Puget Sound Business Journal
In this police training simulation, the bad guys shoot back.
While their bullets won't kill you, there's no mistaking you've
been shot. "It hurts enough that you don't ever want to get hit again, but not enough that you lay down and die," said Reid Elliott, commander of the city of Snohomish Police Department. "I've never been in a shooting but it's hard to image being in any better (training)
scenario." Advanced Interactive Systems Inc., the Tukwila-based developer of this realistic simulator, hopes it will more than double the company's sales this year to about $5 million, said chief executive Alan Davis. To reach that goal, the small company's majority owner, Zilkha & Co., is investing another $4.5 million in Advanced Interactive,Davis said. New York City-based Zilkha also owns Colt Holdings Inc., the gun maker.
"This will be the big winner for the company," he said of the new
simulator, which made its debut this week at a Las Vegas convention.
"The law enforcement and military training market is a $1 billion
market and we think we can grow to a reasonable size. " Davis said "the effect of this is to save lives. This provides judgment training in stressful situations with real guns." The guns are modified to shoot compressed air-based bullets rather than live ammunition, said Greg Hoover, a retired policeman who heads up Advanced Interactive's training team. The simulator consists of computers, software, a video projection system, a special 10-foot by 10-foot screen that allows the bullets to be tracked, and the company's patented shoot-back cannon.
The simulations help officers with their judgment and reactions in
certain situations. The scenarios, filmed with actors, can have
different endings; depending upon the officer's actions, a situation
might escalate into a shooting or the assailant might give up.
To begin a simulation, a police officer is given a little
background on the situation, shown where he can take cover from
return fire, and told of the shoot-back cannon. He chooses a
modified weapon and stands about 12 feet from the large screen.
As the simulation starts, a bad guy might be waving a gun at a
victim. Shouting instructions to the bad guy, the officer may choose
to draw his gun and try to talk the the man into giving up. If the
officer reacts correctly, the bad guy eventually drops his gun.
But if the instructor decides the officer is reacting incorrectly,
the scenario can escalate to one in which where the police officer
fires his gun and the bad guy shoots back. If the officer doesn't
take cover quickly, he can get shot.
The shoot-back cannon shoots a 68-caliber nylon ball that can
travel 70 miles per hour. The resulting hit feels like a bee sting,
said Hoover, who retired from the Los Angeles Police Department's
SWAT team. The return fire is guided by an instructor using a
joystick or by a tracking sensor worn by the student.
Typically, cover is a casual afterthought in most training
situations, Hoover said. Once the scenario has been played out, the instructor critiques the situation, showing the officer what he did right or wrong, what happened when and if he fired his gun.
"It's very interactive, and stunningly realistic," said Elliott,
the Snohomish commander. "If a department isn't using it now, they
should be. I thought the laser systems were a real leap forward, and
this is just as much of a leap forward."
Advanced Interactive has one main competitor which currently
dominates the police simulation market: Firearms Training Systems of Suwanee, Ga. Known as FATS, the publicly traded company racked up sales of $90 million in 1997.
Realizing that many smaller police organizations won't be able to
afford the $65,000 to $95,000 systems, Advanced Interactive is
building five mobile simulators, one for each part of the country.
The company also will sell the simulator to gun ranges, but only
those that have a contract with a police department, Davis said.
Advanced Interactive also plans to target the military market, and
has already modified an M-16 to use with their system.
An entertainment version, using a Nerf bullet, is also under
development, Davis said. Advanced Interactive was founded in 1993 by two Boeing Co. engineers, Eric Muehle and Cliff Treat, who created an archery simulator. While working full-time at Boeing, they sold 200 of the systems to archery ranges around the country. Later the company
branched into a simulator for competitive shooting at firing ranges.
In mid-1996, Zilkha representatives called to inquire whether the
simulators could use live bullets. Zilkha decided to buy 80 percent of the company for an undisclosed amount. To initially develop the "shoot-back" system, the company invested $5.5 million in 1996, said Davis, who was recruited by Zilkha to run the operation. As part of the deal, Muehle and Treat came to work full-time at Advanced Interactive.
Companies or Securities discussed in this article:
Symbol
Name
NASDAQ:FATS
NYSE:BA
Boeing Co
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