Training to get ‘hyper-realistic’

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Marines from 1st Battalion, 8th Marines speak with Iraqi role-players at one of Camp Pendleton's existing imerssion trainers. The Corps has plans to build new ones In California, Hawaii and North Carolina.



Training to get ‘hyper-realistic’
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 2, 2009 6:40:40 EST

The Corps will expand its use of special effects in infantry training next year, with high-tech immersion trainers planned in North Carolina and California, and an expansive urban training facility anticipated in Hawaii, Marine officials said.

New Infantry Immersion Trainers at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Camp Lejeune, N.C., will build on developments the Corps made with its first immersion trainer, a $2.5 million facility opened in a former tomato processing plant aboard Pendleton in 2007. The new facilities will incorporate many of the same methods to familiarize Marines with what they’ll see in war zones, including the use of foreign role players, digital holograms that resemble insurgents and special effects that simulate improvised explosive blasts and the chaos afterward.

The new $15.3 million trainer at Pendleton, adjacent to the existing indoor facility near Camp San Mateo, will be the Corps’ first outdoor immersion trainer, said retired Lt. Col. Rich Engelen, a range requirements officer with Training & Education Command, based at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. The new $7.4 million facility planned for Lejeune will be located in a warehouse on the base’s mainside industrial area.

The next-generation Military Operation on Urban Terrain facility planned for Marine Corps Base Hawaii is expected to cost $7.9 million. Officials say it will help Marines meet predeployment requirements while reducing the need for travel to the mainland. Currently, most Hawaii-based units conduct MOUT training at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif.

The Corps chose to expand its immersion facilities to increase the number of Marines who receive the training. Since the existing trainer opened at Pendleton in fall 2007, about 12,400 trainees have gone through it, Marine officials said. A smaller immersion trainer overseen by the Marine Expeditionary Rifle Squad program based near Quantico is used to assess combat gear, but does not train large Marine units.


Rest of article at: http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/11/marine_trainer_110109w/