Marines to get 3-D battlefield sims

By

Michael Hardy

Lance Cpl. Brayden Blackmon, a machine gunner with weapons platoon, Echo Company, Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), from Ozark, Missouri, sights in on a target on an engagement skills trainer, Nov. 11. The 11th MEU is deployed with the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) as a theater reserve and crisis response force throughout U.S. Central Command and the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Melissa Wenger/Released)

The Marine Corps is getting new marksmanship trainers that immerse Marines in simulated 3-D battlefield environments, according to a report in Military Times.

In addition to improving combat marksmanship and tactics, the simulators also test the ability of Marines to make quick “shoot/no-shoot” judgment calls, according to the report. It works with new weapons, such as the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, and allows Marines taking the forward observer position to call for mortars, artillery, naval gunfire close air support, and close-in fire support.

Meggitt Training Systems will provide the simulators under a $32.7 million contract.

The system mimics actual ballistics, so that bullets, artillery shells and everything else in the scenario behaves as it would in real life, according to the report.

Read the Original: Military Times