If all goes according to plan, the
next few years will witness a
dramatic increase in units
stopping by their local training
audiovisual support center
and checking out new training kits that
will significantly enhance the effective-
ness of their home-station training op-
portunities.
At least that’s the vision of LTC Chuck
Worshim, product manager for Combat
Training Instrumentation Systems (PM
CTIS), under the project manager for
Training Devices (PM TRADE), within the
Program Executive Office for Simulation,
Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI).
50 ARMY � December 2012
Homestation InstrumentationTraining System(HITS) By Scott R. GourleyEvelyn Burns
According to Worshim, the Army’s Homesta-
tion Instrumentation Training System (HITS)
represents a new program of record designed
to introduce instrumentation into local live
training events to enhance the impact of that
training. Consisting of an Interim Range Sys-
tem (IRS), vehicle radio, soldier radio, field af-
ter action review (AAR) kit, exercise control
and operator workstation, HITS supports col-
lective maneuver training for platoon through
battalion units.
December 2012 � ARMY 51
Clockwise from opposite page: A soldier at Fort Hood, Texas,wears Homestation Instrumentation Training System (HITS)gear, which is used in live-training exercises. Saab is currentlydelivering the Live Training Transformation Interim Range System (LT2-IRS), the HITS interim communication system solution. During an annual bilateral exercise, soldiers from the 442nd Infantry and armed forces of the Philippines use Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement Systems, which tie intothe Initial-HITS and offer review of training success or failure.Sa
ab
U.S. M
arine Corps/Gy. Sgt. M
atthew
Holly
“For the last 20-plus years the CTCs [combat training cen-ters] have always had an instrumentation capability,” Wor-shim explained, “and that’s one component of what makesthem what they are: the ability of instrumentation to ‘be theeye in the sky,’ if you will, recording the movements and ac-tions of soldiers on the ground. That information allows theArmy to then come back during an AAR to let the soldiersknow what they did wrong, what they did well, where theyneed improvement, what training they should sustain andhow they should direct their training focus moving forward.“In its simplest form, HITS, along with TES [Tactical En-
gagement System]—more commonly referred to as MILES[Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System] Individ-ual Weapon System—provides the ability for home-stationtrainers to conduct instrumented after action reviews byproviding them with historical, factual data to show whereunits need to sustain or improve their training,” he said.
Programmatically, Worshim pointed to the factthat HITS received its Milestone C full rate pro-duction decision in the past year, with subse-quent fielding to both Fort Hood and Fort Bliss,Texas, before the end of fiscal year 2012.
Outlining the system operation, Worshim explained thatHITS will interface with the whole family of MILES, in-cluding the new MILES Individual Weapon System.
“With ‘old MILES’ you were basically able to play a ‘lasertag game,’ back and forth, with some audible sound that in-dicated someone was hit,” he said. “That was the greatessence of MILES—to control that battlefield. But now [withHITS] we have taken things a step further to say, ‘I can takethose actions on the battlefield and import them into an au-tomated application that will now display to a soldier thebattlefield locations and the firing lines from shooters to tar-gets. That’s something that you just didn’t get before withMILES. You had guys walking around—OCs [observer/controllers] or trainers—saying, ‘You’re dead, you can’tshoot,’ and so forth.” Now, he explained, events take placein real time. Later, following the “battle,” soldiers can viewon screen what actually took place.“That ability also helps to reduce some of the challenges
you have when you’re having training events and you haveOCs trying to ‘train’ the unit by saying, ‘This is what I saw;you did this,’” he added. “Well, sometimes you may havethe [trainee] disagreeing, but HITS takes away all of thatambiguity because it will show you and play back whatsomeone did or didn’t do.”It will also provide that information to the field environ-
ment in a very rapid manner. With AAR response timing,for example, Worshim said that the HITS formal playbackrequirement is “within two hours” but could be signifi-cantly less “depending on what the trainer or the OCwants to see.”“The trainer is already talking to the [HITS] operator,
who is helping him put together the AAR,” he said. “Theoperator will already have a good rough cut of what thattrainer is looking for—burned to a DVD. Basically the op-erator can verify that the images reflect the scenarios thatthe trainer wants to talk the unit through. Once that’s con-firmed, the DVD goes out with portable monitors that canbe taken to the field location and played for the AAR.When I first got the time requirement of ‘within twohours,’ that was articulating or trying to judge time, dis-tance and everything. HITS is normally centrally located ata place with training taking place in excess of 20 kilometersfrom that suite of HITS computers. So it’s really [a matterof] how long it takes someone to drive out to that site.“The HITS operators really build the AAR,” he added.
“They reflect what the trainers want to train that platoon orcompany on. So if a trainer just wants to show actions at theobjective, for example, there is the potential that I couldhave those actions on the objective generated and burned toa DVD in 30–45 minutes. Then as quickly as that DVD couldbe handed off and inserted into a DVD player, you’re seeingit right there on the monitors. So there’s not a huge time de-lay. It’s all dependent on what it is that’s being trained andthe actions the trainer wants the unit to take from it.”LTC Worshim continued, “The [beauty of] HITS is that
you don’t have to go through this extreme editing processto ‘make something pretty.’ It’s bare-boned, in the field,and gives the AAR process as much factual data as you cangive so that soldiers can go back and, if they have to do itagain, do it differently so their buddy doesn’t get killed.”
52 ARMY � December 2012
LTC Chuck Worshim, product manager for CombatTraining Instrumentation Systems, Program ExecutiveOffice for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation,says that HITS will enable home-station trainers toquickly evaluate the efficacy of individual training.
Scott R. Gourley, a freelance writer, is a contributing editor toARMY.
U.S. A
rmy
In addition, there is no prescribed concept of opera-tions, meaning that the system can be used in anymanner that helps enable unit training. That said,LTC Worshim was asked whether the recent fieldingto Fort Bliss (in September 2012)
might make HITS available for use asthe Army makes the transition fromNetwork Integration Evaluations (NIE)to Capability Integration Evaluations.“I think we’re really working with
training systems as a whole and howthey fit into the NIE,” he replied. “Ithink we really have to peel it back andask, ‘Where does a training system fitin the NIE, and are we using that sys-tem to assess its [benefits] to the Armyor are we using that training system tosomehow assess what proposed prod-uct an industry partner might be bring-ing for evaluation?’ But we have notcracked that code of where trainingsystems fit into the NIE yet.”In light of the system flexibility,
Worshim did offer one caution aboutpotential applications of HITS. “I hesi-tate to say that the data is real time,”he said, “because we don’t want tohave commanders standing over HITSoperators, monitoring what BravoCompany is doing. We don’t wantthat. That’s not what HITS was builtfor. HITS was built for the historicalrecord to support the AAR—not for acommander to control the battle.”
Shifting his glance toward future fieldings, he said, “Overthe next two years we’re going to be fielding HITS to moresites. In the January time frame we are looking at fielding toFort Campbell, Ky. Then in the March–April time frame we
December 2012 � ARMY 53
A screenshot pro-vided via the Initial-HITS during theannual Balikatanexercise in 2012tracks the real-timemovements of U.S.and Philippine sol-diers (identified inblue) as they moveto their objective.Enemy role playersare indicated in red.
HITS will enhance any training mission, anywhere, down to anemergency carry completed by soldiers of the 18th Military PoliceBrigade based in Sembach, Germany. HITS fielded to Fort Bliss,Texas, in September and is slated for Fort Campbell, Ky., in January.
Courtesy Photograph
U.S. A
rmy
are looking at fielding Fort Drum, N.Y., and then in the Julytime frame we plan to field in Korea. I’m on a fieldingschedule of about one HITS installation per quarter.”The sequential fieldings will also incorporate a number
of enhancements to the HITS design.“Some of the technology improvements that we are
making with HITS include going to a virtualization of thesuite of equipment,” Worshim explained. “That will helpto give HITS a smaller footprint, making it easier for thesoldier. We are also putting in the newest technologies aswe move forward in terms of both software and hardware.“So if I were to call Fort Hood my grandfather system to-
day, it is only that in terms of being big and bulky. If I lookat Fort Campbell or Fort Drum, now I will say that I havethe ‘grandson’ edition of HITS, but it still provides me withthe same capability. It’s just in a smaller footprint becauseof where we are with technology. … That will provide addi-tional advantages, like reducing sustainment costs in thelong term. As I get to my Version 3 of HITS I will go backand retrofit earlier versions, but I don’t want people to losesight of the fact that the capability is still the same, whetherit’s the bulky grandfather edition or the new grandson edi-tion,” he said.
In terms of industry participation, Worshim pointedto Saab Training USA (Orlando, Fla.) and EHS Tech-nologies (Moorestown, N.J.) as “the two primes forthe HITS subsystems right now. They are doing agreat job, and they have delivered the capabilities
that we have required,” he said, adding that the programoffice is looking to recompete those contracts “in the2013–2014 time frame.” Offering a takeaway message to warfighters, Worshim
said, “HITS is a very powerful enabler for the comman-ders at all levels, battalion and below, to train their sol-
diers. It provides commanders with an incredible capabil-ity that is easy to use, and it will provide you with moredata and information about the effectiveness of your train-ing program than any other tools that currently exist athome station today.“And part of that is that we are able to show a soldier at
home station where improvements need to be made whenhe is conducting training for wartime mission or deploy-ment to the CTC,” he said. “The more preparation that wecan give the soldier at home station the better that soldier isgoing to be prepared when executing at the CTCs or on adeployment. It’s funny, but sometimes the things we re-member best are not when someone is standing up or giv-ing us a paper to read. Instead it’s when you’re looking at avideo screen and realize, ‘I am the dot on that screen and Iwas moving, standing up, when I was shot.’ I need that sol-dier to play that back in his mind every time he goes to dothat operation. I want him to realize that he needs to getinto a prone position, because when he did it during home-station training he stood up and he got killed. When sol-diers see that, it’s a lot more powerful than having someonetalking about why they need to be in the prone position.”His takeaway for commanders was equally direct.“I want them to know that this is a new capability for
home station,” he said, “and I am convinced that once theyuse it and provide guidance to their subordinates on using iton live training events or field events, that they will see the[beauty] of what HITS offers. Once that word gets out thatwill be all that we really need, and they will see the capabil-ity, they will see how it improves the effectiveness of theirtraining, and they will see how the potential exists for themto improve the survivability of their soldiers by how they aretrained. You can’t put a dollar value on that. It’s somethingyou have to see to believe, and you will know that you arebetter for having used the system. HITS will sell itself.” �
54 ARMY � December 2012
LT2-IRS representsa low-risk solutionfor future growthbecause it meetsArmy Mobile In-
strumented Train-ing System com-
munication systemrequirements.
Saab
