November 25, 2019: An American special effects firm (WestEfx) has developed an inexpensive way to create realistic looking Russian armored vehicles by creating metal and fabric kits that are installed on a hummer vehicle. These VisMod kits can turn a hummer into a wide range of Russian type armored vehicles. The most elaborate VisMod turns a hummer into a T-72 tank. This tank, and numerous variations is the most common tank used by Russian, Chinese, Iranian and North Korean forces. WestEfx can easily modify the basic T-72 into any of the advanced variants like the Russian T-90 or the Chinese Type 99,

The T-72 VisMod weighs 772 kg (1,700 pounds) and includes a turret that rotates 360 degrees plus realistic visual and audio sound effects of the 125mm gun firing. This VisMod can be equipped with MILES (Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System) gear for exercises that use MILES for scoring hits. Four soldiers operate the hummer and the VisMod. In effect, the T-72 VisMod turns a $30,000 hummer into a $50,000 replica of a T-72. This allows American troops to get realistic experience spotting T-72s on the battlefield.

There are VisMod kits for several other armored vehicles. The cost of the Vismod includes the installation of the kit and training on operation and maintenance. The kit is basically a metal frame covered with cloth panels. Electric motors and special electronics handle the rest. The main Vismod operator riding in the hummer operates the turret and 125mm gun with a joystick. Training for the Vismod crew includes how to drive the Vismod hummer realistically to mimic the movement of a real tank or other armored vehicles. There are also solar panels on the roof of the turret to supplement the hummer electrical supply used to operate the VisMod components.

The VisMod is a more practical economical approach to representing enemy armored vehicles. In the past, this was done by actually buying and maintaining Russian vehicles or modifying American armored vehicles. That approach was much more expensive, especially when it came to annual maintenance than VisMod hummers. The cost of VisMode is low enough that reserve units can use the VisMods at their local training areas. While the active duty forces can afford to buy to maintain Russian armored vehicles for training, reserve and National Guard units have less cash and VisMod gives them realistic “enemy armor)” for training at an affordable price.

The United States pioneered the use of instrumented (computers and other electronics) training areas where troops could engage in very realistic simulated combat, and VisMods are another development in that practice. For the ground troops, this involved the use of MILES equipment that the troops came to call “laser tag”. MILES has undergone several upgrades since first introduced three decades ago. A major step up from MILES is called I-TESS (Instrumented-Tactical Engagement Simulation System). This system has been around for about a decade and into its third generation. The U.S. Marine Corps has taken the lead in adopting this upgrade and the army eventually followed. The big change in I-TESS is that it provides more data and more realism. Hits now cause more realistic damage (to individual troops or vehicles) and all troops and vehicles are tracked (and recorded) in real-time. In addition to providing more compelling after-action briefing (where lessons learned are absorbed) the real-time monitoring allows the training staff to change the action in the middle of an exercise. This makes the training more realistic and useful. The more realistic damage includes dealing with the impact of grenades, shells, and bombs as well as chemical weapons.

Since the late 1990s South Korea, Russia, and China have followed the American example by building instrumented combat training ranges for their ground forces. Part of this involves forming a combat unit to play the "enemy" (opposing force or OPFOR) in these battalion and brigade sized training exercises. Each country finds, as did the Americans, that this OPFOR brigade or battalion becomes the most formidable combat unit in the country. That's because the OPFOR unit gets more combat practice than any other outfit.

In some countries, belonging to the training center OPFOR unit is a great honor and only the most competent applicants are allowed in. This was the case with the South Korean Jeongal Daedae (OPFOR battalion) which is very much an elite unit and troops who want to make a career of the army, or simply have something to brag about, hustle to qualify to join. Even after being accepted, candidates must pass a brutal three week training/screening period. Thus the South Korean OPFOR unit is probably the most formidable of all OPFOR units, which is what members of the Jeongal Daedae like to think.

This is all based on a breakthrough training system developed by the U.S. Army in the early 1980s. This began when the National Training Center (NTC), a 147,000 hectare (359,000 acre) facility in the Mohave Desert at Fort Irwin, California was established in 1982. There the United States Army revolutionized the training of ground combat troops with the development of MILES (laser tag) equipment for infantry and armored vehicles and the use of MILES in a large, "wired" (to record all activities), combat training area. Other countries soon realized the importance of these innovations and a few built their own NTC clones. NTC type training centers are usually built to enable a combat battalion or brigade to go through several weeks of very realistic combat exercises.

Other countries joined the NTC even earlier. Israel has been using and expanding its own NTC since the 1990s. This is their 39,000 hectare (98,000 acre) Tactical Training Center (TTC) at Ze'elim in the Negev desert. In addition to wide open areas for the training of armor, infantry, and artillery units, there are several villages and urban areas wired for training troops to fight in close quarters. Israel has now developed a portable version of this technology and many other innovations as well.

China opened its own version. The Chinese NTC was developed at the Zhurihe military base over the last decade. This is a big deal. It means the Chinese are really serious about training their ground combat troops to the highest standards. This kind of training is serious stuff, in part because it's expensive to use an NTC. It's not just the fuel and other supplies the troops will use, but the expense of staff to run the NTC and perform as OPFOR (opposing force). American intelligence officers track which units go through the Chinese NTC and mark them as likely to be much more effective in combat. Russia also opened its own NTC. Most major Western military powers have also adopted the NTC approach to combat training.

Ft. Irwin itself has been expanded. Since the 1980s, the United States has established many similar training centers, all using lots of electronics to assist the trainees in having a realistic experience while also enabling them to see their mistakes and learn from them.

Israeli and American manufacturers have individually, or through collaboration, developed new features for NTC type facilities. These include portable equipment that can allow any area to be wired to provide the same effect (constant monitoring, and recording, of everything everyone does). There are also VPUs (Vehicle Player Units) that make Hummers appear as armored vehicles (tanks, infantry vehicles, or artillery) to the monitoring system and save a lot of money (by not using the real thing). These are not as accurate as the VisMods and are an old method of representing armored vehicles for training. There is also a system that releases different colored smoke when a vehicle is hit, indicating if it is damaged or destroyed. Helicopters and warplanes, for example, are being wired to operate as part of NTC exercises.

NTC type training is not only very close to the experience troops get in actual combat, but it also stresses commanders the same way actual combat does. This enables commanders to test themselves, and their subordinate commanders, before they get into a real fight. You can also use NTC type facilities to experiment with new tactics, in addition to keeping troops well trained in whatever the current tactics are. This includes counter-terror operations as well as the kind of novel combat tactics that might be encountered in the future.

One of the critical aspects of this type of training is the playback. Instructors can edit the electronic record of who did what when and show commanders and troops where they made mistakes. This feedback makes the troops much more effective in the future.