Cubic Develops Rapid-Fire Weapon Simulator
ORLANDO,
Florida – May 27, 2010 - A defense division of Cubic Corporation (NYSE:
CUB) has developed a new weapon simulator that replicates the characteristics
of a Gatling-style gun, firing up to 3,000 rounds a minute. The Cubic division
recently received a total of $5 million in contracts to supply the M134D trainer
and other training equipment to multiple locations in the United States.
Called the M134D Virtual Trainer, the simulator is modeled after the M134D Minigun,
a six-barrel electric-powered machine gun that fires 7.62mm rifle rounds. Its
high-rate of fire – up to 50 rounds per second – makes the M134D
exceptionally effective at suppressing hostile forces in a wide variety of combat
situations. The same characteristic, however, also is a major drawback because
training personnel to use the M134D with live rounds is incredibly expensive.
“You are talking a dollar a round, and you are shooting 3,000 rounds a
minute,” said Tony Padgett, Product Line Immersion Training Manager for
the Cubic Simulation Systems Division in Orlando.
Cubic’s trainer recreates the ballistics of an actual M134D in a virtual
training environment as well as weapon sounds and other characteristics. Two
of the simulators are scheduled to be delivered to Department of Energy facilities,
where they will be used for facility protection and counterterrorism training
along with Cubic’s Warrior Skills Trainer (WST), a virtual vehicle trainer
that uses high-fidelity graphics projected on large screens for training scenarios.
A third M134D virtual trainer will go to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, as part of
a mobile Cubic training system being used to train U.S. Army special forces units.
Cubic Corporation is the parent company of three major business segments:
Defense Systems, Mission Support Services and Transportation Systems. Cubic Defense
Systems
is a leading provider of realistic combat training systems and defense electronics.
Mission Support Services is a leading provider of training, operations, maintenance,
technical and other support services. Cubic Transportation Systems is the world’s
leading provider of automated fare collection systems and services for public
transit authorities. For more information about Cubic, see the company's Web
site at www.cubic.com.