The U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, a specialised agency of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), supports the planning, design, operation and maintenance of training ranges through the Ranges and Training Lands Program (RTLP). This programme ensures that training facilities are not only modern and sustainable, but also economically feasible and environmentally responsible. From small-arms training ranges to specialised facilities that simulate urban environments, the Huntsville, Alabama, facility manages about 15 million acres of training lands.

Designing training ranges to safely support live-fire combat maneuvers takes special expertise. At any given time, the USACE is developing 25 to 30 ranges, each taking up to six years to complete. The most complex sites are designed for aerial, armoured, motorised and/or dismounted exercises. A single range can cover as many as 6,000 acres, providing enough space for soldiers to learn how to acquire, engage and hit both stationary and moving targets at a distances of up to 2,400 meters.

In the past, ensuring targets were unobstructed by landforms or vegetation required complex line-of-sight analyses, in which a modelling programme indicated whether or not each target could be engaged. It typically took several weeks to design the optimal firing position - target objective alignments to fulfill the complex training requirements.

In 2003, the USACE partnered with HNTB to develop proprietary software for the planning and design of training ranges. The result was an innovative software programme called TrueViz OnTarget, which enables the review of hundreds of thousands of firing position-to-target pairings. Built on the Bentley solutions platform, TrueViz OnTarget integrates CAD, GIS, database management, and 3D modelling to make the design process more efficient.

Using TrueViz OnTarget, line-of-sight analysis that had taken weeks to complete can now be run in less than five minutes. In a story published last year in the USACE Huntsville Center Bulletin (April 2006), Mark Fleming, programme manager, Army Training Facilities Program Office, U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, said, “Applying this tool saves time and reduces the cost of constructing military training ranges, reduces contact with unexploded ordnance, reduces environmental impact and optimises training by making it more realistic.”

Step-by-step analysis
HNTB has worked with the USACE for more than 40 years and now acts as an extension of the USACE-Huntsville staff, providing consulting, engineering, and technology support. The company’s Federal Services Group and Technology Incubation Center collaborated to deliver the cross-discipline functionality that makes TrueViz OnTarget effective.

“When the software is loaded with data from a proposed military range’s terrain, targets, trails and other factors, designers can optimise the range design by evaluating earthwork alternatives, performing line-of-sight analysis and assisting master gunners in applying training requirements to the terrain,” said Juan Uribe, programme manager, Training Facilities, HNTB. “The software allows for visual verification and critical analysis of the range years before construction. This helps avoid costly adjustments and delays during construction and operations, providing our clients with better training facilities.”

Bentley solutions and data formats were standard for both USACE and HNTB, so making Bentley software the foundation for this customised tool was a natural choice. The challenge was to develop a library of standard range templates that can be used to rapidly create 3D models within the software environment. The 3D models become the starting point for design and facilitate the process of gaining stakeholder buy-in by verifying that the design meets the training objectives.

HNTB designed the TrueViz OnTarget software to enable accurate visualisation of the range design, which creates opportunities to achieve significant cost savings. Conducted at the 35 percent and 95 percent design review points, the line-of-sight analysis can calculate alignments for up to half a million training profiles. This analysis not only optimises the range design and number of required targets, but also eliminates line-of-sight issues during construction. The software also models firing positions and targets layouts to verify optimal camera locations.

“This tool is applicable to a wide variety of range types, including armour, small arms, convoy training, urban assault and aerial gunnery,” Uribe said. “It provides stakeholders a unique opportunity to test drive and approve the design prior to construction. Specifically, stakeholders can actively view and test different training strategies and quickly modify firing positions and target placements based on visualisation.”

During site development and construction, TrueViz OnTarget is used to verify training requirements and ensure that all expected training outcomes can be achieved or exceeded on the range. Once a range is operational, master gunners and range control personnel can use the software to assess facility performance and improve training and maintenance scheduling to minimise downtime. From the target availability database and GIS layer output, trainers can review range geometry and camera locations to design exercises such as an urban assault course.

TrueViz OnTarget has been used on 10 range design projects to date, with construction costs ranging from $15 million to $40 million per project. The software has saved an estimated $2 million to $4 million in cost avoidance per range by reducing unnecessary earthwork and unexploded ordnance/environmental impact mitigation.

Over the past four years, HNTB has enhanced the software to incorporate the latest training tasks in Army field manuals, which are routinely updated to address real-world lessons learned. The software automates the process of laying out ranges to fit new training task requirements. In the future, the USACE will use TrueViz OnTarget to modernise existing facilities, which become outdated due to changing weaponry and training requirements.

Live training in these technologically advanced facilities translates into better preparedness on the battlefield. By providing training ranges where soldiers can practice the skills they need to prevail, the USACE is contributing to the readiness of about one million active and reserve
troops.