Another initiative to support West Point is to enable route planning inside of our VBS2 Land Nav Trainer. Cadets new to land navigation will be shown an expert route so they can get a good feel for proper route planning. As they gain proficiency, they will plan their own routes, routes that will be visible to the instructor along with the Cadet’s actual path. The instructor will be able to see, at a glance, how well the Cadet follows his or her own plan.
As part of our initiative to support West Point’s efforts to improve Land Navigation instruction, we’ve created terrain guides in our VBS2 Land Navigation Trainer. These guides move ahead of the Cadet to show differences in elevation as they traverse the course. This will help Cadet’s visualize changes in terrain height so that they will be more competent and confident on the physical land nav course.
This article highlights the effort I’ve put forth to continually improve the VBS2 Land Navigation Trainer for use by ROTC and other organizations training Cadets and Soldiers.
http://www.army.mil/article/91851/
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — The number of ROTC programs using the Army’s flagship gaming engine more than doubled this year and looks to increase even more next year.
The engine — called Virtual Battlespace 2 (VBS2) — helps prepare Soldiers for numerous warfighting tasks.
This year 16 ROTC programs used VBS2 compared with only six a year ago. The capability gained popularity with the addition of an application for land navigation, said Maj. Craig Porter of TCM Gaming at the National Simulation Center.
“The game allows the cadets to use a compass and map,” he said. “It models the Fort Lewis terrain that the cadets visit to test their land navigation skills. It’s a great way to learn and prepare.”
One Army ROTC program using VBS2 is at Howard University, Washington D.C.“We use it for land navigation and patrolling,” said Lt. Col. Tyra Sellers, professor of military science at the university.
Yet ROTC use of VBS2 is limited.
The software’s license restricts installation to only government computers, but ROTC students use educational computers. Sellers said her program has four government computers, leaving 70 ROTC students with limited computer access to VBS2.
A change is in the works at the Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation to make it easier for ROTC programs to get VBS2 licenses.
“We are working on changing the licensing restrictions in the flagship contracting re-competition in progress right now,” said Leslie Dubow, project director for Army Games for Training with PEO STRI, Orlando, Fla.
Maj. Porter said the change will increase opportunities for more than 200 ROTC programs to use VBS2. He said VBS2 can train Soldiers on tasks in fires, maneuver, sustainment and other areas.
Given the popularity of gaming technology, it makes sense for the Army to use its capabilities to prepare Soldiers and ROTC cadets.
“It will introduce these future leaders to the training enablers available when they lead and train Soldiers and provide an immersive opportunity to train on basic skills,” Dubow said.
To learn more about the Army’s gaming technology visit: https://milgaming.army.mil/.
TCM Gaming and National Simulation Center are subordinate organizations of the Combined Arms Center — Training. CAC-T is responsible for developing and supporting training and leader development throughout the Army.
Its web site is: http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/CAC-T/ Its Facebook page is: http://www.facebook.com/usacactraining and Twitter handle is: @usacactraining
The U.S. Military Academy will start testing a new land navigation training system within the next month, one year after a cadet collapsed and died during a land nav exercise held amid a heat wave.
The trainer was developed by the Training Brain Operation Center (TBOC), part of the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).
The new computer simulation, formally called the VBS2 Land Navigation Trainer-West Point Course v1.0, will be tested with cadets for the first time during the summer training course. The program runs on the Army’s standard battlefield simulation system, Virtual Battlespace 2, and renders a world where students walk through terrain to reach a series of points.
http://www.defensenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012307220010
Our VBS2 Land Navigation Trainer v1.6 is finally complete and ready for release.
Product Release Video:
On Milgaming:
https://milgaming.army.mil/VBS2/files/d … =1&rid=657
Alternate Download:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B832dW … jBfVlRrTkU
The VBS2 Land Navigation Trainer is designed to fill the gap between classroom instruction and an actual land navigation course
Trainer focuses on:
– Correct plotting of points
– Establishing a plan for completing the course (attack points)
– Calculation of distance and direction
– Correct use of pace count and pace beads
There are two courses included in the trainer. One is a beginner course with 8 points closely spaced and always given in the same order so an instructor can walk students through each point. The other is an experienced course where the student is assigned up to 8 points that randomize within a 150 meter radius. These points are spaced much further apart and are much more difficult to locate.
The instructor has the option to select the number of points assigned (from 3 to 8 ), the time of day (Day/Night), the weather (Cloudy, Sunny, Rainy), whether night vision is available, and whether G-M angle calculations are required.
The instructor station provides real-time evaluation of each student participating in the course and allows the instructor to perform remedial training to students who are struggling without waiting until the end of a 5 hour land nav course
This is the new instructor station for the West Point VBS2 Land Navigation Trainer. Since West Point has two separate courses, I had to figure out how to display the two maps in a way that made each of them readable. I added a swap map button at the top to toggle between the maps and show the appropriate checkpoints. The student positions will automatically show up in the window, even if they are not on that course. I also discovered how to dynamically colorize the text in the student table window to give the instructor a visual indicator about the student’s progress. This is especially important with the Time Stationary column to help the instructor determine if a student needs additional training.
My motivation for creating a land navigation trainer inside Virtual Battlespace 2 (VBS2), the US Army’s official Game for Training, came from a friend of my wife’s from our time in the Army. When we met him for dinner, he was finishing up his time as the lead Army cadet instructor at a large military college. I asked him if I could make one product for him, what would it be? Without hesitating, he said that they desperately needed a way to train land navigation, a crucial skill for cadets to learn so they could pass the course given during their summer training at Fort Lewis, Washington.
Brian T. Hall, PMP 