Virtual war: The army and technology

Posted at: Thursday 6th September 2007 by James Gorbold

James Gorbold joins the British Army at its high-tech Land Warfare Centre to see just what the military are doing with the most expensive computer games in the world.

Heavy metal

At Warminster, in addition to training infantry using the DCCT, the British Army uses other tools, such as the Combined and Staff Trainer (CAST), to train HQ units in battlefield control techniques. However, the largest part of the LWC is the Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (CATT), built by Lockheed Martin UK (www.lockheedmartin.com). The CATT facility is where the heavy metal of the British Army, the Royal Armoured Corps and the mechanised infantry units, assemble to train across virtual battlefields.

Unlike the DCCT and the CAST, the CATT is both a physical and virtual simulator. Based on the CCTT (Close Combat Tactical Trainer) used by the US Army, physical simulation is achieved by vehicle crews sitting inside imitation vehicles that accurately portray the interiors of various army vehicles. Currently, CATT has more than 80 of these vehicle-specific pods, simulating vehicles such as the Challenger 2 main battle tank, the Warrior infantry fighting vehicle and the Scimitar reconnaissance tank. From the inside, since many parts are manufactured from the same moulds as used for the real vehicles, these pods look, feel and sound almost identical to their real-life equivalents. However, unlike military-grade flight simulators, the pods aren't articulated, so they can't simulate the movement of the vehicle over rough terrain or the breechblock recoiling inside the Challenger 2.

The virtual element of the simulation is created by attaching TFT displays to all the viewfinders and optical targeting scopes on each vehicle pod. These display the virtual world outside, allowing each vehicle's crew to operate as if in a wartime environment, with all the hatches closed. As modern armoured vehicles have so many viewing devices, this means that each pod is studded with myriad TFT displays, so multiple PCs are required to render the game world for each vehicle.

Each vehicle pod is networked together in a massive LAN that can operate as a whole, or can be divided into five sub-networks with each running its own simulation. Joining the vehicle-specific pods are more than 70 generic workstations that can be configured to simulate almost any land vehicle or aircraft, allowing other units, such as the Royal Engineers or Army Air Corp, to train with the armoured forces. Unlike the vehicle-specific pods, however, the generic workstations are nothing more than standard off-the-shelf PCs with multiple monitor setups, so these would be instantly familiar to any PC gamer. Of course, this means that the generic workstations aren't nearly as immersive as the vehicle-specific pods, but they're designed for teaching tactics, not the use of a specific vehicle. For that task, the other units of the Army have their own simulators at their own bases, such as the Army Air Corp Apache attack helicopter simulators at Middle Wallop.