Embedded Training for ITCS

The US Army is continually faced with the task of providing the crew members of weapon systems with realistic, high-quality training. This training must be based on known principles of instructional design, yet meet the needs of specific weapon system based training issues. The problem of providing quality training compounded by a reduction in force, resulting in smaller crews. There will also be few trainers, training developers, and smaller support staff for production of training materials. In addition, training production costs are rising. The Crew size reductions in Army weapons systems have been made possible by Intelligent functions such as Decision Support Systems/Decision Aids which perform operations normally associated with crew members. These cooperative, computer-based systems will require a different level of training than was previously provided. Decision Support Systems are now being developed for armor and artillery, and these systems will require Embedded Training for all crew members. U.S. Army TACOM has developed a Vetronics Crew Display Demonstrator (VCDD) for development and evaluation of concepts relating to future vehicle-based weapons systems requirements. A major focus of this effort are the requirements for the Integrated Two-man Crew Station (ITCS). The ITCS architecture will integrate the physical, electronic, intelligent subsystems, training and control functions into a fieldable configuration. The effort proposed here is directed at the Embedded Training component .