The Weapons Team Engagement Trainer (WTET) was developed by the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD) to simulate a variety of close quarter combat/threat situations and create a more realistic environment for tactical training. The system is currently being commercialized through a cooperative agreement between NAWCTSD and Firearms Training Systems, Inc. which will result in a more efficient insertion of the product into the military and law enforcement market. Additionally, NAWCTSD and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) are participating in a cooperative agreement to make the prototype system available to military, federal and local law enforcement agencies for use in Orlando, FL. until the commercial version is available. This effort serves a valuable training need, creates a research opportunity for validating the effectiveness of the system, and provides a test bed to make improvements to future versions of the system.

This paper provides an overview of the WTET system, as well as detail on the use of the system for training and validation. Included will be a full description of the WTET components and capabilities; detail on the cooperative effort between government and industry to create a training and research environment; a discussion of the current training being employed with the prototype; and a description of the training effectiveness evaluation currently being conducted on the WTET.