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Hey Guys, I just typed a small novel (below) about JRTC and thought I send
it out, it's answerin a question a friend asked about how the simulated comabt stuff works and has an example at the end. Excellent question (about what makes the bad guys run away during an exercise). The Army paid Grumman a shitload of cash to make "laser tag" stuff for us. It's called MILES and if you ever see a picture of an army unit on an exercise you will see that the soldier is wearing a harness over his normal Load Bearing Vest(LBV), the harness has four receptors on the front and four on the back, in addition there is a doughnut shaped belt of receptors that goes on the kevlar helmet. Vehicles also have receptors mounted to them, every thing from HMMV's to the tanks to the helicopters. Our weapons systems have transmitters on them, it'll look like a little box mounted on the front of the weapon, the box has a pressure sensor so every time the gas from a blank round firing hits it it fires a laser beam down range. If the laser beam strikes a receptor the guys harness will emit this God awful high pitched whine that lets everyone know he is down/dead. AT-4's and Dragons (bazooka like anti-armor weapons) are simulated by what are called Vipers, same weight, same size, except it fires a big powerful laser that will be strong enough to activate an enemy tanks MILES. The armor vehicles MILES game is pretty neat. There are two types of kills on a tank, a Mobility kill, and a critical kill. If the Viper or other weapon doesn't have a solid hit on a sensor in a critical area, a mobility kill will result which means the explosion just blew the trak of the vehicle but its' radios and weapons still work. A critical kill means, the vehicle and all inside are dead dead dead. If a tank gets a critical kill the MILES gear will actually shut the vehicle down and kill its radios. The guy will just be drivin along and then he will hear over his radio a females voice say, "Critical kill" and the only thing that will work on the vehicle after that are the brakes. So, direct fire weapons systems are pretty easy to replicate, target wears a receptor, shooter fires a transmitter. Indirect fire weapons though are a bit more difficult, whereas before the shooter always had eyes on the target and thus could directly place a laser beam on target, artillery often shoots targets that no one directly see. There are two ways around this. At the National Training Center (NTC) where they do all the armor against armor training, they have the MILES 2000 system. You have an armored motorized rifle company(MRC) sitting at point X, I have an observer 15Km away who, with optics can see your MRC, my FO calls in a fire mission, based on the target description a Bn 3 will be fired (54 rounds fired in 3 volleys as there are only 18 tubes in a Bn. The Observer-Controllers (OCs), kinna like referees, will monitor the Call for Fire from the observer to the tubes, and the OCs will take the fire mission data and plug it into their big MILES computer which will take into account any errors the observer may have made and any errors the gun batteries (instead of Artillery Companies we have artillery Batteries (6 guns)) may have made. When the gun batteries tell the observer that they have pulled the trigger, the OCs, who are always listening, will pull the Miles trigger. What happens then is a satellite hovering above NTC will blast down a laser with a footprint large enough to simulate the area 18 artillery rounds would take up, it will do this 3 times to simulate all 3 volleys landing. Any vehicles caught in this footprint will be assessed as damaged/destroyed. At JRTC where the Light Fighters (i.e. no armor assets organic to them) learn to play, we don't get no stinkin satellites. What we do there is, when a fire mission is called to the guns, the OCs will monitor it and enter the data in their computers, the computer will take into account any errors made by the FO and the guns and will spit out a grid coordinate, this grid will be passed to a "Fire Marker" which is a crazy guy with a four wheeler, a GPS, and a god gun (a hand held transmitter that fires a universal kill laser i.e. men to tanks and aircraft). I say crazy because these guys are civilians who get bonuses based on how fast they can get to the target grid. Their average response time is 4 1/2 minutes, which is about 3 minutes longer then it would be in real life so it's not as cool as MILES 2000. So you'll see these guys haulin ass through the woods on theses 4 wheelers tryin to get to their target grids on time, and God help you if he pulls up into your position and no you can't haul ass if you see one comin your way cause your OC who is walkin with your unit will zap you on the spot if he sees you runnin from a fire marker. I'll close this bad boy with a little story. "Oh shit, there I was" (all good 'war' stories gotta start with this). We had started the first phase of the rotation, "Entry into the Box" (the box is the JRTC engagement area) at 2300hrs the previous night and had fought our way 7 Km SW hand railing a road, identifying mine/wire obstacles and eliminating the Observers over watching them. It was 0800 the next morning and we were dead f-kin tired and had finally reached our main objective which was a road inter-section in a semi wooded area just to the south of the main air field that the rest of the Brigade Combat Team (BCT) was gonna use to lift in the rest of the support assets. There was a BIG triangular berm area just off the road, basically the dirt walls were 10 ft tall 50 yard long. We moved out of the tree line and occupied it cause at the time it looked like it would be super easy to defend, which was good cause we needed to hole up for a bit and catch out breath, plus our COLT team (Combat Observer Laser Team = mounted (on a HMMVV) FO's with Laser designators to guide Copperheads and Hellfire missiles, basically vehicle killers) and Bradley support vehicles had just 'discovered' (BOOM) a mine field at the intersection, this was happening as we were occupying the berm. So we detached a small element to go evac the Casualties from the vehicles, the 1SG and a couple of joes. 3 min later the 1SG and his team were nailed by anti-personnel mines surrounding the mine field while trying to aid the wounded inside the vehicles. At the same time a "Civilian" truck with two redneck lookin females showed up like they were fixin to drive right on through the road so we had to send a few guys out of the berm to stop/search the vehicle (at JRTC they employ real civilian actors to portray Civilians on the Battlefield or COBs, because in real life there are COBs and we gotta know how to deal with them and accomplish our mission at the same time). So we got the 1SG and a couple of guys down at the obstacle, a COB truck right outside the berm when the CO decides to go check on the obstacle. By this time we had been in this BIG berm (read TRP (Target Reference Point or somethin the enemy probably has his guns laid on just waitin for some morons to park their sad tired asses in there long enough to get a mission off)) for like 15 minutes when sure enough off in the distance we hear this vrrrrrm getting steadily louder and louder. We were so tired we were basically denying the obvious, "there's no way he's headed for us, please God don't let him be headed for us" basically you had an entire company in a 100 yard radius which is about the same size as a 82mm mortar impact area. So there we are listening to this 4 wheeler get closer and closer and basically all we can do is start to get all our gear back on and get ready to HAUL ass. Of course we can't legally run until the first round impacts. So this guys comes tearin down the road, shoots off the road and pulls SMACK DAB into the middle of the berm, jumps off his bike and starts UNLOADING with air burst Arty Simulators (basically a little flare gun that pops 1/4 sticks of TNT up 40 ft into the air to simulate incoming rounds. Note: these are only used when the grid is so accurate that using ground burst simulators would pose a hazard to troops). Basically what this told us is that we were setup, the baddies were just waitin for us cause the rounds were accurate on the first volley and needed no adjustment. So yeah, this joker is poppin off airburst TNT, after the first burst I yelled INCOMING and got up and hauled ASS. Luckily I was close to the exit and started movin out FAST, because between airbursts the Fire Marker was just sweeping left to right with the God gun as guys were scramblin tryin to get out. I got out of the Berm and just kept runnin a good 200M because I'm Artillery and I know what the burst radius is on these suckers. I looked back and saw the Infantry guys stoppin at a tree just outside the berm. Since there were no visible Real life ground bursts they thought they were safe. As I was yellin at them to keep movin an OC came out and just whacked em all (16 guys). As the rest of the people who made it out were still runnin, about 25 of us and we were all now 150-200M North of the berm, scattered all over hell. Little bunches of 5-6 guys runnin to trees and collapsing. Just as the last of the living made it out of the berm, we hear this vehicle come tearing outta the trees about 50M to our left and from lower ground. Sure enough it's a DsHKA (read Dishka, basically a 50 Cal on a friggin truck bed), so there this fucker is lighting us up from the left and enemy 82mm Mortar fire blastin our tail ends. Since the DsHKA was a high payoff TGT I was immediately on my net sreamin "Holy Shit we got a DsHKA here, Grid 785436 HELLLLPPPP!!!" At the same time we got Infantry guys tryin to suppress the joker on the back of truck with their M4's while trying to get two Vipers together (we were told by the OC's that the only thing they've ever seen kill vehicle here with was two Vipers fired at the same section of the vehicle at exactly the same time) but the Viper teams were scattered all over hell. All this happened within about 30 seconds, the CO had seen us come tearin outta the Berm and heard the DsHKA light up so he was on his net talkin to the Kiowa's (scout helicopters but they're armed). So we're pinned down, trying to suppress this truck while dodgin 50 Cal laser blasts (since its just MILES a blade of grass can deflect the laser). FINALLY the Kiowas show up (actually they got there respectably fast only 2-3 minutes) chase the bastard down and smash him with their hellfires. With 30 of 65 guys dead, and one DsHKA down, we were ready to get a little rest and then start huntin the mortar and other 2 DsHKAs that were supposed to be in the area. Basically we got the shit ambushed outta us, it was really a pretty nice setup on the enemies part. We were stupid enough to setup in an obvious terrain feature, one that was no doubt on the Enemy's target lists. So when the mortar rounds started droppin and we started pouring out of the berm there the 50 cal was waitin to mow down whoever didn't get killed by the Arty. Anyways, that's one of my JRTC stories and subsequently one of the largest e-mails I've ever written. So I'm gonna forward it to the rest of the guys. Welp, its about time to go get my drink on, talk to y'all later. LAWLER,OUT. <Hell, I thought Consultants had a lotta acronyms.....Hey when you guys go <through these exercises, what makes someone high tail out of an attack <stance...i.e. I know you're not firing live rounds at one another, so how <do they simulate real life scenarios? Also, in concerns with deer hunting, <I'll be headed down to Junction (our lease) to pull a trophy this weekend. <I'll probably freeze my ass off, but I've had my deer picked out since <Sept. Later. < <Dickey < < < <______________________________________________________________________ <The information contained in this communication is intended solely for the <use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed and others <authorized to receive it. It may contain confidential or legally privileged <information. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified <that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking any action in reliance <on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and may be <unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please notify <us immediately by responding to this email and then delete it from your <system. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young is neither liable for the proper and <complete transmission of the information contained in this communication <nor for any delay in its receipt. < _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.
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