Littoral Craft Armament Training System (LCATS)

Littoral Craft Armament Training System - Applied Virtual Simulation

Applied Virtual Simulation built the Littoral Craft Armament Training System (LCATS) on the Qubic System QS-220 3DOF platform: mixed-reality training for the gunners who operate crew-served weapons aboard small littoral craft.

Customer profile: Applied Virtual Simulation is Australia’s leading defense simulation technology provider. The company focuses on the development of highly detailed simulation-based training systems for a wide range of applications, including army school needs. AVS is an expert in the design, delivery, integration and maintenance of innovative simulation-based training systems for individual and collective training. Their aim is to deliver safe, efficient and high-fidelity immersive experiences.

LCATS is another training device from the AVS team, following the Protected Mobility Tactical Trainer (PMTT) and the Apache AH-64 demonstrator. All three share one design intent: make high-fidelity tactical training more affordable and more accessible. What changes here is the domain - from land and air to the water.

Mixed reality on the water

LCATS pairs a physical, haptic-enabled replica weapon with a head-mounted display. The operator handles real hardware; the sea is entirely virtual. Because the battlespace is generated from real-world terrain data, crews rehearse against the coastline, ports and choke points they will actually operate in. Trainees acquire, track and engage targets from a moving deck. On live serials the same repetition costs range time and a safety brief.

Motion that matches the sea state

To make the deck behave like a real boat, the replica weapon and the gunner’s station are mounted on the Qubic System 3DOF QS-220. The platform reproduces the pitch, roll and heave of a small craft running through a sea state. Hull shock and vibration ride on top of it. Its linear actuators carry vibration up to 100 Hz and follow the simulation with under 8 ms of latency. Holding a sight picture while the deck works against the operator is the skill LCATS exists to build. Without motion the scene still looks right, but the task stops being difficult.

The QS-220 is compact, quiet and modular, which keeps each station transportable. AVS can network and scale the capability across training sites the same way it scaled the PMTT program.