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Home : Media : News : News Article View

# Republic of Korea Marines Train in Convoy Simulator

By Cpl. Matthew Callahan

                Marine Corps Base Hawaii  –              
A line of tactical vehicles cruised down a long road, with nothing but desert and an open sky surrounding them. 

Beneath the squawking of radio chatter, the low hum of the armored truck engines droned on. 

The convoy approached an urban area, and the speed of the vehicles slowed. Simulated gunfire erupted from several locations in the town, prompting action from the turret gunners of the vehicles. 

They sent a hail of fire toward the enemy combatants and the 360-degree field of view being projected onto screens surrounding the mock humvee lit up with activity in the dark, cool room. 

Republic of Korea Marines, here for Exercise Rim of the Pacific, trained in the Combat Convoy Simulator on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, June 25, 2014, to hone their skills of operating vehicles in a hostile environment. 

Marines with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment acted as liaison between the ROK Marines and facility contractors. 

The CCS is designed to facilitate a space where units can train to conduct convoy operations, according to David Arita, a CCS contractor. It has six vehicle bays for troops to use. Four of the bays contain high-mobility, multipurpose wheeled vehicles and two medium tactical vehicle replacement trainers. 

“From communications to perfecting standard operating procedures, (units) can be put in different scenarios they can get used to, so if they do make mistakes it’s here, virtually, versus out in the real world,” Arita said.

The ROK Marines began their convoy simulation training by familiarizing themselves with the equipment. 

They took turns in various positions in the vehicles driving, taking the passenger seat as the vehicle commander, or occupying the turrets, which were armed with simulated M240B medium machine guns, and .50 caliber heavy machine guns, powered by gas to give realistic recoil when fired. All other personnel are armed with a variety of simulation small arms weapons.

During simulated convoy operations, all the vehicle bays are linked and have communication with one another. The convoy commander has communication with a mock command operations center, and personnel in each bay will see the other’s vehicles in real time.

The seats on the simulation vehicles are pressure sensitive, displaying personnel exiting the vehicle on-screen when someone exits the truck.

“There are certain types of training that are standard based on individual and collective tasks,” said Lee Fry, the modeling and simulations training facility manager. “Convoy plans and the skills that you can develop can be used in different environments, even if it’s local going from here to Bellows or to Kahuku training areas. If you practice those particular skills until they become automatic, when you’re doing something on the ground in the vehicle, you’re familiar with it,” Fry said.

He said some of the skills sharpen ed at the CCS are learning convoy plans, practicing good vehicle dispersion and how to effectively communicate with other trucks in a convoy.

The scenario ended for the ROK Marines when all enemy fighters were neutralized.

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