Special Report – Military Training and Simulation Recording Systems

SPECIAL REPORT

Military Training and Simulation Recording Systems

The Importance of Documentation and Debriefing in Training and Simulation The Role of Training and Simulation Programmes and Associated Recording Technologies in Preparing ISAF Member State Forces for Afghanistan The History of Training, Simulation and Modeling with Sound in Aviation in the Twentieth Century Modern Pre-deployment Readiness Training for Counter Insurgency in Afghanistan Simulation and Recording for Trauma Care Training at the Point of Injury and in Medical Centers

Sponsored by

Published by Global Business Media

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 1

16/03/2011 18:24

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 2

16/03/2011 18:24

SPECIAL REPORT: MILITARY TRAINING AND SIMULATION RECORDING SYSTEMS

SPECIAL REPORT

Military Training and Simulation Recording Systems

Contents

The Importance of Documentation and Debriefing in Training and Simulation The Role of Training and Simulation Programmes and Associated Recording Technologies in Preparing ISAF Member State Forces for Afghanistan The History of Training, Simulation and Modeling with Sound in Aviation in the Twentieth Century Modern Pre-deployment Readiness Training for Counter Insurgency in Afghanistan Simulation and Recording for Trauma Care Training at the Point of Injury and in Medical Centers

Foreword

2

Martin Richards, Editor

The Importance of Documentation and Debriefing in Training and Simulation

3

Dr. Christian Gutzen, Managing Director, BIOBSERVE GmbH Sponsored by

Advantages of a standardised solution Published by Global Business Media

Published by Global Business Media Global Business Media Limited 62 The Street Ashtead Surrey KT21 1AT United Kingdom Switchboard: +44 (0)1737 850 939 Fax: +44 (0)1737 851 952 Email: info@globalbusinessmedia.org Website: www.globalbusinessmedia.org Publisher Kevin Bell Business Development Director Marie-Anne Brooks Editor Martin Richards Senior Project Manager Steve Banks Advertising Executives Michael McCarthy Abigail Coombes Production Manager Paul Davies For further information visit: www.globalbusinessmedia.org The opinions and views expressed in the editorial content in this publication are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily represent the views of any organisation with which they may be associated.

Material in advertisements and promotional features may be considered to represent the views of the advertisers and promoters. The views and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily express the views of the Publishers or the Editor. While every care has been taken in the preparation of this publication, neither the Publishers nor the Editor are responsible for such opinions and views or for any inaccuracies in the articles.

Joint training and debriefing Customization

The Role of Training and Simulation Programmes and Associated Recording Technologies in Preparing ISAF Member State Forces for Afghanistan 5 Marushka Dubova, Defence Correspondent

The advantages of training and simulation programmes and Serious Games over traditional training

The History of Training, Simulation and Modeling with Sound in Aviation in the Twentieth Century

7

Meredith LLewelyn, Lead Contributor

The American Link Simulator Commercial and military flight simulators are now a mature and diverse market The advantages of simulator training for military aircrew The licensing authorities

Modern Pre-deployment Readiness Training for Counter Insurgency in Afghanistan

9

Don McBarnet, Staff Writer

Training with Avatars: cheaper than simulators

Simulation and Recording for Trauma Care Training at the Point of Injury and in Medical Centers 11 Marushka Dubova, Defence Correspondent

Does training with simulators work?

References

12

Š 2011. The entire contents of this publication are protected by copyright. Full details are available from the Publishers. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

WWW.DEFENCEINDUSTRYREPORTS.COM | 1

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 1

16/03/2011 18:24

SPECIAL REPORT: MILITARY TRAINING AND SIMULATION RECORDING SYSTEMS

Foreword

T

HIS SPECIAL Report looks at the explosion in military interest in training, simulation and modelling systems and their attendant recording technologies. The search for cost effective ways to prepare western troops in the diversity of intelligence, negotiating and survival skills for deployment to Afghanistan has led to the use of technological spin offs from the gaming industry, so called “Serious Games”.

The first part of the report examines the importance of high quality and effective feedback from training and how this is related to advanced debriefing tools. It examines the advantages of a standardised recoding and debriefing solution that can be used in all simulators, thereby achieving efficiencies and cost savings, and how systems can be adapted to cover a wide range of applications including even physiological data.

The report goes on to discuss the central importance of proven training effectiveness and impact in the military search for training solutions to cover the full spectrum of operational capabilities expected of today’s professional soldier.

A long look is taken at the highly effective use of simulators with high definition sound, vision and motion in aviation and its potential role as a catalyst for simulators for land forces and medical care.

The report considers also the impact of the diversity of “Serious Games” and the prospect that their immersive, story telling and didactic qualities may facilitate effective training on laptops and PC’s away from expensive large simulators. In the pursuit of cultural sensitivity awareness working with Afghans, new softwares recording trainee actions are being developed. The goal is to record their responses, so soldiers can be monitored and coached to behave appropriately for the task in hand.

Training and simulation as an adjunct to teaching medicine is progressing fast. The value of simulation training for treating soldiers at the point of injury to improve recovery is a rapidly developing area with some degree of success. It has promise to improve soldier effectiveness in offering wound care in the field and helping doctors to improve team communication.

Martin Richards Editor

2 | WWW.DEFENCEINDUSTRYREPORTS.COM

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 2

16/03/2011 18:24

SPECIAL REPORT: MILITARY TRAINING AND SIMULATION RECORDING SYSTEMS

The Importance of Documentation and Debriefing in Training and Simulation Dr. Christian Gutzen, Managing Director, BIOBSERVE GmbH

Much effort is made to build training systems that reflect and simulate the real-world scenario as closely as possible and, of course, is the effectiveness of training is related to the ability of a simulation scenario to fulfil this requirement.

S

IMULATORS ARE planned and built with the latest and most sophisticated technologies for the training itself but often without being accompanied by a powerful documentation and debriefing system. There are high-tech simulators in use without any kind of debriefing tool.

The big question is, without a high quality and productive training feedback for the trainees, has the lesson been learned?

Effective training is related, also, to an advanced debriefing tool that can reflect the training situation as closely as possible by providing realistic simulation in the best possible manner and in a flexible way so that trainees can focus on the relevant events to learn as much as possible.

A good documentation and debriefing system should be able to record any kind of signal (video, audio, screens, other analogue and digital data streams like system messages) in its original quality and in a flexible way so that the debriefing can be adapted for different requirements.

Furthermore it should be possible to integrate the system into existing simulators and training scenarios without interfering with the simulator equipment itself, to avoid potential problems with the original simulator vendor, for example, in connection with warranties.

Debriefing solutions that are provided by the vendor of any simulation system are only usable for that particular simulator. They often use proprietary techniques and data cannot be exported and used independently of the simulator. Furthermore, they often are unable to integrate signals that are not directly delivered by the simulation system. It is not even permissible to use an additional video camera where one might want to add material to the recordings.

Advantages of a standardised solution A single recoding and debriefing solution that can be used in all simulators is cost effective and can set a debriefing standard throughout the whole organisation. In a joint simulation that involves various simulators of different vendors, a common and network-based recording system can record all scenarios and provide an overall debriefing for the whole joint simulation.

In addition, such a standardised environment allows the possibility of interchanging training documentation and observational results between different branches of the armed forces and enables the establishment of a team of documentation experts independently of the training scenario. Using the same tools for the same tasks such as recording, documentation, observational data acquisition and debriefing independently of the specific simulator or training scenario is the way to move forward. All high tech companies and organisations, (and the armed forces fall into this description nowadays), seek generalised solutions that work corporation-wide.

They try to avoid isolated applications wherever they can because the total cost of individual ownership is much higher.

Joint training and debriefing With an independent and standardised recording and debriefing solution that can interact with various simulators of different manufacturers it is possible to record joint simulations and training scenarios. With such a distributed system it is possible to run either joint debriefing for all trainees in different locations or a specific and very detailed debriefing for each group that took part in the scenario.

WWW.DEFENCEINDUSTRYREPORTS.COM | 3

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 3

16/03/2011 18:24

SPECIAL REPORT: MILITARY TRAINING AND SIMULATION RECORDING SYSTEMS

A single recoding and debriefing solution that can be used in all simulators is cost effective and can set a debriefing standard throughout the whole organisation.

Customization Because they don’t interact with the simulator, independent recording systems can be customised much more easily at lower costs.

Once a special feature has been integrated, it can be used in any simulator of the organisation that is equipped with this recording system.

The recording and debriefing platform of the BIOBSERVE GmbH is a software/hardware combination built out of COTS components that provides the advantages of an independent state-of-the-art recording and debriefing system.

Successfully installed in simulators and realworld scenarios in the USA, Europe and Asia, this solution has proven its capability to record any kind of simulation scenario and to provide high quality debriefing material.

In the BIOBSERVE system, all signals (video, audio, screens, etc.) are recorded digitally in their original quality, independently from each other but synchronised in time. The signals are not downscaled or mixed and, as a result, preserve the spatial and temporal resolution of the source signals. All signals are available as standard media files recorded with standard video codecs.

The recording equipment does not interfere with the simulator equipment. All the recorders require are external signal splitters that do not affect the simulator itself.

During the debriefing, the recorded files are replayed, perfectly synchronised, each file in a separate scalable and movable window. This flexible presentation of the recordings allows the instructor to focus on the critical incidents by presenting only the relevant signals. A userfriendly annotation function can be used to mark important scenes or to register the behaviour of the trainees in a very detailed way.

Those bookmarks that have been made during the training can be used to jump directly to the appropriate scenes without wasting time searching for the scenes that are to be presented. This feature saves much time and makes debriefing even more efficient. The

integrated video editing tool can be used to create highlighted videos in a simple way and the customizable report generator automatically generates a pdf- based documentation.

The whole system can easily be resized. Thus it is no problem to start with a small solution and expand over time. If more signals need to be recorded, it is necessary only to integrate more recording stations into the recorder network. No major and fundamental changes in the system infrastructure are required. IMAGE recorder.tif Even physiological data such as heart rate and skin resistance (to measure stress factors) of the trainees can be recorded and analysed to get more information about the physiological conditions during a simulation. IMAGE physio_ recorder.tif and ecg.tif

Due to the fact that the recorded signals don’t need to be post-processed, debriefing can start immediately after the training has been finished.

All recordings are available in a database on a network server, therefore the location of the debriefing can be completely independent of the simulator location.

With this independent recording and debriefing solution, BIOBSERVE provides a turnkey solution tailored for professional and highly effective training and simulation scenarios. Building a good simulator is the first step but is only half the way. An advanced debriefing tool is needed to complete the whole simulation approach.

4 | WWW.DEFENCEINDUSTRYREPORTS.COM

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 4

16/03/2011 18:24

SPECIAL REPORT: MILITARY TRAINING AND SIMULATION RECORDING SYSTEMS

The Role of Training and Simulation Programmes and Associated Recording Technologies in Preparing ISAF Member State Forces for Afghanistan Marushka Dubova, Defence Correspondent

Training men and women to win in combat is the first and most important activity of the United States Army and indeed, all armed forces and is extremely costly.

B

rigadier General Peter Palmer, Director, Accelerated and Capabilities Development, US Army Training and Doctrine Command said his goal for the US Army in June 2008 was to: “Provide Soldiers and leaders with the ability to excel in a challenging an increasingly complex future operating environment by developing tools and technologies that enable more efficient training through live, virtual, immersive and adaptable venues.

Future training must enable the Future Force to impart more skills, faster, at lower cost and with a higher degree of retention than currently achievable.

Future training must be completely adaptable and scalable to cover the full spectrum of operational challenges facing the Soldier.”

In the United States the most basic recruit training for infantry soldiers can take up to 17 weeks, Marine Corps training 13 weeks. The British army basic infantry training takes up to 28 weeks, at a cost of £37,000 in 2005, to train a member of the elite parachute regiment.1 Officers and senior commanders obviously receive far longer time in training. This costly process is now increasingly under budgetary scrutiny to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

The Obama administration’s $671 billion defense budget for fiscal 2012 is $37 billion less than the current year’s request, although the numbers could change as the proposals pass Congress. 2 Whatever the outcome in Congress, the search for defense budget cuts will also presage a search for efficiencies in the

most expensive part of the budget managing and training manpower. Similarly across the Atlantic, the British Strategic Defence and Security Review in October 2010 has brought in an era of further stringent economies and budgetary restrictions on many aspects of training. There is a temporary suspension on some training of reserves and the part time Territorial Army and a reduction in the use of ammunition and fuel during training. It is in the context of the decision to protect front line forces deployed in Afghanistan and to cut elsewhere, that the rapid growth in training and simulation for soldiers preparing for operations in Afghanistan should be seen.

The advantages of training and simulation programmes and Serious Games over traditional training While many armed forces find the cost reduction arguments for training and simulation technologies powerful, there are others.

The environmental impact of the use of live weapons and explosives in training exercises is enormous and the explosion of just one J-Dam would be unacceptable environmentally, leaving aside the unit price of $70,000. There is a case also for reducing the wear and tear on weapons and weapons systems. But the most powerful arguments are those that describe the improvement in the transfer of skills learnt through modern training and simulation programmes. The immersive environment of simulators improves WWW.DEFENCEINDUSTRYREPORTS.COM | 5

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 5

16/03/2011 18:24

SPECIAL REPORT: MILITARY TRAINING AND SIMULATION RECORDING SYSTEMS

trainee motivation, persistence and knowledge retention. In some cases there is enhanced intrateam communication, tactical leadership skills and critical thinking under stress. For mission preparation and rehearsal the immersive quality of well-structured simulation programmes enables more effective mastery of declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge and therefore of synthetic operational skill which leads to improved critical thinking on operations.”3 These types of operational skills can only be acquired when the student is facing a simulation of the real world in an “on-the-job” training environment or an artificial but accurate representation of the real world”.

“We need to train like we fight and fight like we train and, too often, we don’t.” Donald H.

It is in the context of the decision to protect front line forces deployed in Afghanistan and to cut elsewhere, that the rapid growth in training

Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense.

The dismounted soldier on the ground in Afghanistan must be able to sustain Situation Awareness from the use of a flow of data and take rapid decisions in the face of a constantly changing situation on the ground.

The immersive synthetic battlefields that can be created by simulation and structured training products have been proved to enhance cognitive skills and soldier safety in the modern battlefield. In February 2011, Cubic Defense Applications signed a contract with the British Army for $40million for the expansion and modernisation of the basic training range.

The award includes Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES) individual weapon system gear, as well as range communications and after-action review upgrades. The case for Simulation and Training and Serious Games has been so rapidly adopted by Western armed forces in the last decade that there are now NATO Training and Simulation working groups assessing interoperability across NATO members and seeking to work towards Standardisation, Interoperability and linking live virtual and constructive simulations within the alliance. To quote Rear Admiral Fred Lewis, President of the National Training and Simulation Association: “The explosion in computer processing power, which began in the last decade and which is continuing unabated, has enabled simulation training to migrate from platform trainers where single individuals interact with single training devices – the so-called man-machine interface, into a wide variety of immersive virtual environments, including those which link multiple actors into a unified training matrix. It is becoming clear that in the not too distant future we will train with avatars, wholly immersed in a three dimensional alternative world.”4

and simulation for soldiers preparing for operations in Afghanistan should be seen.

6 | WWW.DEFENCEINDUSTRYREPORTS.COM

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 6

16/03/2011 18:24

SPECIAL REPORT: MILITARY TRAINING AND SIMULATION RECORDING SYSTEMS

The History of Training, Simulation and Modeling with Sound in Aviation in the Twentieth Century Meredith Llewellyn, Lead Contributor

I

T WAS the French Army in 1909 at Camp Châlons near Mourmelon-le - Grand who developed “the Antoinette”, the first rudimentary flight simulator that comprised a half-barrel mounted on a universal joint, with flight controls, pulleys, and stub-wings (poles) to allow the pilot to maintain balance while instructors applied external forces.

This used two wheels mounted left and right of the pilot, one for pitch and one for roll.

A full-size model of the “Antoinette Barrel Trainer” is in the foyer of the Airbus Training Centre at Toulouse, France.

During World War I the British developed a trainer w i th a “roc king” c oc kpi t described by H G Anderson, and in the US the “Ruggles Orientor” was patented.

In the same period, air gunnery skills to shoot from moving aircraft were also simulated on the ground.

The American Link Simulator It was the American, Edwin Link, in Binghampton, New York who took the pitch and roll of the Antoinette and added yaw with an electric motor. With a covered replica cockpit with working instruments on the motion platform he was able to provide ground training without the restrictions of weather, and the availability of aircraft and flight instructors. This new device was demonstrated to the US Army and the Air Force who were not interested. It was not until the death of nearly a dozen Army pilots who were employed to carry the Mail in all weathers that the value of the simulator as a training device was appreciated and four Link Trainers were bought by USAAF. This synthesis of French creativity and American technology was developed through World War II through the development of commercial airlines and the “Cold War” to include analogue and then digital representations of the terrain. The Stewart Platform added three linear movements heave (up and down), sway (side to side) and surge (fore and aft). The addition of images from TV screens with collimated display systems and

accurate sound recordings improved realism and “depth perception” for visual scenes that included distant objects.

Commercial and military flight simulators are now a mature and diverse market Flight simulation is now used extensively in the aviation industry for the training of pilots and other flight crew in both civil and military aircraft.

It is also used for the training of maintenance engineers in aircraft systems. There are simulators for training on almost all types of commercial and military aircraft and they are used to maintain and upgrade skills in pilots, or retrain in new modifications. The modern simulator has a high standard of fidelity in both physical cockpit characteristics and quality of software models, as well as several of sensory cues such as sound, vibration, motion, and visual systems. The trainer has many purposes: training on Cockpit Procedures (CPT), Basic Instrument Training (BITD), Flight and Navigation Procedures (FNPT), Full Flight Simulators (FFS) and the Full Mission Simulator (FMS).

All have a role in training pilots, their crew and ground support staff.

The purchase and use of these flight simulators is expensive. But training in a simulator offers many advantages over inflight training. Simulation based training allows for the practice of maneuvers or situations that may be impractical or dangerous to perform in the aircraft in the air. For example, electrical system failures, instrument failures, hydraulic system failures, environmental system failures, and even flight control failures can be simulated without risk to the pilots or an aircraft. Some manufacturers of simulators argue that the improved “feel” of flight in the most modern simulators adds to learning and therefore improved safety records.

The advantages of simulator training for military aircrew For the trainer, the simulator can be more effective allowing an increased number of WWW.DEFENCEINDUSTRYREPORTS.COM | 7

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 7

16/03/2011 18:24

SPECIAL REPORT: MILITARY TRAINING AND SIMULATION RECORDING SYSTEMS

tasks to be covered in a lesson, and errors and misjudgments can be recorded and discussed with a coach. Running costs of a full flight simulator are lower than an aircraft, because fuel, aircraft maintenance and insurance can be discounted. The trainer is also greener that flight itself.

The licensing authorities The degree of effectiveness of the training offered and verisimilitude of the simulators is controlled by Federal Aviation Authority licensing in 14 CFR Part 60, and in Europe by the European Aviation Safety Agency.

The L-3 Link Communications company, now provides simulators to the USAF to train pilots of F-16s offering high definition databases and physics-based processing technologies to replicate real world environments and crowd or people behaviors to maximize pilot readiness at relatively low costs. While others like MOOG offer trainers for helicopters as well as fixed wing craft. The continuing rapid development in computer software capabilities from the commercial games industry is adding to the veracity of the immersive environments that can be purchased. And they are constantly changing and improving. Many are now networked to other players and can reproduce in a virtual world “the fog of war� and the ongoing effect of the unintended consequences of an action that can provide a stimulating and effective training environment for modern warfighters.

Such has been the success of the use of simulators in the field of aviation that the processes and skills learnt in aviation are a catalyst to the use of simulators for medical training within the armed forces and preparation for land warfare.

There has been an undistinguished history of joint interoperability failures between branches of the American forces resulting in communication difficulties.

8 | WWW.DEFENCEINDUSTRYREPORTS.COM

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 8

16/03/2011 18:24

SPECIAL REPORT: MILITARY TRAINING AND SIMULATION RECORDING SYSTEMS

Modern Pre-deployment Readiness Training for Counter Insurgency in Afghanistan Don McBarnet, Staff Writer

“The current challenge is to create a battle space that convincingly mimics those characterizing small unit operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Rear Adm. Fred Lewis, USN (Ret.) President, National Training and Simulation Association

T

HE EXPLOSION of training opportunities with simulators and computer video games should not be underestimated.

PEOSTRI, the United States Army Program Executive Office equips soldiers with the most advanced training and simulation systems. It is a $3billion acquisition agency, which supports more than 334,000 training devices at 472 sites worldwide. From the networked full mission simulator to the simpler but equally important vehicle access trainer there are simulations to pass on to the new recruit or the returning veteran the recent “lessons learned” on operations in Afghanistan.

The most basic trainers teach universally applicable skills: how to safely get out of a rolled over vehicle, like an MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle), the detection and destruction of IEDS through the Route Clearance Training System or the Common Driver Trainer which allows soldiers to practice driving various military vehicles.

However, there are many more sophisticated products in use. Virtual Battlespace 2 is a fully interactive, immersive combat environment providing a synthetic battle experience. It is used to train soldiers on operation. Soldiers drive vehicles, fly, use small arms and engage communication technologies and counter interactive opposing forces.5 There is also the Tactical Digital Hologram, which is in use by soldiers preparing for operations in an urban environment that has tall buildings or sub terrain bunkers. The hologram turns into a 3D map that aids in mission planning and human intelligence briefings. The Advanced Smart On-Board Data Interface Module (AS-MODIM)

supports Block III Apache pilots in practising their aviation missions during live training exercises. Apache pilots can practice working with unmanned aerial systems.

However, the cost of a FMS, (Full Mission Simulator is high). The new lead in training technologies is coming from the Institute of Creative Technologies in Southern California amongst others.

“ICT was established in 1999 with a multiyear contract from the US Army to explore a powerful question: What would happen if leading technologists in artificial intelligence, graphics, and immersion joined forces with the creative talents of Hollywood and the game industry?”

Today’s US Army recruit will have visited the “America’s Army” website and played “The Official U.S. Army Game”. They will have followed the entreaty to “Empower yourself. Defend freedom” and maybe considered joining up as a result. Once in training, they might have an opportunity to play Serious Games. The use of Serious Games is now a key part of basic training for American and many other soldiers.

The game, Full Spectrum Command is intended “to develop cognitive skills: tactical decisionmaking, resource management and adaptive thinking.”6 Full Spectrum Leader is said to offer more: “Unlike most simulations which have a fixed OPFOR (Opposing Force) plan, FSL’s opponent attempts to recognize players’ actions and respond dynamically. Additionally, FSL includes Close Air Support, Artillery Calls-for-Fire and Casualty Evacuation to heighten the realism and WWW.DEFENCEINDUSTRYREPORTS.COM | 9

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 9

16/03/2011 18:24

SPECIAL REPORT: MILITARY TRAINING AND SIMULATION RECORDING SYSTEMS

training value. It is anticipated that, in addition to the US Army’s Infantry Center at Fort Benning and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), FSL will be used at the US Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill to train young officers.”

The use of Serious Games

Training with Avatars: cheaper than simulators

basic training for American

The advantage of Serious Games over large simulators, for example those used in flight training, is that they are inexpensive, available on DVD and potentially used on a laptop or PCs remote from the training center. They encourage motivated self-teaching of skills in a medium that many young people find attractive and motivating.

But to quote the marketing video for ICT products, the intention is now to move from video games that are “First person shooters” to “First person thinkers”. In video games like UrbanSim the aim is to practise:

is now a key part of

and many other soldiers.

“The art of battle command in complex counterinsurgency and stability operations.

UrbanSim consists of a game-based practice environment, a web-based multimedia primer on doctrinal concepts of counterinsurgency, and a suite of scenario authoring tools… trainees direct the actions of a battalion as they attempt to maintain stability, fight insurgency, reconstruct the civil infrastructure, and prepare for transition.”

One of the innovative aspects of the game is “deep social simulation built into the training applications including models of population and culture groups, key individuals, social networks, and links between the human terrain and the physical terrain.”

The intention to train soldiers for the cultural diversity of the task in counter insurgency warfare is included in games like Elect and Bilat Elect where soldiers are encouraged to develop their inter-personal skills with other cultures, so that they can negotiate, influence and work with Afghans on operation. New developments like Visual Sensing allow the trainee soldiers movements while playing the game to be monitored, to develop self-awareness of posture, position and actions. In doing so it uses “3-D motion and shape data inferred from 5 video camera sensors, enabling different viewpoints for body construction”. The underlying philosophy underpinning the use and development of these games, is that by practicing these seemingly intangible skills online, qualities like leadership, motivation and decision-making can be transferred to counter insurgency operations in Afghanistan.

10 | WWW.DEFENCEINDUSTRYREPORTS.COM

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 10

16/03/2011 18:24

SPECIAL REPORT: MILITARY TRAINING AND SIMULATION RECORDING SYSTEMS

Simulation and Recording for Trauma Care Training at the Point of Injury and in Medical Centers Marushka Dubova, Defence Correspondent

T

HERE HAS been a revolution in trauma care for soldiers wounded on operation.

Since 2001 and the beginning of the ISAF campaign in Afghanistan, deaths from wounds rates on operation have dropped dramatically. As the New York Times reported earlier this year: “Nearly 5,500 American troops were wounded in action – more than double the total of 2,415 in 2009, and almost six times the number wounded in 2008. In all, fewer than 7.9 percent of the Americans wounded in 2010 died, down from more than 11 percent the previous year and 14.3 percent in 2008”7.

Part of the improvement in these statistics and reduced risk of death to soldiers is from fielding doctors closer to fighting troops, positioning Medevac helicopters further forward so that evacuation may happen more easily, but importantly all soldiers are now trained through simulators in trauma care at the point of injury. Soldiers now carry tourniquets to stop bleeds in extremities and U.S. Army Research Laboratory’s Simulation and Training Technology Center, uses programs like the HemSim medical simulation prototype. The device teaches non-extremity hemorrhagestopping techniques to medics and combat life savers.

Further, CIMIT (the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology), and TATRC (the Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center of the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command) have developed an immersive simulation for sustainment training of soldier medics… and any organization involved in the care of trauma patients at “point of injury”.

The simulator CAESAR has an “intuitive interface with preset autonomous trauma scenarios developed based on the skills, validation requirements of the soldier medic program. Following the completion of simulated exercises, the instructor has the ability to debrief the learner by reviewing the treatments performed by using an automatic event log that captures what injuries CAESAR had, what treatments were provided and when those treatments took place. The ability to

have this immediate debrief allows the learners to observe what decisions they made and actions they took and discuss care improvement strategies while the scenario is still fresh in their mind.”8

Does training with simulators work?

The scale of investment in new technologies to teach complex processes and cognitive skills to soldiers preparing for deployment in Afghanistan on counter insurgency operations is incalculable.

Research is still taking place to ascertain whether the benefits of these cost reduction training processes are of value. Research for the US Army9 evaluating Game-based Training Effectiveness concluded that the intention that games would improve training motivation, application and declarative knowledge through their immersiveness was established however, unit process, unit cohesion, unit cohesiveness and unit effectiveness were all dependent on the involvement of the leader in the training process.

The research suggests that more questions need to be asked about the role of the leader in reinforcing the training process.

However, others are more critical.

“In the past, some of the difficulties with gamebased training included a lack of appropriate instructional techniques, unrealistic or inappropriate training scenarios, and poor communication between instructors/SMEs and game developers”10.

Nevertheless, in teaching communication skills and declarative knowledge, simulators have been shown to be of value in working towards better teamwork in delivering patient care.

“Effective communication and teamwork is essential for the delivery of high quality, safe patient care. Communication failures are an extremely common cause of inadvertent patient harm. The complexity of medical care, coupled with the inherent limitations of human performance, make it critically important that clinicians have standardised communication tools, create an environment in which individuals can speak up and express concerns, and share common “critical language” to alert team members to unsafe situations. “ WWW.DEFENCEINDUSTRYREPORTS.COM | 11

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 11

16/03/2011 18:24

SPECIAL REPORT: MILITARY TRAINING AND SIMULATION RECORDING SYSTEMS

References: 1

http://www.armedforces.co.uk/army/listings/l0138.html

2

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-15/republicans-may-fight-obama-s-671-billion-2012-defense-budget.html

3

Student and Expert Modeling for Simulation-Based Training: A Cost Effective Framework Yacef and Alem http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=fq404622270076p1&size=largest

4

http://www.trainingsystems.org/publications/NTSANov2010News.pdf

5

PEOSTRI flyer at Army Aviation Association of America in Nashville, Tennessee

6

http://ict.usc.edu/about

7

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/world/asia/08wounded.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2

8

h ttp://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Trade-Press-Release-CAE-Healthcare-launches-CAE-Caesar-innovativetrauma-patient-simulator-TSX-CAE-1384298.htm

9

Krista Ratwani, Kara Orvis and Bruce Knerr for the US Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences: The Evaluation of Games-based Training Effectiveness: Context Matters

10

PEDAGOGICALLY STRUCTURED GAME-BASED TRAINING: DEVELOPMENT OF THE ELECT BILAT SIMULATION Randall W. Hill, Jr. USC Institute for Creative Technologies James Belanich U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences H. Chad Lane & Mark Core USC Institute for Creative Technologies Melissa Dixon U.S. Army Research Laboratory Eric Forbell & Julia Kim USC Institute for Creative Technologies John Hart U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command

12 | WWW.DEFENCEINDUSTRYREPORTS.COM

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 12

16/03/2011 18:24

Defence Industry Reports… the Defence Reports….the leadingIndustry specialist combined leading specialist online research andcombined networking online research and networking resource for senior military and resource for senior military and defence industry professionals.

defence industry professionals.

•

Up•to Up thetominute Industry and Technology Newsand and other content available the minute Industry and Technology News other content available to to all site users on a free of charge, open access basis. all site users on a free of charge, open access basis.

•

Qualifi ed signed up members to access accesspremium premium content Special • Qualified signed up membersare areable able to content Special Reports and interact with their peers varietyofof advanced online Reports and interact with their peersusing using aa variety advanced online networking tools. networking tools.

•

• Designed to help users identifynew newtechnical technical solutions, understand the the Designed to help users identify solutions, understand implications of different technicalchoices choices and and select best solutions implications of different technical selectthe the best solutions available.

•

available.

Thought Leadership – Advice and guidance from internationally recognised • Thought Leadership - Advice and guidance from internationally recognised defence industry key opinion leaders.

•

Peer Input – Contributions from senior military personnel and defence • Peer Input - Contributions from senior military personnel and defence industry industry professionals.

•

Independent Editorial Content – Expert and authoritative analysis from • Independent Editorial Content - Expert and authoritative analysis from award award winning journalists and leading industry commentators.

•

Unbiased Supplier Provided Content.

•

Designed to facilitate debate.

• Designed to facilitate debate

•

Written to thetohighest professional • Written the highest professionalstandards. standards

defence industry key opinion leaders

professionals

winning journalists and leading industry commentators

•

Unbiased Supplier Provided Content

Visit: www.defenceindustryreports.com

Visit: www.defenceindustryreports.com

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 13

Global Business Media

16/03/2011 18:24

SimRecordingSystems 0311.indd 14

16/03/2011 18:24