Contact Mr. Davis at 1-330-729-4000 Ext. 1872    scott.davis@mahoningctc.com

Career Based Intervention

Combat Vehicle Simulator

History

The "Armor Board" was a Ft. Knox-based tenant command of the Test and Evaluation Command of the Army Materials Command. The 8-Wheeler Attex you see above was intended for, and subsequently used (briefly) by the Armor School for the Basic Armor Officer's Course to teach young armor officers the basics of actual tank maneuver at Ft. Knox at platoon level. The vehicle was intended as a cost savings measure because it's useful to actually direct the movements of the tank to a trained driver in practicing coordinated movements in the field. The test project ran in 1972 and the vehicles were only in service for three years. 

Each vehicle had a trained driver who acted under the direction of a "vehicle commander" and the exercise was for various officers-in-training to learn how to direct and coordinate the movements of multiple vehicles, as they would as a Platoon Leader. This usually meant from 5-10 vehicles in armor operations. These vehicles were just to learn the basics of how to form up in columns, lines, circles ("laagering up") into Night Defensive Positions, Herringbones, etc.  A particular trainee would work to see how efficiently he could get his troops into various formations that had been studied on paper, but while reading maps and negotiating real terrain, just without the 54-ton "real thing", which was very expensive to operate.

The entire exercise was all about coordinating the maneuver element in cross-country and road-bound operations.

The US Army contracted with Attex to manufacture 250 Combat Simulators for the program.  When the project ended, the simulators were sold at auction.  Many of these machines were put into use as emergency recovery vehicles but many eventually made their way to the general public. Over the years they have fallen in disrepair or were scrapped but a handful have survived. 

The Combat Vehicle Simulator that I have in my possession is Serial Number 2.  It is the second Combat Vehicle simulator ever made.