Combat training centre coming together

Spurred by the White Paper, Army is pushing ahead with its Combat Training Centre (CTC) project.
The Australian Army does not currently possess an instrumented Combat Training Centre (CTC) capability, widely considered essential for modern professional armies to conduct best-practice collective combat training. The development of a CTC in Townsville by 2006 is a recent Defence White Paper initiative, and remains a high priority for Army. The Chief of Army has previously stated that "the CTC is a force generation capability that is essential to the adequate preparation of our soldiers for operations ... I have already committed Army to the CTC methodology. This ... needs the instrumentation system provided by Project Land 134 to be fully effective."

The tempo of CTC organisational development has increased over the past year under Colonel "Spike" McKaskill who commands the new CTC Headquarters. CTC(HQ) co-ordinates the existing CTC Battle Command (CTC(BC)), the Jungle Training Centre (JTC), the CTC Live (CTC(L)), and Tactical Training Simulation Centres (TTSC) being located with each Brigade. The CTC(BC) is a unit that employs constructive simulation tools to facilitate Unit and Brigade level command and staff training. Army has already formed the CTC(L) by combining the Land Command Battle School and Battle Wing Canungra. Both CTC(BC) and CTC(L) have been successfully conducting force-preparation training for sub-units and units rotating into East Timor for INTERFET and now UNTAET, and this requirement is expected to continue for some time.

CTC(BC) and CTC(L) already employ best-practice CTC training methodologies which centre around the use of a highly trained and "free-thinking" opposing force, simulation tools to enhance combat training realism and rigour, and professional observer/trainers who coach the soldiers and junior leaders being trained and who deliver after-action reviews as objectively as possible. The CTC methodology focuses on enhancing professional mastery and preparedness, by promoting the development of intuitive knowledge through intrinsic feedback, and reasoned knowledge through extrinsic feedback.

Intrinsic feedback is enhanced through collective training realism - realism is provided in the CTC by using simulations linked within the Army Synthetic Environment (ASE) and by using a professional, highly realistic "threat" force. Higher quality objective extrinsic feedback is provided through structured multi-media after action review processes supported by objective event and performance data.

The CTC(L)'s ability to fully exploit the CTC methodology is currently limited by the lack of a complete set of live simulation devices for combined-arms teams to undergo highly realistic combat training in the field. It is also limited by the lack of an integrated range instrumentation, communication and information system to allow the exercise director and observer/trainers to monitor field training, and to prepare and deliver comprehensive after action reviews in the field using multimedia tools.

Live simulation and range instrumentation is essential if the trainees' actions in a simulated mission, or series of missions, are to be measured objectively and recorded for use in a multimedia after action debriefing. Who saw who and when? Who shot who and when? Where were you exactly at that time? Valid data of this nature will be transmitted back to an exercise control centre in the field to allow in depth analysis of what actually happened, what worked and what didn't, and what might have worked, to maximise the effectiveness of the training experience - and of the training resources expended. The definition of live simulation in this context is "a representation of military operations using real military personnel and instrumented real equipment, that simulate to a specified fidelity the experiences that would occur during actual combat or operational conditions." International experience shows that instrumented live-simulation based CTCs can double the effectiveness of traditional training regimes.

Land 134 phase one seeks to provide a core live-simulation, range-instrumentation and information system (CTC-LIS) for the CTC(L) by 2006. The project was initiated in the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) in June 2000, and the integrated team completed its definition phase and Operational Concept Description (OCD) late last year - ahead of program approval. During that stage, the project office consulted industry and some overseas CTC programs in order to identify acquisition lessons and risk areas, and to validate its OCD. Defence approved the capability business case for phase one in February 2001 after the White Paper's outcomes were known.

There are currently three evolutionary acquisition phases envisaged for Land 134. Phase one will provide the "core" CTC-LIS suitable for company or combat-team sized CTC(L) training at any of Defence's major training areas in Australia. Phase two is planned to grow the core CTC-LIS into the "objective system" for battle-group level training involving combat aviation, other force elements and potentially an instrumented military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) capability. Phase two is understood to be in the Pink Book's outer years. Phase three - beyond the current programming horizon - might be the first product improvement, or technology insertion stage. In light of this, the project office is placing an emphasis on the core CTC-LIS being transportable, modular with an open architecture, using open industry standards, and being able to interoperate with the new High Level Architecture (HLA) based ASE.

Land 134 phase one is a Category Three project ($20 to $60 million). Phase two may be a Category Two project ($60 to $200 million), depending upon future Defence programming considerations and Army's requirements in the CTC master plan.

The project intends to acquire the CTC-LIS from an industry team that has significant experience and past performance with CTC systems and their through-life support. The successful prime contractor is also expected to be the CTC-LIS system integrator.

The CTC-LIS will consist of four segments. The Combat Training Area Segment will entail COTS live simulation equipment and appliqué instrumentation to capture exercise and event data. This involves position-location and data links for soldiers, vehicles, observer/trainers; appliqué weapon effects; and, battlefield-area-effects simulation.

The Communications and Telemetry Segment will include COTS electronic sub-systems and the associated electromagnetic spectrum needed to provide multi-mode communications and data networks throughout the live exercise area. This may involve the use of mobile, fixed or a combination of fixed and mobile relay stations.

The Operations and Control Segment might consist of COTS communication, information and multi-media sub-systems for CTC(L) staff to: plan and control exercises; manage data; prepare objective high-quality extrinsic feedback to exercise participants, export data to the Centre for Army Lessons (CAL); and facilitate live-play interaction with other virtual and constructive simulations.

A Contractor Support Segment will see a through-life CTC-LIS operation, management, support and maintenance package under a long term commercial turn-key arrangement, including regular technology refresh and the delivery of operator training.

At the time of writing, final Government approval for Land 134 Phase one to commence in financial year 2001/02 was anticipated by mid May in the context of the Federal Budget. The Project Director, Lieutenant Colonel Rohan Boyer, indicated that the project team was on schedule to release a Request for Proposal (RFP) in May upon Government approval, and to coincide the release with the annual Simulation Industry Association of Australia SimTecT conference and exhibition in Canberra. A Land 134 phase one RFP Industry Briefing is currently planned for June 1 at Russell Offices Canberra. There are expected to be opportunities for potential respondents to arrange one-on-one meetings with project staff in Canberra during June 4 to 7 to clarify the RFP requirements.

The project is not able to consider proposals based on private financing (PF) for phase one, however there may be scope for PF options in future phases.

The Land 134 RFP will be among the first to be based on the DMO's new SMART 2000 solicitation and contracting template. It is believed however that the project team has attempted to confine the RFP to seeking only outline fixed/firm price proposals based on high level functional requirements, and to keep the RFP as flexible and concise as possible but still able to be easily "grown" into a restricted RFT. RFP respondents are expected to be short-listed down to two by the end of 2001 in order to reduce the costs to industry of tendering.

The project will then release a restricted RFT to the shortlist, seeking detailed offers. Source selection and contract award is expected by the end of 2002. Deliveries, testing and preliminary acceptances are currently scheduled from early 2003 to end 2004. An operational evaluation period is anticipated for actual CTC(L) training rotations during 2005, with final acceptance of the core CTC-LIS capability by early 2006.

The project office will seek to form an integrated team with the successful contractor, based on appropriate alliance and partnering principles which include communication, collaboration, incentives, mutual benefit and risk sharing. This might potentially involve an appropriate integrated project board arrangement.

The Project Director has indicated that Land 134 will not set ambit local-content targets in the RFP, but will seek innovative proposals from industry to maximise local content where cost-effective, especially perhaps for in-country through-life support and the supply of commercially available information technology. Australian Industry Involvement (AII) objectives will be used to guide the evaluation of RFP proposals and to assist the project to seek benefits for local industry. The degree of local content proposed, and the degree to which potential suppliers aim to satisfy the project's operational and sectoral AII requirements, will be factors in the down-selection and source-selection decision process, but will be compared between proposals, rather than compared with a set target.

Potential contenders for Land 134 include the companies that have recently been or are currently competing for overseas CTC programs, such as Cubic Defense Systems, Lockheed Martin Information Systems, Oscmar International, SAAB Training Systems, SAIC, RUAG Electronics (formerly Swiss Electronics until May 1 this year), STN Atlas Elektronik and Thales.

By Daniel Cotterill, Canberra