that such an environment can be flexible and adaptable to "changing mission needs."
That means that the rooms need to be easily reconfigurable, something that is clear in how it was set up during my visit. On one side of the room, a group of eight chairs was set up as a place for seating junior staff while senior officials put their heads together at the main round-table.
But that configuration was just one way for the room to be presented, Clarkson said. And anyway, many of those who would take place in the kinds of discussions that would be centered in the room would be at remote locations, communicating via teleconference.
Yet Clarkson said even such virtual communication would be aided by the latest technologies. One such advance would be an implementation of artificial intelligence that would display, on the appropriate screens on the glass walls, documents being talked about by those on the screens.
In other words, Clarkson said, the CCoF would have AI meant to discern what is being talked about during a teleconference and to know how to source up whatever documents are needed as they're needed.
At the same time, the technology could also keep track of those on-screen and show, for the benefit of those in the room, little heads-up displays (HUDs) that identify each on-screen speaker.
And while the command centers of the future may be needed by senior officials to set strategy during specific action, they are also likely to be manned 24/7 by junior officials making sure that proper communications with supporting organizations are always under way.
Ultimately, Clarkson said, the state-of-the-art in command center workflow theory is built around the idea of flow. He explained that research has shown that decision makers think better if they can move around while they talk and that's why the CCoF here has been designed to allow such senior officials to walk and talk and never lose sight of those they're communicating with. In the past, by comparison, the experience has been much more sedentary, with officials coming in and sitting down at a table the entire time.
"We want to create a sense of guests and hosts being able to walk (around) together and still be discussing," said Clarkson. "They still have security and still have information, and they can look up something if (they) need it."
And while the command center of the past--like, say, the alternate command center of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)--has traditionally been a basketball court-size space with endless rows of desks, Clarkson said he hopes that the work being done on the CCoF will demonstrate that in the wars of the future, what's really needed is technology to bring dispersed people together so that they can discuss the important topics of the day, no matter where they are.
"We're just trying to show what's possible," Clarkson said, "what's coming down the pipeline, and what we envision the future to be."
This military equipment is based in Utah. The first person to tell me what and where it is wins a prize.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Update at 9:22 a.m. PDT: We have a winner. It's a BOMARC B--Boeing/Marc CIM-10B surface-to-air missile housed at the Hill Air Force Museum, near Ogden, Utah.
BOISE, Idaho--Out here on the highways of Colorado, Utah, and Idaho, I've seen a lot. I'm on Road Trip 2009 and making daily stops at military installations, national parks, small towns, big cities, energy research institutions, and more.
That means I take a lot of pictures, and every day from here until the end of Road Trip 2009, I'll be presenting you with one picture--and a challenge.
On Wednesday, I challenged you to identify the large yellow sphere, in the picture below, that's located in Arco, Idaho. In part it was because I wanted to know what my readers would think it was and, I'll be honest, it was also because I didn't know myself, and I wanted to. I got lots of responses. But, my dear readers, none of them seemed like the correct answer. So the prize for being the first to send me the right answer is still available.
What is this yellow sphere in Arco, Idaho? Tell me and you could win a prize.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Now, however, I'm offering up a picture that I do know the truth about. So in this case, I want to hear from you about what it is and where.
I'll give you a hint: it's a Cold War-era relic, clearly military, and currently located in Utah.
If you're the first person to send me the right answer, Thursday's prize is yours.
Please send your thoughts to daniel--dot--terdiman--at--cnet--dot--com, and include "Pic of the day" in the subject line. If you're the one, I'll get back to you.
Good luck.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
At the United States Air Force Academy on Thursday, 1,376 basic cadets arrived for initiation.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--"Get off my bus!"
As the door opened, those words exploded out and it seemed that everyone within a few hundred feet must have heard them. But there was no doubt the two or three dozen on board did, as they came scurrying off at high speed.
These were one busload of the 1,376 members of the United States Air Force Academy's class of 2013, and, less glamorously, the brand new basic cadets who had arrived here Thursday, many just weeks out of high school.
Accustomed to being on top of their respective worlds--they had high grades, top SAT scores, and were chosen from among nearly 10,000 applicants to the Academy--these men and women were now reduced to being screamed at by fellow students just two years ahead of them.
As part of Road Trip 2009, I was on hand Thursday for what is known as "in-processing," the initiation of the new class of students and I can tell you that the scenes from all those movies of drill sergeants yelling at new recruits at the top of their lungs, blood vessels bulging out of their necks, are not far from the truth.
But that was later in the day. First, the 1,300-plus new students had shown up, many with parents and brothers and sisters in tow, and as an observer, it was hard to tell any difference between that scene and what you'd see at any college's first day.
Yet there was a sense of nervousness and seriousness palpable in the air. It was clear these new students were aware that they were in for something that would take their lives in a new and extremely difficult direction.
But you have to think it's what they wanted.
"I'm feeling a little, I'd say, anxious, nervous, and excited," said Joel Starkey, 18, of Atlanta. "I wanted to fly since I was in about third grade, and I want to be an officer in the military. I want to commit myself to something bigger."
Nearby, an interesting scene was under way. Twin girls were huddled with their family, and when I approached them, I discovered that the girls, Catherine and Irene Joyce, 18 and from Omaha, Neb., were joining up, as was their first cousin, Molly Bush. It turned out that Bush's father was an Academy graduate, as was her sister.
For Catherine Joyce, her first day at the academy--and whatever indignities it might bring--were clearly stepping stones to a career she seemed very certain she wanted.
"It's exciting and I'm honored, and it's a privilege to be here," Joyce said. "I learned about (the Academy) by visiting and speaking with cadets and officers, and everyone in the Air Force told me the best way to become an officer was to come to the Academy."
On the bus
I was allowed to ride one of the buses away from the intake hall and toward the actual grounds of the Academy. Onboard, the basic cadets looked tight and nervous. One of the more senior cadets had gotten on behind them and immediately began barking out commands to quickly find a seat. He leaned over to me at one point and whispered that "it's about to get loud." And then, without warning to the basic cadets, he began screaming out commands, telling them exactly where to hold their hands, not to speak unless spoken to, that they must recite the seven basic--and only--responses to questions they were now allowed and more.
"Have I made myself clear?" he bellowed.
"Yes, sir," the basic cadets called out.
"Have I made myself clear?" he shouted even louder.
"Yes, sir," they responded.
Soon, a woman cadet in the back of the bus began her own shouting, snidely calling out the names of West Point, Annapolis, and the Officer Candidates School, the officer training grounds of, respectively, the Army, Navy, and Marines. "Nobody even comes close," she yelled. "We are the service academy for the last superpower on the face of the planet. You have made the right choice."
By now, the bus had stopped. We were at our destination. But the door hadn't opened yet.
"If any of you are not a person of absolute integrity, stay on my bus," the first cadet hollered. "If you are not willing to sacrifice for your nation, stay on my bus. If you accept the minimum as your own personal standard, stay on my bus. If you are not ready to give your best...stay on my bus. (And) you'd better be ready to live up to the legacy in front of you...and that begins right now!"
With that, the doors opened, and the veteran cadets screamed some more, now ordering the newbies off the bus at an even higher volume than before (see video below).
The freshmen grabbed their gear and hustled off the bus. They ran to where a cluster of blue-uniformed cadets were waiting in front of a large mat emblazoned with footprints for them to stand on.
A fresh veteran cadet stood in front of the group of newbies and shouted out his commands. That they were to keep their feet each at a 22.5 degree angle from their head, meaning that their feet would be open at a 45 degree angle; that their hands should be held, cupped, at their sides, with their thumbs even with the seams of their pants. And then he ordered his cadre of veteran cadets to "correct" any mistakes they saw in how the new cadets were standing.
This, of course, was their excuse to loudly, energetically, and enthusiastically rush around and berate the newcomers. One by one, it seemed, they would be singled out and screamed at for this or that mistake (see video below). I could tell the veteran cadets were enjoying this, finally their opportunity to shift forward their revenge for when this happened to them two years ago.
It went on for a while, and then, finally and mercifully, it stopped, and the new cadets were ordered to grab their gear and head off up a ramp to begin the next rounds of processing.
Box Boy
For many associated with the Air Force Academy, the most memorable basic cadet of the day--and maybe ever--was a tall brown-haired kid who emerged from the bus lugging a giant box on his shoulders. The scene was absurd, and he was immediately set upon by several of the cadre, who shouted out things like, "Are you kidding me," and, "Did you bring your Xbox and your TV?"
This new cadet will forever be known as 'Box Boy,' since he arrived with this giant box. The veteran cadets who welcomed him did so with insults, derision and incredulity.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Box Boy, as he quickly began to be called throughout the Academy, had clearly miscalculated, and not only would he likely never live down the shame of having brought this giant box with him, but he'd also have to spend the entire rest of the day carrying the box on his shoulders, as basic cadets have to lug their gear with them the entire first day.
Another basic cadet also had attracted a huge amount of attention from the group. At one point, I counted at least seven cadets circled around him, screaming at him and yelling and belittling him. I asked someone why he'd been singled out, and was told that this particular basic cadet had somehow let it be known that he planned on being the first man on Mars, and that his time at the Academy was little more than a brief stepping stone on his way to glory as an astronaut.
He may be right. But on this day, he was just fresh meat, and a prime target for ridicule.
From there, the new cadets went on through several more procedural steps toward actually joining the Air Force. They got immunized, they got haircuts, and then they had to take their formal oath (see video below) to the service. They gathered in a conference room, stood up, repeated the oath as recited to them by a woman officer who, when finished, said simply, "Congratulations, you're now in the Air Force."
Hard to believe it was three years ago
While waiting in the room where the men were getting their hair cut, I came across Cadet First Class--meaning, a senior--Frank Mercurio. He was talking about the new basic cadets and what they must be feeling.
"I think they're real scared, real worried about how hard it's going to be," Mercurio said. "It's going to be the hardest thing they've ever done in their lives up to this point...The first day is so overwhelming. You just get things thrown at you and you can fold up like a deck of cards, or carry through."
I asked him if any of the new cadets ever backed out, and he said that in fact he'd heard that just today, one had gotten off the bus, made it to the mat with the footprints, and "turned right back around and got back on the bus."
It turns out that a few dozen of the basic cadets will end up dropping out or leaving for one reason or another, but most will stick it out and eventually become Air Force officers.
But all that seems so far away when, for the first time, they're sitting in a barber's chair, having their hair shaved off.
I stood and watched as several of the kids went under the razor, going from shaggy-headed to buzz-cut. And then, as one of them got up to leave, his barber, a cheery, flamboyant woman named Hannah Love, said, "Oh, look at how cute you are. Bye."
Correction at 7:10 a.m. PDT: The name of the Marines officers school has been fixed
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation, and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
VICE, from Dynamic Animations System, gives Army recruits a way to learn how to handle themselves in combat situations before they venture onto physical training grounds. Those who have gone through the VICE training seem to do better than those who haven't in head-to-head situations.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)Updated at 8:20 p.m. PDT to correct name of the M1A1 trainer to Abrams.
FORT BENNING, Ga.--There must be a million ways the U.S. Army trains its newest infantry recruits, but when CNET News.com comes to town to do a story, the service rolls out the latest digital simulators.
Not long after I arrived at this giant military installation near Columbus, Ga., for one of my last stops on Road Trip 2008, I was escorted into a building to see VICE, the Virtual Interactive Combat Environment trainer. It's a system from Dynamic Animation Systems that puts recruits through what the Army hopes is a realistic set of battle-like exercises designed to get them ready for physical training later on.
It's hard not to mistake VICE for a big video game, since it runs on several large digital screens on which you can see animated battles that would look very familiar to anyone familiar with most any modern war game, especially those that are multiplayer.
When I walked in the room, a squad of soldiers was playing with VICE, each one with their own station.
The idea is that a drill sergeant can take a squad through various battle scenarios using the simulator, and each soldier will see their own avatar in the digital mission, as well as those of his squadmates, and working with a weapon that includes an Xbox-like controller. At least those, that is, who each would be able to see if they were on a battlefield in real life.
At the same time, the sergeant has access to a set of screens that can show him everything that's going on with the squad, in real time. This way, he can see exactly how each soldier is doing in the scenario training and, later, use what has been learned to help each recruit work on what he needs to do better.
Because it's digital, VICE (see video below) allows the Army to change up almost any imaginable variable: Terrain, enemy strength, whether it's Iraq or Afghanistan or almost anything else. Indeed, the system allows for running through digital versions of real-life missions.
All of this is aimed at two major things. First, getting new soldiers familiar with how to work together as a team before they ever set foot on a real-life training battlefield. And second, getting the recruits to that point without having to use any ammunition, which can be quite expensive.
Further, it can help insulate them against the shock of something like an IED--improvised explosive device--which is hard to do on a training battlefield. And even as I watched, the room shook with a loud boom as an "IED" was set off in the middle of the mission.
According to those who have used VICE, it is a great tool, even if it looks more like something you'd find in a video arcade than a high-level military training system.
"You can always tell the difference between" those who have used VICE and those who haven't, a private told me. That's because, he said, VICE-trained soldiers have better communications skills, both verbal and nonverbal.
But not every new Army recruit is getting access to VICE. Rather, it's limited to a single battalion at Fort Benning right now, due to budget constraints.
Finished with VICE, I was taken to another simulator on the base that is being used to help raw recruits with their efficiency.
This one was called the Engagement Skills Trainer, or EST.
At Fort Benning, two soldiers use the Engagement Skills Trainer, or EST, a simulator that helps soldiers learn shooting fundamentals without having to fire actual weapons.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)Here Sgt. Darren Shavers demonstrated how the Army is using digital technology to help thousands of new soldiers become better marksmen and markswomen.
EST is a large-scale system that can accommodate up to 15 soldiers at once in training exercises designed to help them with their marksmanship, teamwork, and rules of engagement responses, otherwise known as "shoot/don't shoot."
Essentially, EST is a digital firing range. On one side of a long, dark room, a soldier lay on the floor, aiming a machine gun at a large screen with targets on the opposite end.
He fired several shots, which retorted loudly, but which weren't actually live-fire.
On the screen, however, Shavers was able to punch a few keys on his computer, and up popped a large-scale version of the soldier's target, showing how accurate he'd been.
With EST, the Army can learn exactly how accurate they're being, even down to how long they hold their triggers, how much they move their guns before and after they shoot, and whether they aim from the left or the right.
The idea is to drill fundamentals into the recruits, trying to get them to do things the same way every time, again without having to put them onto real training fields before they're ready.
Similarly, EST can be used to work on scenarios in which soldiers have to make split-second decisions based on the Army's rules of engagement. As Shavers put it, this way, recruits can screw up without having to be court-martialed for shooting a civilian by accident.
EST also helps teams of soldiers learn how to work together, since they can run through scenarios in groups--again, things that would be hard to do with traditional training exercises, Shavers said.
My last stop of the day was to the CCTT, or Close Combat Tactical Trainer. This facility at first looked like it just featured a bunch of large, nondescript yellow boxes and little more.
But look closer, and each of the yellow boxes contained a trainer for one kind of armored vehicle or another.
The idea here is that each trainer is equipped to look and feel almost exactly like the corresponding real vehicle.
That way, after a soldier has spent time in, say, the M1A1 Abrams trainer, they should feel right at home in a real M1A1 Abrams.
The inside of an M1A1 tank simulator at Fort Benning. The simulator, part of the CCTT, or Close Combat Tactical Trainer, gives soldiers a way to experiment with being inside a vehicle in such a way that everything is set up inside exactly how it would be in the real version.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)This is a common training system. NASA uses it for Space Shuttle crews, for example. The idea is to get people used to being in a vehicle, knowing where all the flips and switches are, how to use the weapons systems, and how to share the tiny spaces with fellow soldiers--all without having to deal with the reality of incoming fire.
You'd never know what was inside the big yellow boxes, of course, if you weren't told, but inside, you'd think you were in a real tank. And that's just the idea.
Plus, each of the training simulators is tied together through a networked computer system so groups of soldiers can run through exercises as if they were on a real battlefield, and a "commander" can put them through their paces, monitoring and measuring everything they do.
It's very much like what goes on with VICE and EST, and if one theme came out of my day at Fort Benning, it's that the Army is very much into using these kinds of systems as a way of increasing efficiency and saving a lot of money on the ammunition that would otherwise have to be expended during training.
This way, by the time these soldiers get their hands on live weapons, they actually know what they're doing, whereas generations of previous recruits were tasked with learning how to use real weapons on real training grounds.
And that's not to say that the old way wasn't good. But the Army clearly believes that there's a future in digital training.
Now, if only it can use digital systems to overcome 18-year-olds' natural aversion to authority and sense that they can do no wrong. Then technology would really be on to something.
A map of Baghdad that shows various areas of that war-torn city is used as part of the Lockheed Martin simulation and training facility's Incident Management System. This allows commanders to put soldiers through scenario training that tasks them with solving unexpected problems.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)ORLANDO, Fla.--I'm sitting at the controls of an F-35 Lightning II and my missiles are locked in on a couple of nearby enemy fighters.
I fire twice, and off shoot a couple of missiles, screaming toward their target. Victory is mine. As long as I don't lose control of my own fighter and go plummeting into the ground.
I grip the controls and struggle back toward the aircraft carrier I launched from. The voice in my left ear becomes a little alarmed as I approach the landing strip and just about as I'm about to cartwheel into the sea, I manage to land.
Despite vanquishing my foes, the militaries of the world are probably lucky that I won't be fouling their skies anytime soon.
And of course, no one actually let me get behind the rudder of any eight-figure planes. Rather, I spent part of my Thursday at Lockheed Martin's Simulation, Training and Support facility here, getting a look at some of the latest military training equipment being employed today.
This was my latest stop on Road Trip 2008, during which I'm driving around the South writing stories on some of the region's most interesting destinations, attractions and technology.
As it happens, Orlando is home to some of the world's leading simulation technology, and that's largely due to the fact that the U.S. military has a huge training presence here. And that's why Lockheed Martin's predecessor, Martin Marietta, set up shop here in the 1960s.
Today, Lockheed's Orlando simulation facility is a giant campus with some of the widest hallways I've ever seen. And because it is playing host to training technology that is intended to help soldiers heading off to Iraq perform better, it has seen nearly 100,000 military personnel come through and partake of its simulation facilities.
Because this Lockheed outpost contracts its services to both the U.S. and some foreign governments, as well as other "customers," and performs more then 300 simulation systems demonstrations a year, it employs three dedicated systems engineers, as well as 52 strategic product engineers and 20 others who help out in various capacities, according to senior systems engineer Joe Freeman.
One screen of three that are part of the Lockheed Martin combat leadership environment (CLE) training simulation system. This is designed to help commanders teach platoons and batallions how to perform their daily missions.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)One of the first things Freeman showed me was an array of three connected computer monitors attached to a simulation system known as the Combat Leadership Environment (CLE). This, he explained, is used to put soldiers into the middle of daily missions and helps commanders teach them how to move through those missions while encountering unexpected difficulties.
"We try to stress them out," Freeman said. "If they're doing well," we can make the situations harder.
The idea, essentially, is to train soldiers to think on their feet and to follow proper standard operating procedure, even when confronted with scary or stressful conditions.
"As he goes through," Freeman said, speaking of a soldier, "they throw curveballs at him. As he drives around (in the simulated city) they can throw things at him, like mortar (attacks). That kind of adds to the stress level....We're not trying to teach them what to think. We're trying to teach them how to think."
Next, Freeman demonstrated GUSS, the generic unmanned supervisory segment, which puts military personnel in the position of controlling unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the drones that fly over war zones, attacking under the direction of someone behind a computer far away.
Using what's known as a situational awareness view, a soldier can control as many UAVs as they can comfortably monitor. And the system allows the UAV's director to see both the vehicle's planned flight path, as well as what's in its visual path.
A situational awareness view gives a commander the ability to see both the planned flight path of a UAV and the view in front of it as it flies.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)Next up, I was ushered into the seat of a simulated Apache helicopter cockpit. I thought someone would show me how it works, but instead, I was told to "fly" the helicopter around a digital Baghdad, searching for enemy trucks to shoot.
Given my past performance at various flight simulators, I was sure that the very first thing that would happen would be that I would crash the Apache.
Instead, under Freeman's patient tutelage, I managed to keep the helicopter afloat for a while. He instructed me on using a pair of foot pedals to keep the aircraft from spinning out of control and in using a pair of joysticks to maintain a steady altitude and speed.
An Apache helicopter training simulator. I was allowed to try to fly the Apache, attacking ememies on the ground and then attempting, without much success, to land it.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)I seemed to be doing OK, with Freeman praising my flying, until he told me try to land it. Disaster.
As I got closer to the ground, as displayed on the computer screens in front of me, the Apache accelerated, and terra firma seemed to be approaching faster and faster. As Freeman exhorted me to recover, I crashed. Not good.
No matter. Except for the little problem with landing, Freeman said I had done well. My head swelled, and I think I'm ready to fly Apache missions now. Or perhaps not.
Then, it was on to the F-35 Lightning II. More of the same. I did well enough to earn a few compliments from the kind folks who held my hand through the simulation.
Another system Freeman showed me was the so-called Deployable Virtual Training Environment.
The Deployable Virtual Training Environment is a system run with off-the-shelf computer components that allows Marines to work on skills that can degrade while not in the field.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)This, explained Freeman, is a system built from off-the-shelf computer components that is designed to give Marines a way to work on their combat skills while not in the field. It works by putting them through the paces of various battle scenarios involving any combination of friendly and enemy vehicles, weapons systems, and aircraft.
The last simulator I was shown was the Virtual Combat Convoy Trainer, a faux-Hummer housed in a room surrounded almost entirely by big screens on which is projected a digital representation of an on-the-ground scenario in Iraq.
I was curious about this, but then I was instructed to climb into the Hummer and to grab a real M-4 rifle. I was told to lean out the window and shoot the rifle at Iraqis that appeared on the screen. This was a very strange instruction for me to follow, given my feelings about war and guns, but I decided to pretend I was in a video game.
After all, that is pretty much what this was: a video game that just happens to have a slightly more meaningful purpose than, say, Call of Duty 4.
After a couple of minutes, I was told to climb into the turret of the Hummer and to fire away with the machine gun on top. It took me a minute to get the hang of that, but pretty soon I was blasting away at a series of enemy soldiers on-screen, mowing them down with ease. This was a very strange situation.
Even stranger, perhaps, was when one of the Lockheed Martin staffers climbed up on top with me and told me to pose in one of those iconic photos where soldiers grin and brandish their weapons. I put on my best smile and looked at the camera.
Before I left the Lockheed Martin facility, program manager and senior training systems analyst Steven Tourville came in and talked about what he said really differentiates the company from its competitors: an emphasis not just on giving soldiers the best technology, but on what he called Human Performance Engineering.
This is the philosophy that, since soldiers have been given more and more complex weapons, vehicular, and other systems to work with while in combat situations, they have a harder and harder time mastering them and therefore, are becoming more and more overwhelmed when in the field.
As a result, Lockheed Martin is emphasizing repeated practice in simulation environments with plenty of accompanying feedback. And that, Tourville said, has traditionally been the missing link.
"We acknowledge that technologies are great for training, but they may not always be the answer," Tourville said. "We're trying to improve the performance of the human."
As Road Trip 2008 continues, please be sure to follow my progress on this blog, as well as on Twitter and on my Qik channel.
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