APPLICATIONS

WASHINGTON -- The Virtual Emergency Response Training System (VERTS), a program being developed by the United States Army, will be demonstrated at the 2nd Annual Global Conference on Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Terrorism: Mitigation and Response, on Thursday, October 31, and Friday, November 1, at the Hilton Washington Hotel. Demonstrations will be held throughout both days of the Conference. VERTS was designed to train first responders and the National Guard's Civil Support Teams (CST), the personnel responsible for reacting to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) incidents that occur throughout the country, including, military installations, on performing assigned missions in the face of nuclear, biological and/or chemical terrorists' attacks through the use of virtual simulations. Environmental, safety, and cost restrictions preclude soldiers and other first responders from training for WMD in the real world; training with the VERTS can promote operational readiness by filling this training gap. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Joe Giunta, Armor Product Manager-Ground Combat Tactical Trainers, who is participating in the Conference, said the VERTS immerses trainees in a virtual environment using a rear screen projector or a head mounted display to view the virtual world. Colonel Giunta said, "Virtual cities (New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and the Jefferson City Airport) have been developed to support current training. This allows the trainees to practice in an environment that may be an actual WMD site, as was the case with New York City. "Immersed individuals use a mock-up of a chemical agent monitor (CAM) or other WMD detectors to move through the virtual world and to detect various Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical (NBC) agents. A Computer Generated Forces (CGF) application called VERTS Semi-Automated Forces (SAF) is used to populate the virtual environment with civilians, emergency responders, hostile forces, vehicles, and other elements. "This application can generate scenarios that depict various types of chemical and biological contamination of areas in the virtual world, allowing personnel to train without deploying costly resources or dangerous chemicals. Emergency responders wear their actual chem/bio equipment, including their protective suits, helmets, oxygen tanks, and other equipment while they train for their missions in the virtual simulators." In addition to supporting first responder training in a virtual environment, the VERTS can be used to rehearse tactics, techniques, and procedures for Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT). Soldiers can employ mockups of their individual weapons to maneuver and engage enemy forces in virtual Army MOUT sites, including the McKenna MOUT site (Ft Benning) and the Shughart-Gordon MOUT site (Ft Polk). In this role, the VERTS provides fire teams and squads from all service components with a viable precursor to live training, as well as mission rehearsal for operations abroad. The VERTS is based on technologies developed by the US Army Research Development & Engineering Command (RDECOM) and the Army Research Institute. PM GCTT (Ground Combat Tactical Trainers) from PEO STRI (Simulation, Training and Instrumentation) is leading the development and future deployment of this dual-use system to the Army, the National Guard, and other potential joint and interagency organizations. The 2nd Annual Global Conference on Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Terrorism: Mitigation and Response has been organized by E.J. Krause & Associates, Inc., a well known international conference planning firm, in association with Hudson Institute, an Indianapolis-based think tank that seeks to be America's premier source of applied research on enduring policy challenges. Conference sessions will focus on current federal/state programs and funding sources; vaccines, detection systems, and other products currently available; products currently being tested; federal/state/local cooperative efforts; and specialized equipment and clothing.