TRAINERS AND COMBAT TRAINING

Red Star. May 21, 2009. By Anatoly Dokuchaev

"Trainers and Training Facilities" is a newly published 18th volume in the "Russia's Arms & Technologies. The XXI Century Encyclopedia" series. The project is a joint product by experts of the Russian Defense Ministry and the Russian defense complex, as well as scientists and journalist staff of the Publishing House "Arms & Technologies". This two-language, Russian and English, edition introduces a broad range of training aids and training systems forming an essential component of combat training within troops and manufactured by Russian defense sector makers. The encyclopedia is published under the general editorship of Anatoly Serdyukov, Russia's Defense Minister.

The new volume comprising 624 pages of text matter and images is a very timely publication. The current economic crisis brings economic issues also to the forefront of combat training. Russian and foreign experience in training of troops demonstrates high efficiency of employing training aids: 1) a major decrease (by 30-fold in aviation) in the cost of personnel training in handling of weapons; 2) a reduction (down to 50-70 percent) in the service life expenditure by expensive materiel, fuel and ammunition; 3) a reduction in the crew training and new materiel mastering time (by a factor of 6 for the Land Force materiel); and 4) a decrease in the failure rate of material and improvement in its operational use safety (this is particularly essential for aviation). At the same time, this ensures high efficiency of combat activities.

Some Western armies rely on special trainer systems in up to 80% of all training activities by Land Forces. Modern training aids for various applications are also broadly used in Russian Army.

And it is only natural that the book is opened with a detailed article entitled "Combat Training as the Basis for Day-to-Day Activities of Troops" by Hero of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Shamanov, Chief of the Russian Armed Forces' General Directorate for Combat Training and Service of Troops".

A top-priority field in the current evolution of Armed Forces is the improvement of the troop combat training system, which makes the essential content of day-to-day activities. And the systems of training aids are destined to provide comprehensive support for not simply the implementation of respective specialist and unit training programs but also for the long-term development of these. The idea standing out in the volume is that the modern stage of armament and war material (AWM) development is characterized by an increase in the role of training aids in combat training of troops. Specialists explain this by an increase in the sophistication of the AWM models and the methods and conditions of their operational use that make it necessary to extend the time of training; the growth in the AWM purchase and operation costs (the cost of AWM models has increased fivefold and more for the past 20 years); an increase in the failure rate in the process of mastering and operating sophisticated and expensive new AWM models; the necessity of saving funds and keeping safe materiel; the existence of special missions to train for which it is unreasonable or impossible to use real materiel (e.g. crew actions during a fire aboard the aircraft or the ship); the necessity of training tactical and special interaction of units and elements within different services of Armed Forces when conducting exercises or games; and environmental restrictions with respect to using real war materiel to train troops.

The systems of training aids described in the encyclopedia volume support all levels of combat training for troops: individual training of servicemen, teamwork of armament and materiel crews, proficiency of intertype forces, including motorized-rifle, tank, artillery, antiaircraft, helicopter and other units, and training of interaction among elements and staffs within various services and branches of Armed Forces in a range from tactical to operations and strategic levels. Altogether, the book presents over 250 models of trainer facilities and training systems.

"Models of modern instructional facilities the book contains give a notion of the system and integrated approach, - Nikolay Spassky, General Director and Editor-in-Chief of the Publishing House "Arms and Technologies", says. - Using these enables optimization of the combat training process, makes it much cheaper and less time-consuming to train forces and provides for a higher level of personnel training".

The book comprises six sections which present, with a breakdown by services of the Armed Forces, the most commonly used trainer systems, various simulators, computer-aided instructional systems, and naval, aircraft and space trainer systems enabling training of personnel and solution of different tasks, including in intertype teamwork.

The book presents a broad spectrum of training facilities and range equipment for Land Forces. The trainers for initial instruction of weapons operators include the BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle and BMD-1 airborne fighting vehicle gunner firing trainer (TNO-765N), the tabletop BMP-2 IFV and BMD-3 AFV gunner (commander) firing trainer (TKNO-675N), the tabletop BTR-80M APC gunner firing trainer (TN-80) and the T-55M (T-55AM) and T-63M (T-62AM) TNT-2sh tank gunner trainers. The reader is introduced to the whole range of classroom crew firing trainers and the APC and T-80B, T-80U, T-72B and T-72S tank crew field firing trainers with integrated tank crew tactical and firing trainers. The same section also presents 16 trainers for armored and antiaircraft missile system vehicle driver mechanics (ZRK S-300, Osa-AKM and others).

The antitank weapon and gun trainers encompass training of operators and crews for nearly all systems in service with Russian Army in a range from the Kornet-E antitank missile system to the 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled howitzer. A particular item of interest is the 9F862 integrated trainer for training crews of the Krasnopol guided weapons artillery system.

The authors could not certainly ignore small-arms trainers generally used by troops. These include the 9F700-1 trainer for the RPG-7V grenade launcher operators, the 9F838 platoon set of laser fire and engagement simulators, the Malva interactive electronic system and others.

There is a special section introducing training facilities for the Air Force AD crews. These include antiaircraft missile system and electronic warfare trainers. Of special interest for military experts are the Air Force AD target missiles and target systems, including the PNK Lisa-M mobile ground system, the Sinitsa and Korshun target missiles, a target system with the Peniye air target simulator and others.

The AF flight personnel and engineer training facilities support training of pilots for the MiG, Su, Il-78, Yak-130 and L-39 airplanes, the Mi-24PN, Mi-28N, Mi-35M, Mi-8MT and Ka-50 helicopters and other aircraft. This section also introduces the readers to the capabilities of computer-aided instructional systems.

The Navy represents the whole realm of military hardware and weapons. That is why the book introduces complete ranges of trainers, including integrated, special-purpose and computer-aided training systems and submersible trainers. These enable training of both separate personnel and ship crews as the whole, e.g. the Listva submarine crew training system and an integrated ship damage control trainer.

Giving extra weight to the encyclopedia volume are the articles that precede, as a rule, its sections and subsections. These provide an overall notion of training facilities and their development trends. Thus, the section devoted to naval trainers is opened with an article entitled "Status and Development Paths of Naval Training Facilities" by Rear-Admiral Vladimir Vasyukov, Chief of the Russian Federation Defense Ministry's 24th Central Research Institute, while Aleksandr Leshchina, Chief Trainer Designer of CDB MT "Rubin" and Anatoly Gavrilenko, Head of the Damage Control Team at "Rubin", tell about the trends in development of the submarine crew training aids.

Of special interest not just for specialists but also for the broad range of the Krasnaya Zvezda readers will be cosmonaut training facilities. The book presents technologies of space trainers and trainer systems, including space trainers to train Russian and international crews for the Mir orbital station, a trainer system for training cosmonauts under the International Space Station program, trainers of the ISS orbital complex, space flight simulators and so on.

A separate section in the volume introduces major developers of instructional and training systems for combat training of troops and their capabilities in production of training aids. This is the right time to say that the title sponsor for the edition is VTB Bank.

The book uses the Unified Classifier of Items (UCI) of the Russian Federation Armed Forces which is compatible with similar foreign classifiers.

The saturation of troops with precision weapons and ammunition, sophisticated combat systems and military electronics has brought about the task of building various training and range equipments, a training computer database and dedicated trainer systems to support development of skills by military hardware operators. The new encyclopedia volume, "Trainers and Training Facilities", gives every evidence that this task is solved successfully.