‘DIGITAL DIRT’


With too many boots for too little ground, training system expands units’ options


by COL Wayne Epps A


merican humorist Will Rogers is often quoted as saying, “Buy land. Tey aren’t making any more of the stuff!” Te Army is not finding that quip quite as funny as it once was, as the number of troops returning to their home stations puts a serious strain on the available training space.


While the Army was heavily deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, a typical Army post had most of its units in combat, leaving the pre-deployment units back home with ample space to conduct live training. Today, that situation is reversed, which is creating competition for the limited space in live training areas. At Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA, for instance, the available maneuver space limits live train- ing to one brigade at a time. Tat means the seven brigades stationed there don’t have enough land to hone their skills for joint missions.


If Rogers were alive today, he might be inclined to gloat about his statement of the obvious, but “land” isn’t just acreage anymore. Rogers had no way of knowing in the early 1930s that, 80 years later, technology would allow the Army to cre- ate what it calls “digital dirt,” thus allowing commanders to significantly increase training space for the battlefield of tomorrow.


BLENDING THE DIRT Te use of digital dirt to greatly expand training space first became an option in October 2012, when the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division tested the Live, Virtual, Constructive – Integrating Architecture (LVC-IA) at Fort Hood, TX.


52 Army AL&T Magazine July–September 2014


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