Military Uses Video Game Technology To Teach How To Defeat IEDs

Posted Oct 18, 2011 by Howard Altman

Updated Oct 18, 2011 at 10:18 PM

Standing behind the 50-cal mounted on a Humvee, I didn’t see the RPG coming.

The one that blew me up.

Good thing it was only a simulation. Because like the young troops who really train on this souped-up video game system called the Mobile Counter Improvised Explosive Device Trainer – or MCIT in mil-speak - I lived. And learned.

And that was the point. Because what better way to teach young, attention-challenged troops who grow up playing video games how to detect and avoid IEDs than using video game technology?

The MCIT, contained in four, 40-foot trailers that take about six hours to set up, is designed to help troops survive their most dangerous adversary – IEDs - by reaching the young troops in a way that meetings cannot.

“Death by power point,” says Fred Silhol. He’s the MCIT trainer, an Army vet who works for A-T Solutions, the company that provided the Department of Defense 13 of these units for $1.8 million a pop.

Instead, troops who enter the trailers are greeted first by video screens blasting images of IED explosions and actors role playing a trooper back from a mission or an Afghan insurgent talking about blowing up Americans.

Another trailer is set up like an Afghan bomb-making factory, which is often found at someone’s home, with another actor role-playing “Omar” a bomb maker explaining his tradecraft and how to hide weapons, materials and money from ISAF forces.

The whole experience culminates in the fourth trailer, which is pretty much the dream jawn of any kid hooked on Call of Duty.

Which, once again, is the point, says Silhol.

The simulators, set up for squad-sized units of troops who have never been deployed, allow a “blue” team to try and avoid IEDs while a “red” team plants them and sets up locations where insurgents can hide.

It’s all done through a simulation system, complete with wide-screen monitors installed in the Humvees, “just like Call of Duty,” Silhol says.

As a trainer watches over them, the Blue Team, watching the action unfold on the monitor, tries to makes its way through the scenario without getting blown up. Meanwhile, the Red Team is given the choice between what types of explosive, detonation device and location. The best places are choke points and other places where ISAF forces have limited mobility.

After the exercise is over, a computer tallies a “score”, checking out variable such as enemy killed, devices avoided and standoff distance maintained for the Blue Team and ambush selection, site selection and number of kills for the Red Team.

The scores can be fed back to commanders to help find what’s working and not working in other areas of training.

The goal, says Silhol, is to teach troops “how to think like an insurgent.”

By knowing what insurgents are thinking, the troops have a better chance of knowing where the IEDs might be and thus, a better chance of surviving.

Centcom officials call this the next best thing to field training.

Since the MCIT system went online in 2009, more than 63,000 troops have trained on them.

Overall, the military’s training seems to be working.

The number of IED attacks in Afghanistan increased 26 percent from June to August compared to the previous year, according to Centcom stats.

But the number of effective attacks against coalition forces has actually dropped 3.5 percent in that same period while the number of IEDs cleared or found during dismounted operations has increased by 138 percent.

The MCIT tour was part of the opening day of Centcom’s third annual Countering IED Conference, held at the Vincent Tolbert Conference Center – known colloquially as “The Vince” at MacDill Air Force Base.

Maj. Gen Karl Horst, Centcom’s Chief of Staff, opened the conference by telling those attending that for him, IEDs aren’t just a theory.

A vehicle he was riding in was blown up by one in Baghdad.

“I am here today thanks to great equipment, well-trained soldiers and the grace of God,” the Horst told representatives of the military forces attending the international conference.

Training troops in how to cope with IEDs like the one that almost killed Horst is the theme of the three-day conference. IEDs are the “greatest threat” to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, Horst said.

The conference is designed to bring military leaders together to share their experiences and find new ways of overcoming the devices, most of which are made from easily obtained materials like fertilizer and cell phones.

About 160 military leaders are in Tampa for the conference.