Dismounted infantry, in useful numbers, is conspicuously absent from the SIMNET battlefield. That absence creates an unrealistic, and possibly negative, training environment. Dismounted infantry, both in reality and in SIMNET, is difficult to see and very dangerous to vehicles when armed with antitank missiles. Tank crew trainees in SIMNET do not learn to consider this threat, and consequently can learn behaviors that increase their vulnerability to dismounted infantry.

The Institute for Simulation and Training was charged with the task of developing a prototype computer generated forces system capable of generating useful numbers of dismounted infantry at minimal cost. This was done by specializing IST's Computer Generated Forces Testbed into a Semi-Automated Forces Dismounted Infantry system, which can generate dismounted infantry fireteams and their associated fighting vehicles in the SIMNET battlefield.