Advanced Predeployment Training
The US military has learned a lot of valuable lessons over the last eight years of war. The biggest of those lessons is predeployment training can sometimes lack the realism of the battlefield and convoy training is difficult to execute. The Marine Corps has taken steps to better train Marines preparing for deployment without the hassle of arranging training on actual roads using a system called Virtual Combat Convoy Training.
Virtual Combat Convoy Training has made it possible for Marines to conduct pre-deployment training in a controlled virtual environment where everything from the vehicles they will operate while on deployment to the weapons they will fire is perfectly replicated.
The basic VCCT unit consists of a modular trailer containing four octagonal rooms. A humvee replica sits inside each room, and a computer-generated scene is projected onto the walls around the
Marines inside the humvee for a 360-degree view.The Marine Corps owns eight VCCT simulators, costing $1.5 million each. Four are operated at Camp Upshur; the other four are located in Twentynine Palms, Calif.
At a cost of $1.5 million, the system isn’t cheap. However, the cost of this system is well worth the advantage of better training that can and will save lives once a unit arrives in country. Any type of combat situation can be simulated, and Marines experience a higher level of safety that could not be achieved on the open road.
During training prior to my deployment in 2007, our security folks spent days on the roads around Camp Lejeune practicing convoy operations. I specifically remember gripes and complaints about how hard it was to train for desert operations in an area that was lined with dense forests. With this system, the terrain, buildings, and environmental elements call be better simulated to match the area of operations a unit will operate in. The sense of familiarity and confidence this system imparts to Marines is invaluable.
The technology involved with this system could also lead to better training in the future. Full virtual reality training is quickly becoming possible in the upcoming years as new advances arrive. Future wars will see our forces train in completely simulated environments without many risks that they experience now. Better training will prepare our Marines for the fight.
