http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20070309-9999-1b9cubic.html

TECHNOLOGY INC. | DEFENSE
Taking training to a new level

Cubic sees growth in blending combat, virtual simulations

By Bruce V. Bigelow

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

March 9, 2007

When Australian military forces gather in May and June for training
exercises at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, the troops and aircraft
will be wired with sensors and laser-based gear that enable units to
simulate combat.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20070309-9999-1b9cubic.html

TECHNOLOGY INC. | DEFENSE
Taking training to a new level

Cubic sees growth in blending combat, virtual simulations

By Bruce V. Bigelow

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

March 9, 2007

When Australian military forces gather in May and June for training
exercises at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, the troops and aircraft
will be wired with sensors and laser-based gear that enable units to
simulate combat.

RAY STRANGE / The Daily Telegraph

Australian soldiers carried laser transmitters and sensors supplied by
San Diego's Cubic Corp. during training at a mock village last year.

U.S. forces equipped with the same technology will participate in the
war games, called Talisman Sabre 2007, which mix the realism of combat
field maneuvers with “virtual” electronic training simulations.

The blend of virtual and real-world combat simulations represents the
latest trend in military training, which has grown into the biggest
business segment for San Diego's Cubic Corp. Moreover, experts say
that combining such technology in joint exercises with forces from
different countries is taking such training to a new level.

More than 15,000 Army, Navy and Marine Corps personnel are expected to
participate in Talisman Sabre, along with 12,000 Australian ground,
naval and air force personnel.

While U.S. and Australian military forces often train together, this
is the first exercise to link the electronic training systems of two
countries – and the implications are far-reaching.

Under the march of progress, war games have become increasingly
sophisticated.

In the early 1980s, the Army began using laser modules mounted on real
guns to enhance the realism of combat training. More recently,
training is moving to incorporate “constructive simulation” in which
real people interact with computer-simulated events.

RAY STRANGE /

The Daily Telegraph

Sensors mounted on helmets detect laser bursts fired by opposing
forces in training exercises.

Much of the technology in the upcoming Talisman Sabre exercise was
supplied by Cubic's defense applications business.

Cubic has long provided U.S. forces with its training systems. Sales
to the Pentagon account for about 75 percent of the company's defense
business, said Jerry Dinkel, president and chief executive of Cubic
Defense Systems.

In 2003, Cubic won a $45.6 million contract to provide “Land 134,” a
ground-combat training system for Australia's armed forces, Dinkel
said. Last month, Cubic announced it also would provide a $10 million
air-combat training system in time for the joint war games, scheduled
for June.

“One thing that makes it unique is how much integration will take
place,” Dinkel said. “Talisman Sabre will be a first in terms of the
extent of air and land forces, and to some extent naval forces, that
are involved in the exercise.”

If all goes according to plan, the technology will enable military
command centers throughout Australia and in Hawaii, Virginia and
Florida to monitor the training exercises as they unfold.

The system also will be sophisticated enough to enable troops on the
ground to call in simulated airstrikes by ground-support aircraft.

The 1,000-square-mile military training area north of Brisbane
features diverse terrain, including mountainous areas, rain forests,
coastal dunes, mangrove swamps and an extensive coastline for
amphibious operations.

During the training, each soldier wears a harness that features a GPS
electronic tracking device and a host of laser sensors. Laser
transmitting devices are mounted on Army-issued weapons, which are
equipped to fire blanks to add realism to the training. Each time a
soldier fires his rifle, the laser emits a burst of coded data that
enables the system to determine who fired and whether the shot was a
hit or miss, and assess casualties.

The system can even assess personnel casualties based on their
proximity to simulated hand grenades, artillery rounds, bombs and
missiles.

Under a smaller contract awarded last month, Cubic said it also is
installing its training instrumentation system in a new urban-
operations training facility that the Australians built at the
Shoalwater Bay Training Area.

In most cases, air-support missions will actually be flown by F-18
Hornet strike fighters equipped with electronic pods that enable the
computer network to simulate the effects of the jets' bombs and other
weapons.

In some cases, though, planners intend to use “virtual” airstrikes in
which U.S. pilots using ground-based flight simulators in Florida will
“fly” AC-130 gunships on simulated missions in Australia.

Some virtual missions also will be flown by Australian pilots in F-18
Hornet flight simulators at a Royal Australian Air Force facility near
Canberra.

Demonstrating the interoperability of the distributed simulation
networks is an important objective of the biennial training exercise.

Successfully integrating the systems would win kudos for Cubic, as
well as L-3 Communications, Raytheon Australia and other defense
contractors that developed the underlying technologies.

Cubic's defense sales increased to $143.3 million in the company's
fiscal first quarter that ended in December, and represented 70
percent of the total revenue. Sales of military training equipment is
by far the biggest segment, accounting for nearly 70 percent of
Cubic's defense business.

The initiative to link Australia's electronic training system to the
U.S. Joint National Training Center in Suffolk, Va., began in 2004
with talks between then-U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and
then-Australian Defence Minister Robert Hill.

“What came out of these high-level discussions was a directive to
improve the interoperability of our combined operations,” said Lt.
Col. Peter White of the Australian Defence Forces. “Our goal is to
make sure that interoperability between the two is as effective as
possible.”

Training Australian Defence Forces to use the ground-strike protocols
followed by U.S. military aircraft is a major goal of the exercise,
White said. Today, allied ground forces operating in Afghanistan and
Iraq often must rely on U.S. military aircraft for ground support.

“Using the Cubic systems, we'll have a fully integrated, live training
and simulation event, which means we can have a fuller and clearer
operating picture of what's happening,” White said. “It's very nice to
be able to practice these things before you get in (the war)
theater.”

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Bruce Bigelow: (619) 293-1314;