By Rick Gregory, PEO STRI Strategic Communications Support Staff
Rave reviews like the one in the headline have been pouring in from Soldiers since PEO STRI fielded the first Live, Virtual, Constructive-Integrating Architecture (LVC-IA). The remark was made by Maj. Jon Meredith, training officer, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment at Fort Stewart, Ga., after his unit completed an exercise called “Operation Boar.” He also excitedly spoke about the realism of the virtual aspect of the system in an article published in the post newspaper.
“That Hellfire shot from the Apache helicopter simulator the first day was awesome,” he said. “As the helicopter was firing, the guys in the tank in the Close Combat Tactical Trainer were reporting that the helicopter had just fired above them. You could hear a little bit of strain in the pilot’s voice on the radio as they were maneuvering around. It was very realistic.”
That is music to the ears of many past and present PEO STRI employees who have worked hard for more than 10 years to get LVC-IA into the hands of their number one customer – the Soldiers.
“It’s really exciting to see everything come together and work like we envisioned it working back in the infancy days of building the system,” said John Womack, deputy product manager for Warrior Training Integration, PM ConSim.
He added that the most rewarding aspect to him was observing the operations officer feel the stress and confusion while running the Tactical Operations Center (TOC) using LVC-IA assets.
“When you put a real person in a real simulator, that person is charged with making decisions,” he explained. “Those decisions, right or wrong, create an impact to the guy in the TOC who now has to make a decision that may impact the other guy in the other simulator or the real Soldiers on the ground or in the air. If the decision is incorrect, such as taking a wrong turn, it can cause confusion in the TOC that must be immediately dealt with.”
Womack is quick to add that while there is a lot of talk about the successes of LVC-IA in the field, he also sees it as a PEO STRI team achievement.
“This is a great success due to the folks in PM ConSim, PM TRADE and PM CATT all working together over a long period of time for a common goal,” he said. “When all elements of LVC-IA are being integrated together, they all have to work. If one of them doesn’t, you are missing a critical element in the exercise. Thanks to the great teamwork, it is working as advertised. The Soldiers in the TOC have no idea which assets are live and which are simulated.”
First fielded to Fort Hood, Texas in late 2012, the LVC-IA systems are now in use at Forts Bliss, Texas, Campbell, Ky., Stewart, Ga., and Drum, N.Y., with plans to field one to Fort Riley, Kan., in March.
Rich Link, the assistant product manager for the program, said fielding LVC-IA at each post takes about six weeks.
“The first three weeks are busy putting the system on site,” he said. “After that, it takes about another three weeks to train the operators and maintainers and run a first-use event. The first-use event target audience is those white-collar folks who will be running the training exercises.”
The goal of LVC-IA, Link explained, is to take the live, virtual and constructive information data and feed it through the mission command system to stimulate the organic equipment that the unit would use.
Maj. John Culpepper, simulations operations officer, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, watches the action during the fielding of the Live, Virtual, Constructive-Integrating Architecture Dec. 17 at the Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer on Hunter Army Airfield. The LVC-IA gives soldiers the opportunity to train for combat situations in a virtual environment along with other soldiers in M1 Abrams tanks, HMMWVs and boots on the ground infantry soldiers all together simultaneously. (Photo by Sgt. William Begley, 3rd CAB Public Affairs)
“From the unit leadership perspective, they are seeing the battle unfold as it normally would and then reacting to things that are occurring,” he explained. “They then conduct their own after-action review as to how they responded to all of these activities. There is also generally a technical review to determine how the systems performed.”
Womack stressed that the one advantage of the LVC-IA system is leaders can determine the size of the exercise to fit their needs. The exercise he observed at Fort Campbell was used to help an operations officer train his new TOC crew. He wanted them to get used to working together in the TOC by using just the virtual training assets associated with LVC-IA.
“He saved more than $90,000 between the air costs, the fuel and repair parts by using LVC-IA,” Womack said. “He still got the benefit of real Soldiers in real simulators making real decisions on their own. He was so pleased that he brought his battalion commander and commanding general in to show them because they were preparing for a rotation at one of the Combat Training Centers.”
Plans for fielding version two of LVC-IA will include the gaming capability as well as the means of conducting joint exercises with units located at other bases.
“If you want to run an exercise at Fort Hood, but also want to involve Fort Bliss gaming and virtual assets while also tying in some other sites, you can do that, not just between sites that have LVC-IA, but also those without the system,” Link said. “We have a remote kit that will allow those sites that don’t have LVC-IA to connect their virtual and gaming assets into the exercise so all of those units can now conduct a joint exercise.”
One major benefit of LVC-IA, besides the training aspect, is the ease of using the system.
“Before, when the units conducted an exercise and wanted to use virtual and constructive assets with their Soldiers in a blended environment, it was a cumbersome experience,” Link said. “We had to stand up an infrastructure, running wires and cables and setting up routers. When the exercise was over, we had to tear it down. When they wanted to do it again, we had to go through the whole process again. With LVC-IA, the capability is available at the location. Soldiers simply have to show up and train.”
The long-term goal for LVC-IA is to conduct joint exercises with the other military services.
“The Marines and Air Force have been formulating their requirements documents and asking us to review them and provide feedback in terms of what they are trying to achieve,” Link said.
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Army Acquisition Corps (AAC), Access is publishing articles that highlight milestones throughout the history of the AAC. Each article marks a moment in acquisition excellence.
This article was published in Inside PEO STRI, January/February 2014.
