The Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is revolutionizing the way the United States Army conducts live training. The need for an Embedded Tactical Engagement Simulation System (E-TESS) has been expressed over the past decade; however it was not capable of being fully realized on the System of Systems scale until the introduction of FCS. This paper will focus on the innovative approaches to E-TESS requirements development, capability design and collaboration with a multitude of stakeholders: Army programs, the training and operational user communities, and platform developers. The paper will address lessons learned and provide best practices recommendations based on the authors' experiences collaborating across multiple program participants.

The FCS program is pioneering the effort to evolve the E-TESS vision by designing in the training capabilities on the platforms upfront, vice engineering an appended training system on the back end. The suite of FCS platforms is size, weight, and power constrained, limiting the ability to embed training-unique components. This is driving the E-TESS developers to capitalize on the concept of "dual use" hardware for both operations and training. By utilizing the FCS Brigade Combat Team (BCT) operational assets, such as the tactical network, radios, sensors and processors, the Soldier can be ready for a live training exercise within minutes of arrival at a homestation, combat training center or a deployed location. The E-TESS capabilities will consist of current and future tactical engagement simulation technologies, which will enable the FCS BCT to train against both current force Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement Simulation (MILES) -equipped vehicles and the future One Tactical Engagement Simulation System (OneTESS) -enabled platforms. FCS will be the first warfighting system to provide the Army an embedded live training capability that supports individual, crew, collective, unit, and leader training anywhere, anytime.