LOCKHEED MARTIN DELIVERS WORLD’S LARGEST SIMULATION SYSTEM TO BRITISH ARMY         

3 July 2002

LONDON , United Kingdom – 3 July 2002 – The world’s largest and most sophisticated simulation system has been delivered successfully to the British Army by Lockheed Martin.

The Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (CATT), designed and built by Lockheed Martin UK Information Systems, will revolutionise armoured battlegroup warfare simulation. It consists of a highly advanced, networked suite of nearly 170 combat vehicle simulators – covering an area equivalent in size to three football pitches - in which 700 troops and commanders or more will be able to hone their battle skills prior to undertaking live training in the field.

The £250 million simulator is located at two facilities in purpose-built simulator halls – one in Warminster , England ; the other in Sennelager , Germany . The CATT simulators faithfully replicate the interiors of UK armoured vehicles such as Challenger II main battle tanks, Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicles and Scimitar armoured reconnaissance vehicles. Soldiers can fight against other soldiers in simulators or they can fight computer-generated forces. Following an exercise, the whole battle can be replayed in a lecture theatre for post-exercise analysis and assessment for After Action Review (AAR).

Graham McIntyre, Managing Director of Lockheed Martin UK Information Systems said: “CATT has been a very successful programme. It saves the environment, it reduces support costs and it lessens maintenance requirements, whilst achieving an exceptionally high standard of training that can be put to use wherever the Army is operating. When one considers its scale and complexity, the system positions Lockheed Martin UK Information Systems at the forefront of synthetic environment technology and allows us to use this valuable experience for other key programmes such as AVTS, MFTS and Watchkeeper.

“A combination of close working relationships with the DPA, Army and UK industry partners - including AMS and QinetiQ - has enabled us to deliver the whole system on time and to budget. We are justifiably proud of this achievement.”

Although CATT’s core technology was initially developed in the USA for the Close Combat Tactical Trainer (CCTT), it is has been adapted, and its mission objectives extended to include British Army doctrine for the UK requirement. That technology has then been inserted back into US programmes, benefiting end-users on both sides of the Atlantic . John Hallal, President of Lockheed Martin Information Systems in Orlando said: “Our commitment to providing technically advanced, high quality synthetic environments is demonstrated by our dedication to this programme and our plans to support it for the future.”

Battlegroup training is becoming increasingly more difficult to plan and manage. Bringing together many hundreds of vehicles and people for field exercises requires months of careful planning, great expanses of real estate and enormous cost. With CATT, exercise planners and commanders need not worry about environmental pressures, manpower demands or even requests for costly external assets and, of course, the system enables repeat training to perfect skills and tactics.

Realism is the key to CATT’s success and it gives the British Army the ability to train to levels previously unachievable. The interiors of the vehicles are replicated in detail, all interconnected by a Wide Area Network linking the two sites together to create a single virtual world, where the actual players are in fact hundreds of miles apart. The terrain database itself accurately replicates an area of 35,000 square kilometres, with areas such as Salisbury Plain, Northern Europe and a generic desert location being reproduced. The system generates a level of fidelity that enables trainees and Commanders to use real world topographical maps and intelligence data in mission rehearsal for ‘what if?’ training.

Rick Perez, Lockheed Martin’s CATT project director added: “The CATT synthetic environment puts a premium on reality: engines overheat if left idling too long; repairs are needed if vehicles are damaged, and supplies have to be brought up if the battlegroup is to be kept fighting. In addition, infantry commanders can disembark from their vehicle simulators and climb into an infantry simulator to continue the battle on foot – exactly as they would do in a live situation.

“The savings achieved by this simulator are enormous: to run an exercise like Saif Sarreea last year would cost tens of millions of pounds and yet we can run large scale exercises on CATT for a mere fraction of that. The only outlays are manpower, time and electricity.”

CATT will allow many other simulators to be integrated, thus creating a complete three-dimensional virtual battlespace. Other synthetic training systems, which might be linked to it in future, include: Medium Support Helicopter; Hawk Synthetic Training; Close Air Defence Detachment Engagement Trainer and the Apache Attack Helicopter trainer.

British soldiers have strongly endorsed the system, with one commenting: “It can replicate everything but the smell of the diesel.”

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Notes to Editors:

1. The CATT building houses simulators, the exercise control area, and after action review theatres (AARs). Army operations staff and LMIS support staff offices, as well as messing facilities for 400 exercise troops are also on site:

Simulators – There are 29 Challenger II simulators, 29 Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicle simulators, 4 Warrior OPV simulators, 8 Scimitar simulators, 16 Generic Vehicle simulators and 12 Dismounted Infantry simulators. To control computer-generated forces 10 battlegroup HQ mock-ups and 24 workstations are also provided. In the simulators themselves, all drill procedures are identical to the real vehicle as is the sound, vibration, and communications. To all intents anyone - from the individual soldier up to the brigade commander – will feel immersed in the complexities of the modern battlefield and gain the adrenaline rush that comes with real field operations. Exercise Control Area – This is the ‘operations room’ and is manned by 15 Army staff and LMIS technicians. It has more than 50 20” colour displays to monitor and control the battle scenario. It can also zoom in or out on specific parts of the battlefield as well as give a ‘magic carpet’ or Stealth view that can overfly the battlefield at up to 800 mph. This gives controllers the ability to quickly move to different parts of the battle, while also being able to keep an eye on the overall picture. After Action Review Theatres (AARs) – There are four, multi-media AARs that can seat 440 troops in total and can project multiple 10’x10’ images of the battlefield scenario. It enables training staff and commanders to review and analyse the performance of troops on exercise and provide immediate feedback for high quality training purposes. 2. Lockheed Martin UK Information Systems is the prime contractor in partnership with AMS and SAIC. An MoU between the US Army and UK MOD supports significant technology transfer in both directions. An international development team has participated on the programme including LMIS, DPA, AMS, SAIC, US Army STRICOM, the British Army (Land Warfare Training Centre) and QinetiQ.

3. CATT can simultaneously generate 1000 computer controlled vehicles of up to 85 different types.

4. It has in excess of one thousand image generator channels – each effectively a separate battlefield view – from 200 image generators. For example, there are seven separate visual channels for each Challenger II simulator.

5. The standards of testing have been incredibly demanding with some 5000 individual requirements needing to be demonstrated. Overall the trials programme has involved six months of rigorous testing over a 14-month period, which equates to 44,000 man-days of evaluation – an unprecedented amount.

6. CCTT, on which the CATT system is based, is a Lockheed Martin designed product in service with the US Army. 317 CCTT systems have been procured since 1992.

7. LMIS will be providing Contractor Logistic Support (CLS) services for the first three years of operation, with AMS providing much of the support staff. LMIS will be Post-Delivery Support (PDS) contractor for future upgrades and enhancements.

8. Lockheed Martin Information Systems is a leader in the design, development, installation, operation and integration of training and simulation systems for global defense, civil, and commercial markets. Training products and services in the Lockheed Martin portfolio span the training continuum of live, virtual, constructive and test-instrumentation domains for flight, naval, and ground systems applications. Addressing this continuum with products ranging from high fidelity virtual simulators to modern wargaming models and full-service schoolhouse operations, Lockheed Martin offers tailored solutions to address readiness needs.

9. Lockheed Martin UK Ltd. is a leader in systems integration working on major programmes spanning the aerospace, defence, civil and commercial sectors with significant capabilities in the transport infrastructure market. Lockheed Martin UK Ltd. has annual sales of approximately £600 million and enjoys more than 75 significant business partnerships in the UK . Lockheed Martin UK is a unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation and employs approximately 1,000 employees at over 20 facilities including London , Havant, Southampton, Yeovil, Swindon , Hertford, Bristol and Cornwall.

Contact:

Jeremy Greaves, on: +44 (0)2392 443977 or (mob) +44(0)7887 506338 email: jeremy.greaves@lmco.com 

Mark Douglas on +44 (0)20 7798 2850, or (mob) 07879 444081 email: mark.douglas@lmco.com