FORT RILEY, Kan. -- The world of warfighter simulation training is ever-evolving and recent changes were at the heart of a Hub and Spoke Conference at Fort Riley's Mission Training Complex July 11 through 13.
The conference was the occasion for the implementation of a Multi-Resolution Federation-Brigade system, a newly enhanced portion of the Army Mission System Command, which provides relevant and integrated training environments for Soldiers from the individual levels to battalions, brigades and divisions across a wide spectrum of capabilities -- infantry, artillery, armor and cavalry.
The title of the conference, Hub and Spoke, refers to the arrangement of integrated training complexes in the United States.
According to Randy Ruhl, chief of the Mission Training Complex at Fort Hood, Texas, the hub and spoke concept is the Army approved concept for mission command training.
"We at Fort Hood are a hub for III Corps and we have spokes at Forts Riley, (Fort) Carson (Colorado), Fort Bliss (Texas) and Fort Sill (Oklahoma)," Ruhl said. "The hubs provide centralized contract management, resource management and we are responsible for the training standardization of mission command training across III Corps."
Small government staffs of five or six Army civilians at each installation oversee the work of approximately 300 contractors, Ruhl said. "So we are government-owned, contract-operated mission training complexes."
Other hubs, Ruhl said, include XVIII Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the U.S. Army-Pacific in Hawaii, and the U.S. Army-Europe in Grafenwöhr, Germany.
However, he said, "the one at III Corps is by far the largest and the busiest."
Not coincidentally, Fort Hood is home of the Army's III Corps. The 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley is part of III Corps which is, in turn, a major formation of the U.S. Forces Command. Other III Corps units include the 1st Cavalry Div. at Fort Hood, the 1st Armored Div. at Fort Bliss, the 4th Inf. Div. at Fort Carson and the 75th Field Artillery Brigade, at Fort Sill, as well as other units. Thus, the role of Fort Hood's MTC as the hub in the region is evident.
"It (the hub and spoke concept) is still expensive, but it's far more cost-effective than (equipping units and sending them into the field)," Ruhl said.
The key to the success of MRF-B and hub and spoke concept, according to Anthony Dokes, modeling and simulation chief for the Fort Riley MTC, Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security, is "integrated architecture."
"The AMSC is always evolving," Dokes said, adding that, even now, as the Army continually adapts to external threats to the nation and changes its emphasis from counter-insurgency fighting to more conventional confrontations, the AMSC is ready to change too.
Dokes also pointed out AMSC uses real-time classified data to build training scenarios that are relevant to Soldiers both on the ground and in the air, as well as leaders directing the missions.
What does all this mean for the warriors training to fight and win?
According to Patrick Lynch, the lead for gaming for Milvets Systems Technology, one of the contractors who implements and manages the system, it means they can occupy computer terminals that present engagement scenarios integrated by the AMSC.
"Based on what they see, Soldiers in forward observer positions can communicate with other assets to call for support," Lynch said.
The set-up itself, he said, "has been around for about eight years or so, but it gets upgraded all the time. This MRF-B system is really just another piece of the system, but it has been super enhanced. We can train in totally integrated environments."
What is the value of system integration? According to Ruhl, command post staffs are given information that comes from a variety of sources -- units that are training live in the field with the HITS and MILES technology, which uses lasers to register action in the field, simulations and gaming and virtual trainer information.
All are combined or integrated into one comprehensive scenario that prepares Soldiers and leadership for possible upcoming conflicts.
It is this same system that helps the 1st Infantry Division Soldiers and visiting units conduct Danger Focus exercises familiar at Fort Riley, Ruhl said.
"We can build exercises where the commander and the staffs really feel they are in theater and they're are going through the same stressors, the same issues they are going to have while they are deployed," he said. "We can simulate and stimulate their systems to replicate all of that. So when they complete an exercise, they are wrung-out mentally and physically just like they went through a couple of weeks of real deployment training."
Ruhl said during Danger Focus command post staffs are constructively fed simulations and they use gaming and virtual trainers also.
"So they can have a brigade, live, a brigade constructive and a brigade in the virtual world," he said.
Constructive means commanders will see icons on screens and actions are taken using those screen icons. They are not live, nor are they part of the gaming or virtual world.
The integration goes from the commanders of divisions and corps to the individual infantryman on the ground.
"All the individual warrior skills can be evaluated," said Buddy Hamilton, computer based instructor for Milvets Systems Technology, and former noncommissioned officer in the Army's Infantry. "We can find out where they are strong and where they are weak. We can evaluate one person or a crew, and we can evaluate a single vehicle or multiple vehicles. The system's potential is really untapped. That's the best way to put it."
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