Fort McCoy’s Virtual Battle Space simulations training facility, which is part of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security (DPTMS), is one of many simulations areas at the installation that offers training service members a multitude of training capabilities, said Training Support Officer Rob Weisbrod with DPTMS.

Simulations training is a large part of operations during exercises at Fort McCoy, Weisbrod said, and the Virtual Battle Space simulator, also called Virtual Battle Space 3 (VBS3), is one that is utilized significantly by troops at Fort McCoy, especially Army Reserve and National Guard Soldiers.

One recent example of the facility being used by troops included dozens of Soldiers who were students with the Basic Leader Course at the Fort McCoy Noncommissioned Officer Academy. Dozens of Soldiers trained with the map reading and land-navigation capability of VBS3.

During that training, it trains Soldiers on the fundamentals of map reading; determining grid coordinates, terrain identification; and determining distance and elevation, intersection, and

resection.

Another example is when Army Reserve Soldiers completed gunnery training during Operation Cold Steel at Fort McCoy a few years ago. Operation Cold Steel was the Army Reserve’s first large-scale live-fire training and crew-served weapons qualification and validation exercise.

During that training, team members with the VBS3 facility played a direct role in training through use of the Mounted Machine Gun Trainer Plug-in Vehicle Crew Evaluator software program. The VBS3 software program allowed hundreds of Soldiers to see Fort McCoy ranges in virtual reality and helped each of the three-person gunnery crews practice for their actual range missions, said Mike Latour, senior consultant with contractor Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., which supports the DPTMS VBS3 facility.

“The program is great because it allows (the crew) to see what it’s like to be in their vehicles, see how to choose their targets, and helps them understand the scoring they will have during actual live-fire sessions,” Latour said about the training in a previous news article.

Weisbrod said the training approach with VBS3 is the traditional crawl, walk, run method. A description about VBS3 states that a “unit can accomplish individual performance measures of a task at a progressive pace appropriate to Soldier skill level and experience. Using the after-action report process in VBS3, the trainer can review performance of a task from several perspectives including aerial view, gun position, and first person.”

The description also states VBS3 “provides realistic semi-immersive environments, with large terrain areas, hundreds of simulated military and civilian entities and a range of generic, geo-typical terrain areas.” And, “VBS3 is tailored for tactical and combined arms training and mission rehearsal, and can be used for a wide range of semi-immersive simulation purposes, including visualization … (and) training development.”

Additionally, “VBS3 missions can be played back for all others to view using the after-action review process. VBS3 allows Soldiers to see what other Soldiers saw, to see sectors of fire, and to hear communications at any given point in the mission.”

“The VBS3 is a great capability for training,” Weisbrod said. “We’re proud to have it as part of our suite of simulations offerings.”

In addition to VBS3, some of the other simulations training facilities at Fort McCoy include the Engagement Skills Trainer, Warrior Skills Trainer, Mobile Marksmanship Trainer, Call for Fire Trainer, Virtual Clearance Training Suite, 660 Interactive Truck Driver Trainer, Joint Light Tactical Vehicle Interactive Driver Trainer, Rough Terrain Container Handler Simulator, and the All-Terrain Lifter Army System.

Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”

Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.

The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”

Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”