BlueHalo has been awarded a $30 Million contract from the Netherlands Ministry of Defense Materiel and IT Command to develop and deliver an Advanced Stinger Trainer system (AST System) at Lieutenant General Best Barracks in Vredepeel, Netherlands.
The next-generation AST is a fully immersive Man-Portable Air Defense System (MANPADS) operator training system, providing Stinger teams with operational and tactical training in various virtual environments against multiple air threats.
The AST can train up to four interoperable Stinger teams simultaneously within its 360° high-resolution VR environment, which casts authentic terrains and battlespaces throughout the space with surround sound audio for a realistic multidimensional experience. Gunners use an untethered MANPADS replica with the same size, weight, and operational functions as a Stinger missile, while team leads use binoculars with positional auto-zoom to guide their gunner to targets as they would in active combat scenarios.
Further, the AST features a fully integrated Instructor Operator Station (IOS), providing instructors with control of the environments, threats, and difficulty for each scenario along with detailed scoring and analytics from each session.
Noteworthy, BlueHalo has developed similar Stinger training facilities for the U.S. Army Air Defense School at Fort Sill, OK; the North Dakota Army National Guard in Grand Forks; and the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, CA and Cherry Point, NC.
The Advanced Stinger Trainer leverages technology developed for BlueHalo’s Virtual Systems Trainer (VST) family of products.
VST-Stinger is the first and only fielded VR-based MANPADS training device that supports portable or fixed-site Stinger team training.
About BlueHalo
BlueHalo is purpose-built to provide industry-leading capabilities in the domains of Space, C-UAS and Autonomous Systems, Cyber, and AI/ML. BlueHalo focuses on inspired engineering to develop, transition, and field next-generation capabilities to solve the most complex challenges of our customers’ critical missions and reestablish our national security posture in the near-peer contested arena.
