Close-combat immersive training specialist 4GD has completed the installation of a new Level 2 SmartFacility training solution for the British Army’s 16 Air Assault Brigade in Colchester, Essex. The  combat training environment installation, which commenced on 4 January, equips 16 Brigade with an advanced 4GD close quarter battle training facility.

The Level 2 facility delivers a high-tech non-ballistic close quarter battle environment to warfighters. It incorporates the SmartFacility core capability, SimWall (Level 1), and 4GAV (Level 2), a special effects video monitoring system and Intelligent Facility Management System (iFCS). The latter ensures that the facility is compatible with 4GD’s recently launched ECFECTUS, a tactical performance data collection and analysis system, and ACIES, an integrated reality system that introduces the synthetic world to the physical SmartFacility environment.

SimWall is a rapidly reconfigurable, non-ballistic modular panel system. The panelling system  offers users thousands of rooms and building variations, all reconfigurable within minutes  to suit a range of specific mission scenarios and training objectives. 4GAV is a special effects and video monitoring system.  Using a combination of smoke, light (white/IR), sound, smell and  environmental  simulation (SFX), it immerses the user in a high-fidelity combat simulation.  The interactive special effects system is controlled by an intuitive user interface, delivers either sensor activated and reactive, or instructor-initiated effects, designed to heighten realism and replicate real-world effects on the soldier’s cognitive load. 

Training missions undertaken in the SmartFacility are viewed and controlled by an instructor using an intuitive dual tablet display. The facility is also equipped with a video feedback system for real-time and after-action review to ensure maximum training effects. “The rise of military operations in urban terrain has forced a complete rethink of how we train personnel to plan for, execute and win close-combat missions on the modern battlefield,” says James Crowley,  Business Development Director at 4GD. “We have designed our SmartFacility to blend virtual and physical elements so that teams can prepare for their mission in an immersive facility that  reflects the ever-changing and highly dynamic nature of the urban battlefield.”

16 Air Assault Brigade is the British Army’s airborne rapid reaction force. Specially trained and equipped to deploy by parachute, helicopter and air-landing, the Brigades core role is to maintain the Air Assault Task Force, a battlegroup held at high readiness to deploy worldwide for a full spectrum of missions, from non-combatant evacuation ops to war fighting.