Customer	U.S. Marine Corps, PMTRASYS
Users	Fire Support Coordination teams for Marine Corps Combined Arms Operations
Need	The skills associated with the planning and execution of combined arms operations in the Marines are trained via Combined Arms Exercises (CAXs) carried out at the Marine Corps training facilities. Each facility currently has a Combined Arms Staff Trainer (CAST) used as the setting to practice Marines in a variety of exercises. The Marine Corps is undergoing a project to upgrade the CAST facilities to a computer based system which will provide a host of new capabilities and functionality, while maintaining the important role of both human instructors and self-exercising teams. Exercises in the CAST facilities center on communication, coordination, and deconfliction in combined arms operations involving teams of personnel with different responsibilities. In the upgraded facilities, instructors will require a set of tools to help detect training points during the exercise, and compile them into after action debriefings for the exercising forces.
Solution	Stottler Henke developed several intelligent training components for CACCTUS with a combination of technologies, including intelligent simulation event detection, speech analysis on voice-over-IP communications, monitoring of commands given with digital C4I tools, and facilitated debrief construction. Battlespace geometry concepts must be applied by the exercising forces for the purpose of avoiding position and coordination conflicts on the battlefield which may result in fratricide. As a result, this places a requirement on the AAIRS system to monitor simulation events to determine when conflicts or potential conflicts occur. OneSAF provides the simulation for the system. In addition to detecting conflicts, AAIRS also provides a capability to determine the causal explanations for such events in the stream of verbal communications over networked radios and digital communications over common C4I tools. For example, if a ground unit is within the fragmentation area for an artillery shell delivered on an enemy target, then this is automatically detected as a training point which can be included in the after action review. This training point is accompanied by supporting information, including the ability to play back relevant communications recorded over the network. At the conclusion of an exercise, AAIRS provides utilities for automatically assembling training points into a debrief for after action reviews (AAR) with coordinated visual playback of 3D vignettes and audio playback of radio comms. A visual timeline provided with the debrief tools provides context for both instructors and the training audience.
Status	Initial prototypes included a plan evaluation tool for detecting potential battlespace geometry conflicts in a fire support plan, and a real time execution evaluation tool for detecting conflicts that occur during an exercise. An operational deliverable of the AAIRS toolset was completed in early 2009, with an automatically generated AAR which supports 3D video playback of significant detected events.
Related Applications	The results of this effort will be directly applicable for any project involving the integration of intelligent tutoring components with the OneSAF simulation base. The analysis of natural language voice communications for the purpose of explanation in an AAR also has many applications in other intelligent training systems. Also, the visual timeline-based debrief tools concepts are applicable for a wide variety of training domains.
Additional information	Debrief timelines screenshot Debrief playback   screenshot    video (.swf) I/ITSEC 2009 conference paper: Assessing Perceived Truth Versus Ground Truth in After Action Review. Training and Simulation Journal - CACCTUS takes root - New Marine sim moves staff training from sand table to PC I/ITSEC 2006 conference paper: Visually Based Timeline Debrief Toolset for Team Training AAR I/ITSEC 2005 conference paper: Automatic Causal Explanation Analysis for Combined Arms Training AAR