Army has new home sweet home-station training system, thanks to Cubic

Cubic Corp. has deployed the initial home-station instrumentation training system for the Army at Camp Casey, Korea.

The system, established at Camp Casey for the U.S. 8th Army, supports force-on-force engagement training for the Army's mechanized infantry company.

A home-station is a unit's military home base in the United States or a training site overseas. Unlike regional combat training centers, they lack infrastructure to support training.

Cubic Defense applications, a unit of the San Diego-based parent company, is delivering home-station training systems to U.S. and allied forces under a five-year contract worth $71.7 million. The Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation awarded the contract last year.

The system offers battle tracking, data collection and after-action reviews without the need for a fixed infrastructure. Home-station users can deploy it rapidly to support training between forces, from force to target, as well as joint and combined arms training.

The Camp Casey deployment includes player instrumentation that works in conjunction with laser engagement simulation, observer and controller equipment, and a transportable communications infrastructure. It supports training for dismounted infantry, vehicles, and observers and controllers. It can be expanded to integrate with more than 2,000 warfighters and 8,000 virtual and constructive entities.

Among the next facilities to get home-station training systems are Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and Slovakia. Those implementations are scheduled for fall 2006 and fall 2007, respectively.

Cubic has about 5,950 employees and had annual sales of $804 million in fiscal 2005. The company ranks No. 70 on Washington Technology's 2006 Top 100 list of the largest federal IT contractors.