Working Together Results in Big Payoff for Marine and Army Range Instrumentation Training

By Terri Bernhardt

Almost two years ago, the Army, PM TRADE (Project Manager for Training Devices), and Marine Corps, PM TRASYS (Program Manager for Training Systems), signed a formal agreement to collaborate on live training systems. Not only is the agreement (between the program managers) bringing realistic live training and interoperability to Marines and Army Soldiers, it is accelerating the delivery time and saving money!

When the services’ live training managers looked at their individual programs, they noted that nearly 80% of the requirements for Marine Corps MC-ITS (Marine Corps Instrumentation Training System) were already being accomplished for U.S. Army Soldiers. After a closer look, they realized they would actually get their training systems into the hands of marines quicker and save countless program dollars by collaborating.

“Once we saw how the Army Live Training Transformation program tracked to our Range Modernization/Transformation requirements,” stated Pete O’Halloran, Marine Corps-Instrumentation Training System (MC-ITS) . Project Manager, “it was just a matter of sitting down and working out the details that would save program funding and get live training to our Marines faster and more efficiently.”

As a major stakeholder in the Army’s Live Training Transformation strategy, the Marines use the Common Training Instrumentation Architecture (CTIA) in developing their range modernization program. In addition, the Army and Marine Corps work to identify opportunities in their other live training portfolios where collaboration makes sense. The benefits of the collaboration are:
• Government-Owned Software
• Player Unit Independent
• Reuse of LT2 Product-Line Infrastructure
• COST SAVINGS:
• Development
• Integration & Test
• User Training
• Sustainability & Maintenance
• Information Assurance Certification
• Supports Brigade and Below Training Events and Test Integration
• Interfaces with Joint Applications
• Improved Exercise Planning Tools
• Joint Service Partnership
• MC-ITS Reuse Strategy is Providing Two Additional Software Development Increments at no Additional Cost
• Cost is CHEAPER!
• Development and Deployment are FASTER!
• Joint Training becomes MORE EFFICIENT & Interoperable!

The Army project director, Mike Dillon is proud of the collaboration effort. “Working together in a spirit of jointness,” he said “is yielding real benefits. Our Marines and Army Soldiers are recipients as they receive better training, quicker and more efficiently – and that is the bottom line!”