1. Combat Procedure Trainer Leopard 2...

The GeSim Leopard 2 (combat procedure trainer) has received its lifetime extension. The Austrian Bundesheer has accepted the final delivery and resumes the training of its tank companies at the Combat School in Zwölfaxing near Vienna. The combat procedure trainer was originally manufactured in Germany in 1993, and later sold to Austria along with the Leopard 2A4 main battle tank. Steel Beasts Professional was chosen as the desired simulation software for a variety of reasons, among them the flexibility to connect the combat procedure trainer with the larger classroom network in a nearby building to embed the  platoon level simulator cabins in the tactical context of company team and even battalion scale exercises. As such, it now supports the inclusion of desktop trainer stations simulating other Austrian vehicles such as the Ulan IFV, or the LMV with its remote weapon station. The lifetime extension of the GeSim is the result of a collaborative effort where Diehl BGT Defence of Röthenbach, Germany took responsibility for the hardware part – replacement of obsolete electronic components, interfacing with control instruments, and expanding the simulator’s capability with the addition of extra sights and...

2. Lemur RWS for the Danish Army...

Current operations in Afghanistan have shifted the military’s attention to the role of the light vehicle. In asymmetric wars they are a preferred target for ambush – partly due to their greater number in theater, partly due to the insurgents’ perception that they are easier targets with similar reward, the death or injury of its occupants. With the vulnerability of light vehicles exposed in the first five years of involvement in this theater of operations, armies are adapting to these new circumstances. Well-known is the trend to up-armor vehicles for better crew protection as an intermediate solution. The following step was then to gradually replace the legacy fleet with new designs that withstand rifle fire and protect the crew from RPG and IED attacks as well as the general mine threat. Finally, another reaction is to add armament beyond the vehicle crews’ personal weapons, thus reducing the necessity to expose crew to small arms fire as it happens with traditional MGs on a hatch ring mount. Industry has responded to this demand with numerous new vehicle designs as well as the development of remote weapon stations (RWS), among which the most frequently picked variants offer freedom of choice to the customer to equip the station with regular 7.62mm caliber MGs, 12.7mm heavy MG, or 40mm grenade launcher gun. This spectrum of weapons seems to cover the current operational necessities in most cases. Equipping vehicles with a remote weapon station...

3. Virtual Simulations in Gunnery and Crew Procedure Training...

Over the past ten years eSim Games has expanded its original armor simulation game into a full-featured training solution which is currently employed by nine armies on four continents. Steel Beasts Professional is a PC based virtual simulation, suited for the training and education of crews of armored fighting vehicles in a wide spectrum of everyday training situations. It covers basic and advanced gunnery training for currently fourteen different AFV fire control systems, suitable for gunnery and crew procedure training. All this is being presented in a tactical context of up to battalion level task force strength. This is provided by a powerful yet easy to manage constructive simulation. It has semi-automated forces for realistic medium and high intensity combat scenarios involving armored and mechanized forces.   Gunnery training is supported by using 3rd party control handle replicas, or by integration of the software into new or existing crew trainer cabins. In cooperation with the Danish Army a series of new crew trainer cabins have been developed for the Leopard 1A5 and 2A5. New cabins are under construction for the CV90/35. Existing containerized simulators have been successfully retrofitted with Steel Beasts Professional. In close cooperation with its customers eSim Games has developed a solution where a microcontroller is programmed to transmit the system state of the simulator cabin to Steel Beasts Pro and to receive status updates from the simulated fire control system to activate control lights or to...