Minnesota Joe Posted February 21, 2001 Share Posted February 21, 2001 I friend of mine in the Guard told me about a "large truck that came by [his station] and had a combat simulator in it." He went on to tell me about how the operators let several of his fellow guardsmen and he inside where they got to take part in combat simulations. He described it as a room with a screen where you could choose a standard U.S. Army weapon (SAW, M-4, etc.) and commence to shoot "bad guys" on the screen. Later, at my recruiter's office, I was paging through an Army magazine and found an ad for this "FATS" system or what have you. Anyway, does anybody know anything about this stuff and if so, could you tell me why the (Minnesota) National Guard got to "play" with it while us active duty (or DEP) guys didn't? ------------------ Ah scheist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vcents Posted February 22, 2001 Share Posted February 22, 2001 Becasue it's Minnesota Fats... That was way to easy. WOOT!! ------------------ The only thing worse than fighting with allies is fighting without them. - Churchill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.Tankersley Posted February 22, 2001 Share Posted February 22, 2001 rimshot ::groans:: ------------------ Leland J. Tankersley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CavScout Posted February 22, 2001 Share Posted February 22, 2001 Originally posted by Minnesota Joe: I friend of mine in the Guard told me about a "large truck that came by [his station] and had a combat simulator in it." He went on to tell me about how the operators let several of his fellow guardsmen and he inside where they got to take part in combat simulations. He described it as a room with a screen where you could choose a standard U.S. Army weapon (SAW, M-4, etc.) and commence to shoot "bad guys" on the screen. Later, at my recruiter's office, I was paging through an Army magazine and found an ad for this "FATS" system or what have you. Anyway, does anybody know anything about this stuff and if so, could you tell me why the (Minnesota) National Guard got to "play" with it while us active duty (or DEP) guys didn't? Probably because the regular Army can afford to shoot real bullets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Los Posted February 22, 2001 Share Posted February 22, 2001 I've used FATS a number of times. It's quite neat. We have a large room maybe 20 m wide by 20 m deep. There is a firing line with I think ten points, two M203s, one SAW and the rest M16 (There is one M9 position too.) The weapons all all converted real weapons with pnuematic hoses going into them for recoil, as well as Miles type devices on the muzzles. A large projection screen is up front as well as a great sound system and several Miles emitters above the screen (yes you can set it to shoot back if youa re wearing Miles. In the rear are a few workstations and a large laserdisk player which holds the programs. A camo net covers the floor as well as a few sandbags at each firing point. The squad or group comes in and gets a quick breifing. Everyone covers down behind a point and you go through familiarization, zeroing, record firing and then scenarios. Range firing is both KD and pop-up. Everything is live actino photo realistic. the weapons kicjk as normal (but don't make the same noise) and you have to reload, clear jams and other stuff as normal. The scenarios range from house to house defense, woods, ambushes and other stuff. Each firing pont gets a score at the end saying hist and misses. It's really quite fun. As for training it helps stress fire rate and distribution, shooting at unclearly marked targets, and buddy team communication during firing. I imagine for civilians it would be a great blast. When you can't get out to live fire its a good cheap quick alternative. Hope that helps. Los Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minnesota Joe Posted February 22, 2001 Author Share Posted February 22, 2001 It does. I also remember my friend saying that to reload, you take the mag out and "slap it back in." He told me about how he dropped his and how it took him a bit to find it in the darkness. So the background is live action...but are the enemies? Not that it matters much, nothing beats MILES. ------------------ Ah scheist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warmaker Posted February 22, 2001 Share Posted February 22, 2001 In the Marine Corps I've tried out a trainer like that for a course I was going through. Tried it for the M16A2 and the M9 (Beretta 92F). IMO it's a nice training AID for problematic shooters since the setup includes a computer in the back that actually shows where your sights are drifting around all over the target. You can catch a number of problems that way it seems. But don't expect it replace live-fire training or even blanks. Why? That pneumatic pressure does not give the full recoil of the actual weapon. It can't even properly simulate a puny 9mm's kick. Not to mention you're in a nice, dark, room with no real weather conditions. You're comfortable and that's a problem. Simply pulling/slapping on a magazine doesn't ensure that a Marine properly knows "magazine retention" so he doesn't fumble his magazines or drops them due to lack of familarity. Somebody already mentioned the dulled down sound effects. Plus, it's weird having some cable hanging down from my weapon... In short, it's just a useful training aid and wouldn't replace the experience of live firing. ------------------ "Uncommon valor was a common virtue"-Adm.Chester Nimitz of the Marines on Iwo Jima [This message has been edited by Warmaker (edited 02-21-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt Steiner Posted February 22, 2001 Share Posted February 22, 2001 Hi all FATS stands for Firearms Training Simulators and we use them here in RUC. Our scenarios/situations are Police/Law Enforcement orintated rather than Military. But as our system originated in USA it included a lot of US Police stuff and several Military style target ranges. A good piece of kit but only as good as the effort the blokes using it put in, some seen it as a big video game and therby got little of use from it others like myself found it could simulate at least a little of pressure/stress of drawn Gun situations and just how wildly off-target normally good shots could be !! Have not used it in years and it may indeed be defunct for us now ? Cheers ------------------ Sgt Steiner Belfast NI UK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts