Training aid undergoes rigorous testing at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground
Photo By Mark Schauer |
U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) conducts rigorous lot acceptance tests (LATs) for......read moreread more
Photo By Mark Schauer | U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) conducts rigorous lot acceptance tests (LATs) for more than live ammunition.
Recently, YPG conducted a comprehensive LAT of the XM343 Training Aids, Devices, Simulators, and Simulations (TADDS), a training aid for the XM 343 Standoff Activated Volcano Obstacle (SAVO). see less
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Training aid undergoes rigorous testing at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground
American Soldiers can be confident in their ammunition because reliability has been meticulously proven at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG).
YPG conducts rigorous lot acceptance tests (LATs) for more than live ammunition, too.
Recently, YPG conducted a comprehensive LAT of the XM343 Training Aids, Devices, Simulators, and Simulations (TADDS), a training aid for the XM 343 Standoff Activated Volcano Obstacle (SAVO). The XM 343 is a rapidly hand-emplaced, one-man portable bottom attack weapon.
YPG has long tested the XM 343 to ensure it works as it should before Soldiers’ lives depend on it. With its wide-open spaces far from any populated areas, decades of institutional knowledge, and a full complement of realistic threat target vehicles at hand, YPG’s Smart Weapons Test Range is highly instrumented and designed specifically for this type of testing. Built in the mid-1990s, the site is intricately networked with fiber optic cable and hard power lines, without which noisy generators could interfere with the testing.
The same personnel who conduct these important evaluations devote the same rigor to ensuring the device that trains Soldiers on the XM 343’s proper use can have a long service life—in the case of the TADDS, as many as 200 uses.
“It’s similar in shape, size, and how you handle it,” said Esteban Hernandez, a test officer in YPG’s Munitions and Weapons Division. “It’s just a different color.”
Unlike the XM 343 itself, the training aid does not deploy its mock mines when activated, however.
“The trainer gives an LED light and an audio buzzer sound to simulate firing,” said Steve Patane, Joint Program Executive Office test engineer. “It doesn’t deploy the dummy mines; they are just for visual reference and human factors training.”
Over two and a half months, testers put the TADDS through a variety of rigorous scenarios to ensure it can function even after punishing tactical conditions. From subjecting it to a long ride on a vibration table that simulates a jostling ride on the back of a tactical vehicle in field conditions to dropping it at different angles from a 1.5-meter height, the training aid is forced to prove its rugged mettle. One scenario involves submerging the apparatus in water for 30 minutes, letting it dry for a day, and then attempting to use it under normal conditions.
“If the lot passes, they are able to send the whole lot to the warfighter to train with them and learn how to use the tactical version,” said Hernandez. “These can be used up to 200 times—set up, initiated, put back in their case and stored—for training purposes.”
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