Meggitt to deliver virtual weapons for USMC

Meggitt Training Systems has secured a contract to provide additional BlueFire wireless virtual weapons to be used by the US Marine Corps (USMC) on its Indoor Simulated Marksmanship Trainer (ISMT).

Under the $2.6m contract, the weapons will be delivered to Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany.

Deliveries are expected to begin within the next 90 days and are anticipated to conclude by December.

Multiple USMC bases across the US use the BlueFire M9 pistols, M4 rifles, and M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles.

Meggitt Training Systems strategy, sales and marketing vice-president Andrea Czop said: “This order for additional BlueFire weapons demonstrates the value they and ISMT deliver in terms of virtual firearms training for Marines who must be ready to deploy anywhere at any time.

“Only Meggitt Training Systems can engineer and deliver weapons that so closely match form, fit and function of the originals, paired with our FATS-based trainer that features military-certified ballistics for the highest accuracy in marksmanship training.”

BlueFire weapons use commercial wireless technology to communicate with ISMT and other FATS-based virtual training systems.

This provides the devices with the same control as tethered weapons with an added advantage of full range movement.

These weapon simulators can be used in conjunction with other tethered weapon simulators without modification.

Meggitt’s BlueFire weapon simulators feature a 3D marksmanship training environment for enhanced realistic visuals.

In 2014, Meggitt was initially awarded a contract for delivering and installing 490 systems across locations globally.

Under this $32m five-year indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) ISMT contract, US Marines were trained in marksmanship, collective scenarios and judgmental video scenarios.

Each mode provided a critical training, based on the skill level of the individual or unit.