Book Description

This report describes two investigations of the relationship between performance on the Guard Unit Armory Device Full-Crew Interactive Simulation Trainer-Armor (GUARDFIST I) and live-fire tank gunnery performance. In the first investigation, 19 Army National Guard (ARNG) M1 tank crews completed a GUARDFIST I-based test of gunnery proficiency and then fired tank gunnery Table VIII during annual training. Results showed that crew performance on the GUARDFIST I test was unrelated to performance on Table VIII. The second investigation examined the relationship between aggregate measures of GUARDFIST I training (maximum training matrix advancement and total training time) and Table VIII scores collected 6 months later on eight ARNG M1 tank crews. Results showed that total training time was unrelated to Table VIII scores, but that maximum training matrix advancement was strongly predictive of subsequent Table VIII performance. Findings suggest that brief, one-shot tests of proficiency on GUARDFIST I have limited predictive utility, but that aggregate measures of gunnery proficiency on GUARDFIST I can be used to predict live-fire tank gunnery performance. A larger sample size is needed to substantiate the validity of this predictive relationship. Reserve component, Tank gunnery, Training devices, GUARDFIST I, Armor training, Performance prediction.