FORT SILL, Okla.--Hollywood has hit Fort Sill and more than 11,000 Soldiers and Marines have taken part in what they left behind: the Joint Fires and Effects Training System. No movie stars are in attendance, but plenty of special effects are still intact.
"You're actually standing in a sound stage. This was built by people who worked in the entertainment industry," said Richard Bleau, JFETS operator.
JFETS immerses students in realistic environments they would encounter in the field as forward observers. It was built in 2004 and so far is the only training system of its kind.
When students step inside one of the virtual battlefields, they use what looks like a lightweight laser designated range finder and M-22 binoculars. These are the tools they would use in the field, but at JFETS they are actually simulated military equipment. Inside they have mini-computers which send information to the operating system and an image generator gives feedback almost instantaneously.
Soldiers from the Basic Officers Leadership Course were training on a dreary December day, but inside the Urban Terrain Module, many had beads of sweat rolling down their foreheads.
"In the summertime we can get the temperature of the room up to 100 degrees if our furnace is really working," said Bleau.
The reason for the heat is because it's simulating a room from the Middle East. Looking around, it's complete with tapestries fitting of the region, along with a few embellishments like a plastic rat.
In the UTM, students look out one of three windows for targets. The scenery outside might look like Fort Sill, but it's actually computer-generated images that can be changed to generic urban terrain or even the mountainous countryside of Korea.
Besides the Urban Terrain Module, the system has an Open Terrain Module and a Close Air Support Module. The OTM looks like an open desert range, and inside the CASM students are surrounded by 320 degrees of simulated scenery.
After the training, another aspect of JFETS technology offers students unique views of the action. The after action review room is equipped with several screens which can show recorded video of all the actions students made in the modules, including the virtual ones.
This may have been the first hands-on experience for the BOLC students, but they agreed the high-tech training was worthwhile.
"We already had classes on all of this but the biggest thing is just building confidence in using it. The more times you go through this type of training the more familiar you are with the equipment," said 2nd Lt. Michael Sprigg.
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