University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, is being awarded a $10,773,593 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to create experimental serious games to train participants and measure their proficiency in recognizing and mitigating the cognitive biases that commonly affect all types of intelligence analysis. The research objective is to experimentally manipulate variables in serious games and to determine whether and how such variables enable player-participant recognition and persistent mitigation of cognitive biases. U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity.
CIO/G-6 senior team members will be visiting every booth; Gen. Lawrence to review all their assessments of solutions on exhibit floor. LandWarNet splits into three smaller regional events in 2012. Former soldier and current entrepreneur extraordinaire advises Army leadership on the changes it must make in cyberwarfare, recruiting and acquisition.
Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office, Amarillo, Texas, is being awarded a delivery order of about $34 million for the Block 20/C Upgrade to the CV-22 Training Devices, including the Cabin Operational Flight Trainer, Cabin Part Task Trainer, and the Wing Part Task Trainer. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
Rally Point Management L.L.C., Fort Walton Beach, Florida, was awarded an approximate $7 million firm-fixed-price cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification to support small unmanned aircraft systems training requirements. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.
URS Federal Support Services Incorporated, Germantown, Maryland; Calibre Systems Incorporated, Alexandria, Virginia; Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Virginia; and Parsons Infrastructure, Washington, D.C., were awarded a more than $24 million contract for the support services to develop, deliver and enable an operationally relevant and totally integrated live, virtual, constructive and gaming training environment. The U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command, Fort Eustis, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
Fidelity Technologies Corporation, Reading, Pennsylvania, was recently awarded a potential $31 million contract to provide simulation training technology and logistics support to assist the U.S. Army as it prepares to transition security responsibilities to the Afghan National Army Air Corps. The U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, based in Orlando, Florida, awarded the contract. Within an 18-month period, Fidelity will deliver four simulators: MI-17 flight training device, G-222 flight training device, G-222 basic aviation training device and G-222 fuselage load trainer. The simulators will help train Afghan warfighters in support of the Combined Security Transition Command, a multinational military formation designed to train and develop security forces, including the Afghan National Army Air Corps, headquartered in Kabul.
Coalition forces have a new resource in the battle against improvised explosive devices, and it should enhance efforts well into the future. This training initiative offers both immediate skills for the war in Afghanistan as well as train-the-trainer options for participants to bring back to their home countries. Success will mean fewer deaths and injuries for all warfighters, but the work also has another goal—to prepare foreign troops to take more active roles in conflict, thereby reducing the number of U.S. service members who have to fight on the front lines.
The U.S. Army is leveraging the latest advances in computing power and digital hardware to expand and improve training using virtual reality technology. Whether it is teaching soldiers how to exit an overturned vehicle safely; reinforcing lessons learned in ground patrol training; or even helping returning warriors cope with post-traumatic stress disorder, virtual reality simulations are enabling the Army to train more effectively and economically.
U.S. Army soldiers have something in common with Superman and Spider-Man: they all benefit from Army-funded virtual reality research being conducted at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies. The Oscar-winning research has made digital characters look more realistic in movies such as Avatar, Spider-Man II and Superman Returns, among others, and it also helps soldiers cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. It also is used to train service members for a variety of missions and situations, including countering both improvised explosive devices and insurgency operations, as well as tactical intelligence gathering. The institute’s research, which rapidly is taking the “virtual” out of virtual reality, also helps teach soldiers such traits as leadership, cultural awareness and relationship building.
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Orlando, Florida, was recently awarded a nearly $32 million contract to provide for the acquisition of four Mobile Advanced Gunnery Training Systems and eight Deployable Advanced Gunnery Training Systems, with new-equipment training and logistics support, for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Program Executive Office of Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity.
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