ITEC 2015: DiSTI Announces Contract Award for the UH -72A Lakota Virtual Maintenance Trainer

The DiSTI Corporation, a leading provider of graphical user interface software and customized 3-D virtual maintenance training solutions, recently announced a contract award from the U.S. Army to develop a virtual maintenance trainer (VMT) for the UH-72A Lakota helicopter.  The $4.4 million contract includes the development of twelve (12) interactive student workstations with a networked Instructor station, an additional “hanger” workstation to be collocated with a hardware-based trainer, and a “reach-back” training capability to deploy virtual training content on hand-held mobile devices.  The contract also provides for one (1) year of Interim Contractor Support (ICS).  The trainer will be delivered to the Western Army National Guard Aviation Training Site (WAATS) in Marana, Arizona in mid-2016.

Since the introduction of the UH-72A into the U.S. Army’s operational fleet in 2006 initial maintenance efforts focused on providing experienced Army aviation maintainers with factory aircraft familiarization training to maintain the UH-72A fleet in an FAA approved environment. Focus for UH-72A maintenance training is now shifting from contractor provided familiarization training to a U.S. Army Institutional Training Course for UH-72A maintenance. As part of that course, the DiSTI-built VMT will provide a virtual practical exercise interactive workspace designed to support the performance of UH-72A maintenance tasks to task standards.

“A key element of DiSTI’s UH-72A VMT development will be the use of DiSTI’s VE Studio™ software tools that provide an end to end solution for requirements analysis and traceability, design, development, and test. ” said Joe Swinski, President of DiSTI. “These tools, and the proven VMT development process they support, will ensure that the virtual maintenance trainer will fully support all required training objectives.”

DiSTI’s has a proven legacy in developing interactive 3D maintenance training applications. Over the past decade major OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers have used DiSTI’s software to produce world-class maintenance trainers at the lowest cost with unmatched performance and fidelity. Industry giants such as Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, and Textron deliver stunning virtual maintenance trainers supported by VE Studio.

In November 2014, DiSTI announced the commercial availability of VE Studio. The offering provides more than just a rendering or game engine. VE Studio leverages a proven end-to-end process that manages all aspects of the virtual environment development, including requirements analysis and tracking, interface definition, design and development, automated virtual content generation, and auto regression testing.