Bloodless Battles Play Out With Stark Realism

When soldiers of the German army find themselves in combat, they are likely to act like seasoned veterans even though they may never have experienced the chaos of actual battle. Behind their confident demeanor is the Bundeswehr’s combat training center. Reinforced tank and mechanized infantry operations at this center routinely involve up to 800 troops with tanks and armored vehicles. Soon, this bastion of realistic combat through simulation will accommodate up to 2,500 participants.

Highly realistic battles at the combat training center (CTC) are simulated, allowing mobile armor operations without having to fire practice ammunition. “Simultaneously, the center’s system keeps track of training effectiveness,” according to Dr. Michael Kriewitz. He is in business development for STN Atlas Elektronik, Bremen, Germany, a major division of Rheinmetall DeTec. “All participants—individual troops and vehicles—are equipped with sensors. No matter what the caliber, every shot fired is simulated by lasers, with hits indicated by smoke, flashes and other effects. Under these conditions, progress in training is objectively measurable,” he affirms.

The CTC subjects the users to combat-like pressure, portraying the damage of direct and indirect fire, mines and chemical attack. “The probabilities of killing or being killed in direct-fire simulation and area-weapons-effects simulation are much the same as in a real engagement,” Kriewitz emphasizes.

“As an example, the Bundeswehr uses the company’s tank gun simulator to train its Leopard 2 tank commanders and gunners. Another simulator developed by STN Atlas Elektronik and KUKA Wehrtechnik Elektronik plays an analogous role in training crews for the Marder infantry fighting vehicle,” Kriewitz observes. He assures that CTC instrumentation provides the basis for objective tactical assessment and feedback.

At the heart of the CTC is its multimedia network from STN Atlas, which collects and distributes information between the major systems. “It consists of various asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and fast Ethernet linear array networks, terrestrial trunked radio, or TETRA, subnetworks, switches and interface electronics. All of these elements are under the control of a single network management computer,” Kriewitz clarifies.

The ATM backbone multimedia network serves the cellular TETRA data transfer and voice subnetworks. The backbone network transports the battlefield information such as global positioning system (GPS) for player positions that are accurate within 5 meters, event data such as player status, and weapon firing and hit results collected by TETRA player unit clients, Kriewitz reveals. Conversely, the network transports player unit control information such as kill/resurrect commands, ammunition resupply and vulnerability data collected by client data servers to the TETRA network, he clarifies.

The TETRA standard is designed to achieve high transmission rates and good spectrum efficiency, Kriewitz notes. “Furthermore, the danger of mutual radio frequency interference between clients is significantly reduced using the TETRA time division multiple access (TDMA) implementation. TETRA provides central control transmission channel access, along with state-of-the-art network management, and a sleep-mode control that significantly reduces the power consumed by player units’ data transceivers, he discloses.

“Commercial off-the-shelf TETRA equipment provides carrier frequencies in the region of 380 to 440 megahertz. This spectrum is usually wide enough to accommodate user frequency constraints. In the event that operating frequencies are required outside this band, low-risk modification to the equipment can be performed,” he illustrates. “By this means, very desirable features of the TETRA standard and commercial software continue to be realized.”

The TETRA technical performance parameters, the number of player units, the amount of battlefield data to transfer, and the player update frequency, taken together, determine the required number of radio frequency carriers. Call handling is designed to serve player units moving at speeds up to 300 kilometers (180 miles) per hour and at altitudes up to 500 meters (1,650 feet) so that helicopter players can be included in simulated battles.

The CTC provides the realism that keeps troops under sustained combat pressure, increasing combat readiness. The system also delivers tactical assessments and feedback of strengths and weaknesses under combat conditions, while allowing evaluation and improvement of existing doctrines and strategies, Kriewitz concludes.  —CAR