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CNN Live Today

Virtual Combat Simulation Convention

Aired December 03, 2002 - 11:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: While words of war are being bandied about in halls of government and in the press around the world, the material of war is now being spruced and getting examined these days. Sophisticated technology is being used to help troops get ready for war, and this, well before the first shot is ever fired.
CNN's Miles O'Brien is standing by now live at a toy store of sorts for the military. He's in Orlando at a place called -- that's being billed as the world's biggest simulator training event -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I mean, if you didn't know much about it and walked in here, you'd look at this huge facility here of more than 300 booths, and you'd say this is a gaming conference. And actually, a lot of the technology which has been involved in video games has been brought to bear in the real thing, the simulations that the military uses.

We've showed you a little bit of some of the other things that are going on here in the air. Let's show you exactly what the big guns can do, the simulated big guns that is.

Major Ray Compton (ph) with the United States Army is here to show us how a simulated Howitzer 155 is fired off. Let's get the demonstration under way right away until we get the conversation going.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go ahead and fire mission!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alpha 36, this is Fox Trot three niner (ph), we just fired a grid (ph). Over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fox Trot three niner (ph), this is Alpha 36, we just fired the grid (ph), out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grid (ph), 41053750, over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grid 4105375, out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One tank in the open, AT (ph) in effect, over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One tank in the open AT (ph) in effect, out.

O'BRIEN: All right, so, Major, what they're doing is that's the forward observer. This is the simulated command post. All of that information is being fed to a gun crew, which would be a couple kilometers away, right? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going to be a couple of kilometers away. You have a max range on this, about 30 kilometers, so they can be up to 30 kilometers away from the target.

O'BRIEN: All right, now, when the information gets to this crew right here, they don't know necessarily what they're shooting at, do they?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, all they're getting is the information of the round, the fuse, and the information of elevation of deflection of where to shoot this system.

O'BRIEN: And they actually put -- they actually build every shell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're averting the shell and the charge as it's happening.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Now, as they put it in, you're looking to test here, and the thing you're simulating is to get the teamwork going, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're doing the proper procedure that that task requires to fire this weapon.

O'BRIEN: All right, now, the guy over there is the man in charge. He is taking those coordinates that he has received on his computer from that forward observer, and aiming the gun just the way it's supposed to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.

O'BRIEN: All right. What are you looking for as a trainer in this kind of scenario?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And again is, we have observers, but the beauty of it, the computer system is recording all of those procedures. So, we know everything that he's leveling the bubble, that he's got the proper mils that are sitting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by, fire!

O'BRIEN: All right, simulated fire right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

O'BRIEN: And this is a long way away. This target is how far away now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, we're simulating about 20 kilometers -- 20 Ks away.

O'BRIEN: All right, and that shell is on its way to its target.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That shell is on its way to target. So, you're going to hear the time delay. O'BRIEN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what you're going to hear is you're going to hear a splash, you're going to hear the sound of the round coming over the top of your head.

O'BRIEN: OK, and that's what the forward observer will report then.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.

O'BRIEN: And then, we'll get an indication as to whether they made their target. Now, these forward observers, they use...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Splash.

O'BRIEN: OK, splash, it's over his ahead. That means we're going to see it hit that tank, we hope...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct, we hope.

O'BRIEN: ... in just a few moments with any luck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we say in the computer world, they've had a glitch.

O'BRIEN: They've had a glitch. All right, well, he's done it four times on tape just perfectly. Here we go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never mind.

O'BRIEN: Here we go. A little bit of a glitch. I hear it coming overhead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Impact.

O'BRIEN: There we go, and we got the impact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

O'BRIEN: This is useful, because it's a lot cheaper and easier to do training. It's a $1,000 a round for a real Howitzer round, isn't it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

O'BRIEN: So, I guess over time, these things can, in a way, pay for themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

O'BRIEN: All right, Major Ray Compton, United States Army, and the crew, kind of a delayed strike, but you still got to hit your target. We appreciate it.

And that's the latest from here. We're going to check out a little more on this, the world's largest military simulation convention -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, good deal. Try not to have too much fun there, Miles, OK?

O'BRIEN: All right.

HARRIS: We'll check back with you in a bit, OK?

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired December 3, 2002 - 11:24   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: While words of war are being bandied about in halls of government and in the press around the world, the material of war is now being spruced and getting examined these days. Sophisticated technology is being used to help troops get ready for war, and this, well before the first shot is ever fired.
CNN's Miles O'Brien is standing by now live at a toy store of sorts for the military. He's in Orlando at a place called -- that's being billed as the world's biggest simulator training event -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I mean, if you didn't know much about it and walked in here, you'd look at this huge facility here of more than 300 booths, and you'd say this is a gaming conference. And actually, a lot of the technology which has been involved in video games has been brought to bear in the real thing, the simulations that the military uses.

We've showed you a little bit of some of the other things that are going on here in the air. Let's show you exactly what the big guns can do, the simulated big guns that is.

Major Ray Compton (ph) with the United States Army is here to show us how a simulated Howitzer 155 is fired off. Let's get the demonstration under way right away until we get the conversation going.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go ahead and fire mission!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alpha 36, this is Fox Trot three niner (ph), we just fired a grid (ph). Over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fox Trot three niner (ph), this is Alpha 36, we just fired the grid (ph), out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grid (ph), 41053750, over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grid 4105375, out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One tank in the open, AT (ph) in effect, over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One tank in the open AT (ph) in effect, out.

O'BRIEN: All right, so, Major, what they're doing is that's the forward observer. This is the simulated command post. All of that information is being fed to a gun crew, which would be a couple kilometers away, right? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going to be a couple of kilometers away. You have a max range on this, about 30 kilometers, so they can be up to 30 kilometers away from the target.

O'BRIEN: All right, now, when the information gets to this crew right here, they don't know necessarily what they're shooting at, do they?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, all they're getting is the information of the round, the fuse, and the information of elevation of deflection of where to shoot this system.

O'BRIEN: And they actually put -- they actually build every shell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're averting the shell and the charge as it's happening.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Now, as they put it in, you're looking to test here, and the thing you're simulating is to get the teamwork going, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're doing the proper procedure that that task requires to fire this weapon.

O'BRIEN: All right, now, the guy over there is the man in charge. He is taking those coordinates that he has received on his computer from that forward observer, and aiming the gun just the way it's supposed to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.

O'BRIEN: All right. What are you looking for as a trainer in this kind of scenario?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And again is, we have observers, but the beauty of it, the computer system is recording all of those procedures. So, we know everything that he's leveling the bubble, that he's got the proper mils that are sitting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by, fire!

O'BRIEN: All right, simulated fire right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

O'BRIEN: And this is a long way away. This target is how far away now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, we're simulating about 20 kilometers -- 20 Ks away.

O'BRIEN: All right, and that shell is on its way to its target.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That shell is on its way to target. So, you're going to hear the time delay. O'BRIEN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what you're going to hear is you're going to hear a splash, you're going to hear the sound of the round coming over the top of your head.

O'BRIEN: OK, and that's what the forward observer will report then.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.

O'BRIEN: And then, we'll get an indication as to whether they made their target. Now, these forward observers, they use...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Splash.

O'BRIEN: OK, splash, it's over his ahead. That means we're going to see it hit that tank, we hope...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct, we hope.

O'BRIEN: ... in just a few moments with any luck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we say in the computer world, they've had a glitch.

O'BRIEN: They've had a glitch. All right, well, he's done it four times on tape just perfectly. Here we go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never mind.

O'BRIEN: Here we go. A little bit of a glitch. I hear it coming overhead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Impact.

O'BRIEN: There we go, and we got the impact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

O'BRIEN: This is useful, because it's a lot cheaper and easier to do training. It's a $1,000 a round for a real Howitzer round, isn't it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

O'BRIEN: So, I guess over time, these things can, in a way, pay for themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

O'BRIEN: All right, Major Ray Compton, United States Army, and the crew, kind of a delayed strike, but you still got to hit your target. We appreciate it.

And that's the latest from here. We're going to check out a little more on this, the world's largest military simulation convention -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, good deal. Try not to have too much fun there, Miles, OK?

O'BRIEN: All right.

HARRIS: We'll check back with you in a bit, OK?

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.