The United States Army Simulation and Training Technology Center (STTC) provides the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...

and

United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the Interior minister, interior, Home Secretary ...

, with applied research to develop simulation technologies, build on current simulation knowledge, and understand system of systems environments where human, agent, and teams are involved.

History

The STTC traces its lineage to 1983 when the

Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

(DARPA) started work on a technology to network a large number of manned simulators, emulators and semi-automated force simulations to form a

Distributed Interactive Simulation Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) is an IEEE standard for conducting real-time platform-level wargaming across multiple host computers and is used worldwide, especially by military organizations but also by other agencies such as those inv ...

(DIS) of a battlefield. DARPA ran the project from 1983 to 1989 and convinced the Army to use DIS technology. The

Army Science Board The Army Science Board (ASB) provides advice about army science to senior military leaders. The ASB is a Federal Advisory Committee organized under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. It is the United States Department of the Army senior scienti ...

studied the technology in 1991 and found a central management structure was necessary to ensure an integrated system. The Board's recommendation resulted in the

U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command The United States Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) is a major command of the United States Army headquartered at Fort Eustis, Virginia. It is charged with overseeing training of Army forces and the development of operational doctrine. ...

(TRADOC) and

United States Army Materiel Command The U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) is the primary provider of materiel to the United States Army. The command's mission includes the management of installations, as well as maintenance and parts distribution. AMC operates depots; arsenals; am ...

(AMC) sharing management responsibility for the new system. TRADOC designated its National Simulation Center (NSC) as its functional manager for controlling the requirements process. AMC created a new major subordinate command in 1992, the U.S. Army Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM) (its current name being PEO STRI) headquartered in Orlando, Florida, to serve as the technical manager for system execution. STRICOM consisted of two existing organizations, Project Manager Training Devices (PM TRADE) and Project Manager Instrumentation, Targets and Threat Simulators (PM ITTS), and two new organizations, Project Manager for Combined Arms Tactical Training (PM CATT) and Project Manager for Distributed Interactive Simulation (PM DIS). In the 1990s, the technology base group of STRICOM formed the Technology Development Center (TDC) and moved to a separate building from the rest of STRICOM. One of TDC's major efforts was the

University Affiliated Research Center A University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) is a strategic United States Department of Defense (DoD) research center associated with a university. UARCs are formally established by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD ...

(UARC) at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. The UARC was later renamed the

Institute for Creative Technologies The Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) is a University Affiliated Research Center at the University of Southern California located in Playa Vista, California. ICT was established in 1999 with funding from the US Army. Dr. Mike Andrew ...

(ICT). On October 1, 2002, TDC became provisionally part of

RDECOM The Combat Capabilities Development Command, (DEVCOM, aka CCDC) (formerly the United States Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM)) is a subordinate command of the United States Army Futures Command, U.S. Army Futures Comma ...

and was redesignated the STTC. The remaining elements of STRICOM became the Program Executive Office of Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation. In November 2003, STTC was renamed in honor of SFC Paul Ray Smith, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in

Operation Iraqi Freedom The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion by a United States-led coalition, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ba'athist governm ...

. RDECOM took permanent control of STTC effective March 1, 2004 in accordance with AMC Permanent Orders 049–2.

Components

ICT

In 1997 the National Research Council's Report "Modeling and Simulation: Linking Entertainment and Defense" identified a technology opportunity for leveraging DoD and Entertainment research. On 10 August 1999, DDRE approved the

(

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

)

( ICT) as a DoD

(UARC) as a collaboration between the Army, the

, and the entertainment industry. STTC is the executive agent for the Army's partnership with the ICT. As the executive agent, the STTC co-chairs the Technical Advisory Board with a representative from

ASA(ALT) The Office of the United States Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (ASA(ALT) pronounced ''A-salt'') is known as OASA(ALT). OASA(ALT) serves, when delegated, as the army acquisition executive, the senior pr ...

to review and execute research topics. STTC plays a major role in identifying opportunities and assisting the ICT with the integration and transition of technologies to the Army."ICT Description", 25 August 2005
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References

{{Coord, 28.5883, -81.1969, display=title Research installations of the United States Army Military technology Military simulation Orange County, Florida

History

Components

ICT

See also

References