Simulation System Moved into a 'Postage-Stamp Range,' Born from a Sudden Flash of Inspiration among Officers and Soldiers

People's Armed Police Chongqing General Corps Guard First Detachment Uses Officers' and Soldiers' 'Golden Ideas' to Drive Training Transformation and Upgrading—— Simulation System Moved into a 'Postage-Stamp Range' ■ Yao Cheng, PLA Daily Special Correspondent Zhang Yongqing

A shooting instructor explains the essentials of simulated shooting. Photo by Yao Maomao

In early summer, the vegetation is lush and green. On the training ground of the Tongnan Squadron of the People's Armed Police Chongqing General Corps Guard First Detachment, Second Staff Sergeant Chen You leads and organizes a shooting training session.

On the training ground, Chen You opens the control terminal and activates the simulated shooting auxiliary system. Twenty-five meters ahead, a half-body target reduced to scale suddenly pops up, then quickly disappears. Chen You's fingertips slide back and forth across the control terminal, causing a side-profile target to shift laterally at varying speeds, simulating the complex movement patterns of an "enemy."

Corporal Jia Youpeng presses the simulated rifle stock into his shoulder pocket and lightly squeezes the trigger with his index finger. The instant the shot fires, a genuine recoil force transmits through; Jia Youpeng does not pause and continues to shoot with the rifle raised. When the firing stops, the display terminal announces the score: "All 5 rounds hit—3 rounds scored 10 rings, 2 rounds scored 9 rings!"

"This simulated shooting auxiliary system is our 'training magic weapon'!" Walking off the training ground, Jia Youpeng tells the reporter that previously his shooting scores had long hovered around the passing line, but after training with this system for a period of time, they have now stabilized at an excellent level.

The detachment's leadership tells the reporter that this simulated shooting auxiliary system, independently developed by the officers and soldiers, has been upgraded to its third generation and has effectively helped officers and soldiers improve their shooting scores. The development of this system originated from a sudden flash of inspiration among officers and soldiers six years ago.

That year, Chen You was appointed as the squadron's shooting instructor. At the first baseline assessment, seeing that nearly 20 percent of the squadron's officers and soldiers failed, Chen You was troubled. The squadron had only a "palm-sized" basketball court where formation drills and physical training were all conducted; there was no space to set up a separate 100-meter standard live-fire shooting range. "Without a training venue and with insufficient training time, it is very difficult to achieve good scores," Chen You said.

A turning point appeared during a duty-training rotation organized by the detachment.

During that training, due to venue constraints, the training team used a method of "proportional scaling" to allow officers and soldiers to complete tactical coordination training in a confined space. Witnessing this, Chen You had a sudden inspiration: "If the venue can be scaled down, can the targets be too?" Soon, the simulated shooting training plan designed by Chen You was placed on the desks of the detachment's leadership and was smoothly approved at the Party committee's meeting on war preparation and training deliberation (议战议训会). "Innovation is combat effectiveness. Encouraging grassroots independent innovation is serving combat effectiveness development," said one detachment leader.

Afterward, the squadron selected shooting instructors and technical backbone personnel to form a research and development team, led by then-Squadron Commander Lu Cheng and Chen You. In just two months, they developed a simple shooting simulation device that controlled the movement of proportionally scaled targets through a manual pulley mechanism, preliminarily achieving simulated shooting training in a confined space.

After the simulation device was put into trial use, problems quickly emerged: the speed of the manually controlled targets lacked stability, training standards could not be unified, and scores had no reference value.

The squadron Party branch immediately organized a "Zhuge Liang brainstorming session" (诸葛亮会), working together with the R&D team to study directions for improvement and establishing an upgrade approach of "motorized control and intelligent sensing." However, technical challenges such as calibrating motor driver parameters and adapting infrared sensing modules exceeded the capabilities of the squadron's officers and soldiers, leaving everyone feeling somewhat "at a loss."

Inviting professional engineers to provide on-site guidance, optimizing sensing module parameters, and reconstructing the hit-recognition algorithm; coordinating with a professional mechanical processing factory to optimize the motor driver for the system…. Just as everyone was at their wit's end, the detachment Party committee incorporated this project into a key innovation research topic, designated the Operations and Training Section to lead the establishment of a dedicated research team, and provided full-process follow-up guidance and coordination of scientific research resources.

As one technical challenge after another was resolved, the second-generation simulated shooting auxiliary system was officially launched, achieving precise and controllable target movement speed. However, after a period of trial use by officers and soldiers, a number of new problems were raised: the target movement trajectory was monotonous, and hit-point recognition was not sufficiently accurate…. The research team compiled and summarized the opinions and suggestions of officers and soldiers and formulated an iterative plan integrating targets, simulated firearms, control terminals, display terminals, and data transmission base stations into a unified system.

The detachment's headquarters coordinated with the general corps' equipment department, and on the basis of equipping data terminals, enriched the variety of target types—including scaled half-body pop-up targets, side-profile targets, and moving targets—capable of simulating multiple combat scenarios; upgraded high-precision laser sensing modules to further improve recognition accuracy in complex environments; and built a dedicated training database capable of automatically recording officers' and soldiers' training data, generating individual performance curves, and providing precise, personalized training guidance.

Last year, the fully upgraded third-generation simulated shooting auxiliary system was officially fielded to grassroots units across the general corps.

"This 'postage-stamp range' is actually so realistic!" After completing all shooting course training, Sergeant Huang Kai excitedly tells the reporter that by using the new system's data analysis and video replay functions, participating officers and soldiers can clearly identify their own problems, analyze the root causes, and then make targeted corrections, steadily improving their training scores.

The detachment's leadership introduces that after the new system was put into use, results quickly became apparent. In the duty-training rotation shooting assessment organized not long ago, the average scores of officers and soldiers improved significantly compared to last year. Even more gratifying is that this innovative achievement, born from the hands of grassroots officers and soldiers, has obtained a national utility model patent and won an award at the "Strong Equipment Cup" (强装杯) military equipment management and application innovation competition.

"You contribute one move, I contribute one idea—put them to good use and they become combat effectiveness." The successful application of this system has greatly stimulated the innovative and creative vitality of the detachment's officers and soldiers, and a batch of small inventions, small innovations, and small creations originating from grassroots officers and soldiers have become a new engine driving the improvement of the unit's combat effectiveness.

Fanning the Flames of Officers' and Soldiers' 'Sparks of Wisdom'

■ Yang Yue

An ancient saying goes: "What the combined strength lifts, nothing is unconquerable; what the collective wisdom accomplishes, nothing is unachievable." The grassroots level is the main battlefield for training and war preparation, and also the foremost frontier for tactical innovation and equipment application. Grassroots officers and soldiers are on the front line of combat effectiveness development; they understand best the training shortfalls, equipment pain points, and actual combat requirements. Therefore, every exploration and innovation from the grassroots level may become a lever that propels a leap in the unit's combat effectiveness.

The reason the simulated shooting auxiliary system developed by the officers and soldiers of the People's Armed Police Chongqing General Corps Guard First Detachment was able to succeed lies precisely in the keen eye of an ordinary soldier for spotting opportunities on the training ground and the initiative to take action in solving problems. Those seemingly unremarkable innovative "golden ideas" are like scattered sparks—individually dim, yet capable of mutually reinforcing and successively igniting one another, accumulating considerable energy sufficient to start a prairie fire.

The cause of strengthening the military is rooted at the grassroots level, and its vitality lies in the officers and soldiers. Technological innovation and tactical innovation are not the exclusive domain of a few individuals but the shared mission of all officers and soldiers. At every level, each spark of innovation for the sake of war must be cherished; officers and soldiers must be encouraged to boldly explore and innovate from their combat positions on the front line, contributing their wisdom and strength, and injecting inexhaustible momentum into the cause of strengthening and revitalizing the military.

The Combat Position Is the Stage for Innovation

■ People's Armed Police Chongqing General Corps Guard First Detachment Corporal Jia Youpeng

The first time I tried the simulated shooting auxiliary system, I was actually a bit skeptical. Unexpectedly, after a few rounds of shooting experience, the system's realistic recoil feedback and various pop-up and moving targets gave me the same sense of tension as live-fire shooting. Not only that, the system also analyzed each participating officer's and soldier's hit-point distribution and other factors, providing targeted corrections to shooting technique and training guidance.

After a period of intensive and focused practice, several of my comrades and I, with the assistance of this system, all trained to become excellent marksmen. This made me understand more deeply what our squad leader often says: "The combat position is the stage for innovation."

For a time, I noticed that the humanoid targets used for bayonet training had unreasonable hardness—the feel upon thrusting was wrong, and they wore out quickly with high consumption. Seeing a few discarded old tires in a corner of the garrison area, I suddenly had an inspiration: the elasticity of tires could more realistically simulate the feel of a bayonet attack, and they are relatively durable—could they be modified into targets?

I summoned the courage to raise this idea with the squadron cadres. To my pleasant surprise, the squadron cadres not only affirmed my idea but also worked together with me to "upgrade" the targets.

The detachment encourages officers and soldiers to carry out small inventions, small innovations, and small creations, giving many of our sudden flashes of inspiration the opportunity to be tried and put into practice. During one aiming practice session, I found that the position where my eye met the sight kept "drifting," causing the aiming baseline to be unstable. I tried bending a piece of wire into a simple "aiming check frame" and clipping it onto the rifle. Each time before raising the rifle, I first check through the frame whether my eye position is correct and whether the rifle is level—immediately obvious at a glance. This small innovation solved a big problem, and this simple "aiming check frame" was welcomed by many comrades.

These experiences made me understand that innovation and creation are not as "grand and lofty" as one might imagine. Ordinary soldiers are riveted to the training ground every day and understand best the pain points and bottlenecks in training. As long as one dares to forge ahead and dig deep, dares to try and dares to act, a change in one movement or an improvement to one tool may yield unexpected results and contribute to the unit's training and war preparation.

(Compiled by PLA Daily Special Correspondent Zhang Yongqing)