Virtual practice makes perfect for new soldiers

The new simulator ensures soldiers can fire guns properly before using live ammunition. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The guns are rattling, the artillery is booming and the machineguns are blazing away at the Army's new weapons training facility, but not a single round of ammunition is being fired.

Instead, trainees at the Waiouru military camp's new state of the art simulator are waging war in the comfort of a computer-generated landscape, using weapons firing compressed air rather then bullets or shells.

The aim of the new computer-driven training system is to give raw recruits experience firing their weapons before they actually venture on to a rifle range and do it for real, project manager Major Monique Brown said.

"With this system we can tell whether the angle of the weapon is being held wrong, whether the recruit is snatching their trigger, whether or not they are flinching before or after they pull the trigger. All these quite in depth things are censored and we can go back and review it with the soldier," she said.

"We can get a soldier to fire right before they get on the live firing range."

The system is not just for new squaddies, with programmes written so trainee officers can practise techniques such as calling in air support.

Experienced soldiers about to go on overseas deployments will also be able to use the simulator to practise in something like the surroundings they will be faced with when they arrive, before being sent on their missions.

With plans to build similar ranges at Burnham and Linton camps, one day soldiers at all three camps will be able to play real life, real time war games against each other without ever venturing out into the wind, rain and cold.

The simulator is housed in a large warehouse. It contains two ranges, each with 12 lanes and their own weapons pits. Opposite the soldiers are three large screens, making it look like a cinema complex.

The British and Australian armies have similar ranges to Waiouru, which is the largest such facility in the Southern Hemisphere.

"This innovative piece of equipment gives the army the ability to use a variety of weaponry in high-tempo, real-time and challenging situations, without the intervention of adverse weather conditions," Chief of Army Major General Lou Gardiner said.

"This means more training days being available."