The Minister Assisting the Minister of Defence, the Hon Bruce Billson MP, today opened the new ABRAMS M1A1 AIM Tank Driver Trainer and Relocatable Advanced Gunnery Trainer System, at the School of Armour in Puckapunyal, Victoria.

Mr Billson said that the new systems represent the state of the art in armoured vehicle simulation systems and will be commissioned prior to the arrival of the first ABRAMS M1A1 AIM tank into Australia. “These new systems will allow armoured crews and their instructors to be well prepared for the new vehicle.”

“Both the driver and gunnery trainers will allow for an increase in the quality of training whilst at the same time lowering operating costs of the tank fleet and reducing environmental impacts,” said Mr Billson. The systems potentially offer a two-thirds reduction in the ammunition and kilometres needed to qualify crew on the M1 AIM ABRAMS.

The driver training system is a full motion trainer that allows for a wide variety of terrain and weather conditions to be negotiated without leaving a class room environment. The system also enables other students to monitor the progress of the driver under training and the instructor can inject system failures for the driver to respond to, with no risk to vehicles or personnel.

The gunnery training system will enable rigorous monitoring and analysis of the training and performance of tank gunners and crew commanders. Use of the gunnery simulator offers the potential for significant savings in ammunition expenditure and a lowering of impact on the environment. Full recording and scoring of the crew’s performance occurs and there is zero ammunition cost if crews require further training.

Close cooperation between Army and DMO has lead to these systems being delivered ahead of schedule and within budget.