The artillery fire direction center simulation

Abstract

In recent years, declining budgets, limitations on artillery ammunition and decreases in training areas have reduced the opportunity to conduct live fire artillery training. For these reasons, simulation systems are available for providing an almost realistic training platform for the forward observer. One of them is "The Forward Observer Personal Computer Simulator (FOPCSIM)", which is the thesis work of two students, David Brannon and Michael Villandre. FOPCSIM is a useful tool for the training of the forward observer without major requirements. However, it is a stand-alone system and many of the actual procedures of the observed fire are provided by the system. This thesis presents another system which simulates the Fire Direction Center procedures during a firing mission. The two systems have a network communication for exchanging messages similarly with the real communication messages between the forward observer and the FDC. Now, the training of the forward observer is more realistic because this person must take into account the existence of the FDC, must wait for responses for each message sent out, and must deal with problems such as communication errors, time delays in sending and receiving messages, and modifications in the call for fire from the FDC. The new system will provide feedback by keeping a history of each mission and giving the observer the capability to review the process of each mission and make useful conclusions about performance.