Virtual Flight Trainer Gets Gesture Control
LONDON — The third generation of the Flight Deck Officer Training System (DECKsim) features gesture recognition that can train officers to guide helicopters using natural movements.
- Jan. 10, 2013
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LONDON — The third generation of the Flight Deck Officer Training System (DECKsim) features gesture recognition that can train officers to guide helicopters using natural movements.
“Everybody play nice” is no longer just a phrase for schoolchildren. Interoperability is the buzzword hanging over heads throughout the training and simulation industry. If your sim hasn’t proven that it can talk politely to others and run without breaking things, it won’t be welcome in the military.
U.S. military forces are among the best-trained, best-equipped in the world. But like many government programs, training budgets could be subject to spending freezes and even cutbacks as Congress and the administration work to contain record deficits.
The start of a new year is when many of us resolve to do better in the coming 12 months (or fiscal year, whichever works for you). With that in mind, TSJ has a few suggestions for resolutions that the Pentagon should make:
Data farming is not all that new, but it is still not well-understood, even in the operations research and modeling and simulation communities. But as researchers come to understand it, they come to love it.
For all their sophistication, vehicle and flight simulators are relatively self-contained systems — trainees are basically sitting in a box. That won’t fly for training dismounted infantrymen.
It takes a lot to make a simulator run. The databases of information, the instrumentation panels, even the seats are all engineered to match reality as closely as possible. But in the end, the projected image is what the trainees stare at.
As the Air Force adapts to the end of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and flat defense budgets, the commander of the Air Education and Training Command is looking to revolutionize the way the service approaches training.
LONDON — UK chemical warfare training simulator specialist Argon Electronics will supply Canadian forces with a range of training systems after a $6.6 million contract was placed via Argon’s Canadian representatives, Patlon Aircraft & Industries.
Simulation can be sexy: the excitement of explosions as a Humvee navigates a market, smooth barrel rolls in a jet flying over sprawling Italian countryside, immersive worlds for deskbound target practice. But most people’s eyes stop at the visuals and forget what lies beneath. All of the beautiful rendering in the world doesn’t do a lick of good without the data to power it.
No revolution is painless, not least the mobile one. Smartphone and tablet sales are outpacing those of desktop and laptop computers, the U.S. military is embracing apps and the face of humanity appears glued to tiny screens.
Research into laser protection for pilots has led to better computer modeling of how to protect soldiers from IED blast effects.
U.K. defense services contractor Serco is using a new simulator to train tug masters and pilots in the U.K.’s main naval ports. These azimuth stern drive tugs use 360-degree rotatable thrusters to navigate ships safely in and out of port.
Microsoft hopes its popular Kinect gaming accessory will score with veterans who need physical therapy.
At a military-dominated training technology conference like I/ITSEC, one would expect the winners of a serious games contest to be, well, military.
A combination of tight budgets and increased scrutiny on conference spending knocked attendance at the world’s largest training and simulation conference down about 15 percent from last year.
CAE is offering a new unmanned aerial systems mission trainer.
ORLANDO — An inescapable theme at this year’s largest training and simulation conference was the need for more space for training. With shrinking — or at the very least, shifting — operational fields and a resurgence of home-station training, trainers are looking for a way to create a larger, equally immersive virtual world that is bigger than the one in their backyards.
ORLANDO — In the midst of a flashy I/ITSEC floor full of simulators running high-definition visuals, one product hearkened back to a simpler era of wargaming.
ORLANDO — The winners in the six categories of the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge (SGS&C) were announced Dec. 5 at the 2012 Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) here. Picked from a field of 18 announced in late October, and including the Business and Student standouts unveiled at Australia’s inaugural SGS&C at SimTecT in June, the winners are:
ORLANDO — Several companies at this year’s I/ITSEC conference are hoping that the government will embrace enhanced visual systems for training. Various types of augmented and virtual reality are on display, with developers hoping for further military interest despite tight budgets.
Boeing has won a $56 million contract to maintain training simulators for six types of Navy aircraft, the first in what the company sees as a segue into further contracts to maintain simulators for Navy maritime patrol aircraft.
LONDON — The quality of aircrew training among NATO’s European members is holding up despite the strains on defense budgets from the continent’s ongoing financial crisis, a senior British analyst said.
An Army Training & Doctrine Command directive warns Army training centers against using unauthorized games, simulators and other training aids.
In a major shake-up of the American-led combat mission in Afghanistan, up to eight newly designed units — dubbed security force assistance brigades (SFABs) — will replace an equal number of Army brigade combat teams (BCTs) across the east and south of the country by next spring, bringing a new focus to the training and advising mission while pushing Afghans to take the lead in security operations.
Marines who go through Hawaii’s Infantry Immersion Trainer will see significant changes to match the Corps’ new focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
With the Air Force forced to find savings amid a tough fiscal climate, some units have been forced to focus on cheaper, local training to keep up to speed instead of taking part in massive exercises internationally. Several units on the East Coast have started doing this monthly with Exercise Razor Talon.
LONDON – Shrinking U.K. defense budgets may cause the armed services to outsource their electronic warfare (EW) training to private industry, according to one training company.
Now that the U.S military and its contractors are preparing to fight a zombie war, it seems a good time to examine a zombie wargame.
As head of the U.S. Army’s Brigade Modernization Command, Brig. Gen. Randal Dragon is one of the service’s point men when it comes to biannual network integration evaluation (NIE) exercises. So when he says, “we’re really at a start point” with where the service wants to go with the event, it’s a significant statement.
The arrival of Yak-130 advanced jet trainers is ushering in a new chapter of fast jet training for the Russian air force.
The Irish Air Corps is seeking helicopter simulator time to provide initial and recurrent training for its Eurocopter EC135 twin-engine light helicopters.
Weapons have changed drastically over the last 30 years, but the cameras on Army test ranges have not. So the Army is preparing to upgrade the kineto-tracking mounts — the squat turrets that look like R2-D2 from Star Wars, if cameras were mounted on his head.
As the Army and Marine Corps begin to plan for the long, uncertain transition away from wartime force rotations and rapid-equipping strategies, they’re casting a wary eye at the platform-hungry Air Force and Navy, which argue that their long-rage capabilities are what’s needed for the new emphasis on the Pacific.
German conglomerate Rheinmetall Defence plans to increase its presence in the Asia-Pacific region with the creation of a new business unit, Rheinmetall Simulation Australia.
Bonn — Thales Germany and Transas Marine International have agreed to develop and market a system that can create a virtual simulation of an entire warship for training purposes, according to both companies.
The Marine Corps wants to enhance its jungle warfare training program and make it more accessible to units based in the continental U.S.
The U.S. Army will soon begin fielding new technology that allows units to conduct live, virtual and constructive training at the same time.
NEW DELHI —Conventional war in an urban setting, including counterterrorism and counterinsurgency activities, is the focus of Harimau Shakti, the first-ever joint exercise between the Indian and Malaysian militaries, an Indian Army official said.
BANGKOK — The United States plans to invite Myanmar to a major regional military exercise next year, host country Thailand said Oct. 19, reflecting a dramatic easing of tensions between the former foes.
The cardinal mistake in military history has always been mirror-imaging: the assumption, often colored by wishful thinking, that your enemy will conveniently devise the same goals, strategy and tactics as you do. But this doesn’t just apply to enemies. Even allies frequently misperceive each other.
JERUSALEM — U.S. troops and equipment have begun arriving in Israel ahead of what a senior air force officer on Oct. 17 called “the largest exercise in the history of the longstanding military relationship between the U.S. and Israel.”
In September, CAE won a batch of military contracts in the Middle East, Asia and U.S. with a total value of about $200 million Canadian ($205 million).
NEW DELHI — Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony and his Indonesia counterpart, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, met Oct. 16 to discuss joint training, and possible co-production and sales of military equipment.
TOKYO — Japan and the United States are mulling a joint military drill to simulate retaking a remote island from foreign forces, reports said, amid a festering row between Tokyo and Beijing over disputed islets.
PRAGUE — Iraq will buy 28 Czech-made L-159 training jets valued at $1 billion (770 billion euros), Czech Defense Minister Alexandr Vondra said in Prague on Oct. 12.
To train for the future, U.S. Army Europe is looking to the past.
Several U.S. Army posts will get a new tool that combines live, virtual and constructive (LVC) training if leaders at the National Simulation Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., are satisfied with the first field test.
The world’s largest defense contractor will divide its largest operational unit, Electronic Systems, into Missiles and Fire Control (MFC) and Mission Systems and Training (MST) business areas effective Dec. 31, the company announced Oct. 8.
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — Marines are about to see a lot of changes in their training as the Corps shifts from steady combat in Afghanistan to new missions focused on U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific region.