New Training Concept Proves Successful at Army National Guard Exercise in Kentucky; SRI International and Cubic Corporation Help National Guard Test New Realistic Pre-Deployment Battlefield Training.MENLO PARK Menlo Park. 1 Residential city (1990 pop. 28,040), San Mateo co., W Calif.; inc. 1874. Electronic equipment and aerospace products are manufactured in the city. Menlo College and a Stanford Univ. research institute are there. 2 Uninc. , Calif. & SAN DIEGO San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. -- Prime contractor SRI International, in partnership with the defense segment of Cubic Corporation (AMEX AMEX See: American Stock Exchange :CUB), has joined the U.S. Army National Guard Bureau in successfully pioneering the eXportable Combat Training Capability (XCTC XCTC Exportable Combat Training Capability ), a new concept in pre-deployment battlefield training. SRI and Cubic helped the U.S. Army National Guard test and prove the effectiveness of the new concept during a major military exercise conducted June 15 to July 7 at the Wendell H. Ford Wendell Hampton Ford (born September 8, 1924) is an American politician from Kentucky who belongs to the Democratic Party. Ford was born in Owensboro, Kentucky. Ford served in the United States Army during World War II. Ford served as the top assistant to Governor Bert T. Regional Training Center near Greenville, Kentucky. XCTC is a cost-efficient option for delivering effective combat readiness training to National Guard and Army Reserve units at their home-station locations when time and money are limited. Approximately 500 members of the Kentucky Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 149th Infantry, participated in the exercises. As many as three additional exercises are planned for 2006, using technologies that participating soldiers called "the best training we've ever received." National Guard leaders also responded enthusiastically to the XCTC demonstration, highlighting the value of this new approach. "Our objective was to develop a home-station, fully instrumented, battalion field training exercise to replicate as nearly as possible the combat conditions experienced by our soldiers fighting in the contemporary operating environment," said Col. Ernie Audino, Chief, Training Division, Army National Guard Bureau (ARNG) in Washington, D.C. "The intent is to produce validated company proficiency in all ARNG combat units prior to their mobilization. This will reduce the post-mobilization time required to train the units to fight as components of larger, brigade operations." SRI provided advanced training technologies including GPS instrumentation that recorded positions of all military vehicles, soldiers and civilians on the battlefield, and two-dimensional and three-dimensional displays that allowed full replays of each training event. Under a subcontract, Cubic provided realistic battlefield effects including pyrotechnics pyrotechnics (pī'rōtĕk`nĭks, pī'rə–), technology of making and using fireworks. Gunpowder was used in fireworks by the Chinese as early as the 9th cent. , role players, civilians on the battlefield and close-up video recorded during mock encounters between U.S. forces and insurgents Insurgents, in U.S. history, the Republican Senators and Representatives who in 1909–10 rose against the Republican standpatters controlling Congress, to oppose the Payne-Aldrich tariff and the dictatorial power of House speaker Joseph G. Cannon. . The Kentucky National Guard's infantry training included scenarios replicating the contemporary operating environment in Iraq or Afghanistan, including ambushes, and cordon and search missions. SRI's System Serves as Nerve Center A mobile command and After Action Review (AAR Aar, river: see Aare. ) trailer from SRI's Deployable Force-on-Force Instrumented Range System (DFIRST) served as the "nerve center" for XCTC. The center's computers and digital communications displayed real-time data throughout the exercise recording position location for the soldiers, combat vehicles and civilians on the battlefield. Approximately 70 combat and combat support vehicles, and 300 soldiers and civilians, were equipped with DFIRST and IGRS IGRS Intelligent Grouping and Resource Sharing IGRS Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies (UK) IGRS image-guided radiosurgery IGRS Irish Genealogical Research Society (UK) (Integrated GPS Radio System) instrumentation units. SRI also employed technology developed by the Joint Training Experimental Program (JTEP JTEP Joint Range Extension TMPG Equipment Package (USAF) ), which included a simulated unmanned aerial vehicle A powered, aerial vehicle that does not carry a human operator, uses aerodynamic forces to provide vehicle lift, can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely, can be expendable or recoverable, and can carry a lethal or nonlethal payload. (UAV UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle UAV Unmanned Air Vehicle UAV Unmanned Aerospace Vehicle UAV Unmanned Airborne Vehicle UAV Uninhabited Air Vehicle UAV Urban Assault Vehicle UAV Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle (less common) ) that flies over the "battlefield." The UAV provided intelligence data on enemy forces, and software that converts two-dimensional electronic images into three-dimensional views of encounters between friendly and opposition forces. "This exercise demonstrates that it is possible to deliver a similar training experience to what active-duty personnel receive at Combat Training Centers (CTCs) -- anywhere, anytime, and at a reasonable cost," said Mike Boldrick, program director, SRI International's Engineering & Systems Division. Cubic Adds a Realistic Battlefield Environment Cubic provided experts in scenario development, role players, battlefield effects specialists, training analysts and a video crew. A core team of 15 experienced Cubic employees was augmented by approximately 130 part-time employees hired from the local community to portray civilians on the battlefield. Cubic has enhanced U.S. Army training through its contracts at key training sites such as the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and in key programs at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Cubic's training specialists are experts at replicating the contemporary operational environment U.S. forces experience while fighting today's war on terrorism Terrorist acts and the threat of Terrorism have occupied the various law enforcement agencies in the U.S. government for many years. The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, as amended by the usa patriot act in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Our guiding principle was to 'Make Every Training Day Count' by providing turnkey, on-demand training services, including the design of scalable scenarios that enable National Guard and Reserve units to make maximum use of limited training time and dollars," said Rick Hollar, director of Operations Support Group for Cubic's Training Services Division. About SRI International Silicon Valley-based SRI International (www.sri.com) is one of the world's leading independent research and technology development organizations. Founded as Stanford Research Institute Stanford Research Institute - Former name of SRI International. in 1946, SRI has been meeting the strategic needs of clients for nearly 60 years. The nonprofit research institute performs client-sponsored research and development for government agencies, commercial businesses and nonprofit foundations. In addition to conducting contract R&D, SRI licenses its technologies, forms strategic partnerships and creates spin-off companies. About Cubic's Training Services Division The Cubic Training Services Division is part of the Mission Support Business Unit of Cubic Defense Applications. The Cubic Defense Applications group, one of Cubic Corporation's two major segments, is a world leader in realistic combat training systems, mission support services support services Psychology Non-health care-related ancillary services–eg, transportation, financial aid, support groups, homemaker services, respite services, and other services and defense electronics. The corporation's other major segment, Cubic Transportation Systems, designs and manufactures automatic fare collection systems for public mass transit authorities. For more information about Cubic, see the company's Web site at www.cubic.com. |
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