09 May 2022

4GD wins intelligent target contract for UK airborne forces facility

by Giles Ebbutt

4GD's SimStriker intelligent humanoid-shaped target in a raised position. Ten of these are being acquired for the UK's 16 Air Assault Brigade SmartFacility urban training centre at Colchester, which is also provided by 4GD. (4GD)

UK company 4GD has been awarded a contract by the UK Ministry of Defence for its SimStriker intelligent target, which was developed for use as part of 4GD's SmartFacility urban warfare training system.

The contract, the value of which was not revealed, is for 10 SimStrikers for the SmartFacility installed at 16 Air Assault Brigade's base at Colchester. Speaking to Janes at IT²EC 2022 in London, James Crowley, 4GD business development director, said that the targets would be fully operational by late 2022.

SimStriker is a humanoid-shaped target fitted with six hit-zone sensors for use with non-ballistic ammunition. The hit zones are based on the NATO doctrine Rapid Incapacitation Target (RIT), which defines the degree of incapacitation a hit in these areas will deliver. Crowley said that SimStriker can be used with Simunition, Airsoft, and Ultimate Training Ammunition (UTM), which all have different velocities.

According to Crowley, the target was originally conceived as an additional method of collecting data as part of 4GD's ECFECTUS data collection and analysis system, which can be integrated into SmartFacility. “We can track weapon pointing and firing and we wanted to be able to collect details of hit accuracy,” he said.

UK company 4GD has been awarded a contract by the UK Ministry of Defence for its SimStriker intellig...

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