All of its special effects and high-tech imagery aside, though, JFETS offer's critical training in synchronizing artillery, air support and other fires and effects on the battlefield, said Maples. He said that training universal observers and battle staff in fires and effects capabilities and doctrine is vital to reducing the amount of time between identifying a target and delivering fires.
"I would say we've really got to look at 'sensor to effects' solutions," Maples said. "You've got to minimize the amount of time from the when you see the target ... until you produce the effects on the target. So we've got to have that whole linkage put together, and it's a pretty complex business. This is not easy. It has to be trained."
Service members of all branches and ranks will eventually train at the facility. Right now, there is no other facility comparable to JFETS, said Maples.
"We largely rely on our service component schools to ... train its component pieces of the armed services. What we don't have at this point is that integrated function that enables us to train members of all services in the applications of all of the joint fires and effects capabilities that are available to our armed services,” Maples said. “We have witnessed in Operation Iraqi and Operation Enduring Freedom ... how important it is for us to be able to integrate fully all of the joint fires and effects that are available to us. That's how we want to fight, as the armed services of the United States, in the future."
Maples said that JFETS is key to the future of training on joint fires and effects at Fort Sill.
"This is not optional. This is not 'nice to do.' This is how we're going to fight in the future, and we've got to train that way," he said.
"As we move into transforming joint fires and effects on Fort Sill, we've got to move into this Operational Fires Arena, and the potential for training battle staff, and the potential for integrated fires and effects at an operational level is key to the training that we're going to produce," Maples said.
JFETS is currently funded for $3.5 million in development this year, according to post officials, but it will be about 2006 before the first trainees step into its virtual training world.
Contractors completed the demonstration phase this week. Its 8,000 square feet houses an Open Terrain Module, Urban Terrain Module and a Fires and Effects Cell Module.
The OTM boasts the 150-degree, 15-foot-high by 30-foot-wide screen, with real-time, photo-realistic graphics, surround sound and artificial intelligence. Service members can be trained on mounted and dismounted call for fires.
In the UTM, a computer-generated city is projected on the wall in front of the trainee, while other soldiers' images (virtual humans) are projected on the wall to the left of the trainee. The trainee interacts with the virtual soldiers as a team during the exercise. The trainee acts as a universal observer, working through target related issues and calling for fire. Calling for fires and effects in an urban environment is the most challenging for a universal observer, because of the requirement to limit collateral damage and non-combatant casualties.
In the FECM, battle staffs oversee battlefield management and can be linked to each of the two other modules by story and voice communications, planning and integrating the generation of fires and effects.
Maples said the technology is not intended to replace live-fire training and may eventually be linked to live-fire training outside the facility.
