On-the-Move, Combined-Arms Training Available to Soliders.

Seeking to expand soldiers' access to simulation-based trainers, the U.S. Army is making investments in transportable training systems. Examples include a trailer-contained, combined-arms simulator and a deployable training device for helicopter pilots.

An interactive simulation for Army combined-arms training that has, for many years, been installed only at fixed sites now is becoming available to soldiers at their home bases, saving them the time and expense involved in traveling to permanent training facilities, industry officials said.

The close combat tactical trainer (CCTT) is part of a family of virtual, distributed interactive simulations for collective training--including armor, mechanized infantry, and cavalry units from platoon through battalion and squadron echelon. The goal is to teach the members of a platoon or a company how to fight together. The system also has a dismounted infantry capability.

The prime contractor is Lockheed Martin Information Systems, in Orlando, Fla. Last January, the company received a $34.6 million contract from the U.S. Army Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM), for production of 51 CCTT modules.

The work is scheduled to be completed by August 2001. Lockheed, so far, has delivered 225 CCTT systems and expects that number to reach 325 in the future.

Access to CCTT increases the frequency of training-unit collective tasks and accelerates the "learning curve to enhance actual field-based tralning," said Nick Guerra, Army project director at STRICOM.

The CCTT system is deployed at six sites: Fort Hood, Texas, Fort Knox, Ky., Fort Benning, Ga., Fort Stewart, Ga., Camp Casey, Korea, and Grafenwoehr, Germany. Additional modules are planned for installation in 2001, at Fort Carson, Colo., and Fort Riley, Kan. CCTT modules for the M1A1 Abrams tank and M2/M3 Bradley fighting vehicle have been deployed to the U.S. National Guard.

Troops typically undergo training in the CCTT before they engage in a major field exercise at ranges such as the National Training Center.

The program's original research and development contract--valued at $120 million--was awarded to Lockheed in 1992. It was for 38 simulators to be installed at Ft. Hood and two mobile platoon sets deployed with the Army National Guard. Then came a series of developmental contracts, leading to a $70 million low-rate, initial-production contract for 54 units awarded in 1998.

The United Kingdom is developing a counterpart system called U.K. CATT (Combined Arms Tactical Trainer). Lockheed Martin also is working on this program in partnership with the U.K. Ministry of Defence.

A deployable version of CCTT was part of the initial contract, said George Olson, a program executive at Lockheed Martin. There are currently six platoon sets of mobile trainers. They are customized 48-by 10-foot-long trailers, each being a two-person module, with its own power supply. The trailers have been moved around the United States but never overseas, Olson said in an interview.

The mobile CCTT, he explained, allows the Army to bring the training to the troops, so the troops don't have to travel to the fixed sites. A platoon set of mobile M1 Abrams training modules costs about $5 million. According to Olson, the mobile systems have the "same technology as the fixed site, the same configuration." One major difference is that the fixed site has an enclosure around it. In the mobile version, the trailer is the enclosure.

The company's CCTT contract is renewable on an annual basis, said Olson. The company currently is building trainers under a fiscal year 2000 contract, but no systems have been funded so far for fiscal year 2001, he said. The image generators are provided by Evans & Sutherland Corporation.

Image resolution is critical in CCTT-type trainers because the environment--with elements such as trees and vehicles--has to be simulated with high fidelity to appear real.

About a year ago, STRICOM awarded a contract to then-Raytheon Training Systems for an Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (AV-CATT), a reconfigurable simulator program valued at about $30 million. Raytheon Training was acquired by L-3 Communications Link Simulation & Training.

Reconfigurable simulators are those that can be adapted for training on more than one platform.

Bonnie Hirtle, program manager at STRICOM, said AVCATT "provides both active Army and National Guard aviation units with a realistic virtual combat training environment for helicopter pilots.

The system, she said, is "fully mobile, transportable." The Army's current plan is to have AVCATT suites "delivered to sites worldwide," said Hirtle.

The contract awarded to Link was for one development suite. There are options for building 17 additional suites, she noted.

The first suite currently is in development.

The reconfigurable simulator would be able to replicate the cockpits of the AH-64A Apache, AH-64D Longbow Apache, OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, UH-60A/L Blackhawk and CH-47D Chinook. A future contract option would incorporate the Army's next generation attack helicopter, the RAH-66 Comanche.

A Link Simulation spokesman declined to provide specifics on the AV-CATT program's current status.