National Guard units train without leaving home.

With National Guard units stretched across California, bringing them together for training is a costly endeavor. "Troops often have to be bused from Sacramento or San Diego to Camp San Luis Obispo, along the state's central coast.

An experimental training technology now being introduced allows the Guard to integrate live and virtual combat training environments without having to move troops and equipment hundreds of miles.

The Joint Training Experimentation Program (JTEP) eventually could let the California Army National Guard hold joint training with its Air Guard counterparts, something that is tough to do now, said Maj. Gen. Peter Monroe, adjutant general of the California National Guard.

The Deployable Force on Force Instrumented Range System (DFIRST) is the initial live instrumentation component system for JTEP. It is a comprehensive instrumented training system for armored ground combat maneuver and gunnery exercises. National Guard units in California, Idaho, Kentucky and Mississippi currently use it, according to Chris Terndrup, program director for instrumentation and simulation with SRI International.

SRI International developed both JTEP and DFIRST for the California National Guard.

In May 2003, the Guard held its first live demonstrations of JTEP, at Camp San Luis Obispo and Camp Roberts, both about 50 miles apart. The technology allowed military units to train together on an artificial battlefield where virtual and live armored units engaged each other.

"Simply put, JTEP is a program that integrates the live, virtual and constructive training environments to allow units to train as complete units, but at substantially reduced costs and reduced travel time," said California National Guard JTEP program manager, Col. John Bernatz. "Those benefits result in increased training time."

Live exercises include real soldiers, vehicles and environment; only the weapons are simulated. Virtual simulation uses real soldiers, but everything else is simulated. In constructive simulation, everything is simulated with the possible exception of a few participants.

Exercises at Combat Training Centers and those conducted with DFIRST are examples of live simulations. Virtual simulations include the Close Combat Tactical Trainer (CCTT) and flight simulators. Constructive simulations include the Joint Conflict and Tactical Simulation (JCATS).

"The outcomes of JTEP allow a unit to link all three environments into the same exercise. Everybody trains as a team at the same time, on the same terrain, with the same scenario, against the same operational force," said Bernatz. "[Live, virtual and constructive] integration-which is the outcome of JTEP--overcomes the shortfalls of stovepiped training."

At the May demonstration, the California National Guard used a Humvee to simulate a tank platoon. The friendly force initially moved in, traveling overwatch until it reached a particular point after which enemy contact was likely. So the friendly forces changed movement technique to bounding overwatch until they achieved enemy contact.

"We used a small [operational force] comprised of two [Humvees] guised as T-72s and one guised as a BTR (an amphibious Russian Army armored personnel carrier)," Bernatz said. "Additionally there were constructive [operational forces] on the field, represented by a series of pop up targets used to simulate a live response to the constructive enemy entities."

The constructive targets were able to return fire in JCATS, and successfully attack friendlies, just as the friendlies engaged both live and constructive enemy, he added.

"Behind the moving friendly live force, there was the remainder of the battalion, represented constructively, who then in JCATS, engaged and destroyed the remainder of the enemy force, also constructively replicated," Bernatz said.

JTEP can also conduct battalion-level exercises more cost effectively, said John Shockley, SRI's senior research engineer.

DFIRST allows the tracking of live entities in a constructive simulation. As a battlefield system, DFIRST permits assessment of direct and indirect fire, allows for resolution of engagements and the tracking of individuals, it is also easier to mount on vehicles than earlier systems, and does not require detailed bore sighting and zeroing processes, officials said. DFIRST allows a unit to "guise" systems differently, said Bernatz.

"Thus, it is possible for a tank or [mechanized] company commander to train leaders using Humvees with DFIRST guised as M1A1 tanks," he said.

Bernatz said troops had to go through some degree of training on the JCATS constructive simulation. "But that is simple enough to do and relatively inexpensive."

DFIRST also required a learning curve, he added. "It's not overly complex, and contractor support is likely to remain available for the foreseeable future to make all that work effectively."

The difficulty may come in convincing troops that DFIRST really works. A unit "can train over extended distances on existing communications infrastructure using personal computers in the home station armory," said Bernatz.

"This will be a new experience for our soldiers, but they will accept it and be glad they have it once they see it work," he added.

But Bernatz doesn't believe that simulators will replace live training.

"Ultimately, there is no substitute for live training, for getting soldiers and units ready for war. Commanders from the recent Iraqi war confirm this," he said. "Live training must remain the capstone series of training events soldiers undergo prior to deployment for combat, for peacekeeping or for other missions."

Virtual training linked with live events does allow a greater "bang for the buck, once the entire unit trains live against a full up thinking, interactive opposing force," said Bernatz.

"The more units can conduct simulations and virtual training, the likelier they are to be successful at the live, and ultimately, at the real events," he said. "Linking live, virtual, and constructive training enhances the training value of the live event and makes it significantly more successful because the units can run multiple events prior to engaging in live training."

In December 2002, SRI won a $3 million contract to develop a combat readiness training system for the California Army National Guard. Initially, there were a number of challenges in creating JTEP, according to Shockley.

"First, we needed to determine the systems that we would link and how we would link them," he said.

The systems had to be owned by the California National Guard or available to it, Shockley added. The systems also needed an interface capability, so that they could be linked for the JTEP exercises, he said.

Once the systems were selected, SRI had to determine a way to integrate DFIRST for the live component, CCTT for the virtual components and JCATS for the constructive component, said Shockley.

SRI encountered some other glitches. Initially, they had problems connecting DFIRST to GuardNet (the Army National Guard's wide area network linking all 50 National Guard commands) over a wireless LAN (local area network) in the first demonstration, he said. But a back-up link provided the needed connectivity.

"There were also some concerns that we had in using GuardNet as our connecting network," he said. One issue was having sufficient bandwidth between sites and reliable communications between systems. Because SRI's offices are in Menlo Park, several hundred miles north of the Guard's San Luis Obispo facilities, the interoperability system had to be tested over the Internet, said Shockley.

"As a result, we identified early the issues associated with a non-dedicated network and came up with a solution before this could impact the [demonstration] configuration," he said.

There also have been issues with scheduling the second demonstration, because of deployments that are becoming more common for Guard units, he said.

"These deployments have served to re-emphasize the need for JTEP to provide training to them while in their deployed locations," Shockley said.

A second demonstration was scheduled for August, but that has since been moved to December.

Guard units that participated in the May demonstration were selected based upon their type of training and their availability to support the exercise, said Shockley. Armor training is the focus that JTEP has chosen for initial demonstrations. Plans call for JTEP to eventually be available to Guard units across the country. That could prove a big financial benefit for Guard units as states struggle to balance their budgets.

"It will be a tremendous cost savings," said Monroe, "because it will eliminate the need to travel."