The CATT centre will be housed in a building the size of two football pitches in Warminster that, in turn, will be able to be linked to a sister facility being built in Germany. The CATT system will enable crews, in simulators designed to replicate the interiors of armoured vehicle, to be able to view a realistic computer-generated world through simulated armoured vehicle periscopes. They will then fight a battle against a 'virtual foe', also generated by computer.
Commanders plan and view the exercise from battlegroup headquarters' simulators.
To make the exercise as effective as possible the system has been made extremely realistic. For example, engines overheat if left idle for too long, repairs are needed if vehicles are damaged and supplies have to be brought up if the battlegroup is to keep fighting. Mobile infantry commanders can disembark from an armoured vehicle simulator and then climb into a linked 'infantry' simulator to continue the battle 'on foot', exactly as they would do in a live situation. The 'players' in their simulators can fight against other players in simulators or computer-generated forces. They can exercise within a site or between the UK and German sites.