European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 30, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday june 30. 1967 the stars and stripes Page 9 tank simulator makes magic with bullets by timed Vin Wuendi Harft banana Schweinfurt Germany what tankers suspected two years ago when the a Cost tank Sisulu Lor was being deployed has been proven out by events in the past Lew weeks. A Cost the unit conduct of firc Trainer is revolutionizing the Lank gunnery profession by improving tankers proficiency. A soft stores almost 700 different Battlefield scenarios and can simulate Day night bad weather and poor equipment Condi i ions there pm be up to four variations on each so curio depending on whether it is portraying a Desett environment according to Mike Savage a Cost site representative in Schweinfurt. Two Yean ago. Col. . Sii Der then a a cof Liaison officer at 7th army training come said Doe it train yes it does. Can i Epport this with statistics no. But my experience say  from nato s lop tank gunnery Evanl the Ca Nadian army trophy to Grafen Roehr s Range 117,where table Viii tank qualifications Are done gun ners and tank commanders have been singing the Praise of the a Cost. And now they have the num Bers to Back it up. According to the general electric contractors torte a Cost it was no Accident that 4th in 8th cd 3rd Arrond div out of Gellhausen took top platoon honors in the Canadian army trophy com petition earlier this month. They have the highest average of use in Jar eur said David Osborn general electric s regional manager for a Cost. While the target for training in the a Cost is 50 boors per week the 4th in averaged s3 hours per week. The Usa eur average is 48 hours per week Tobon said. Bui Wien of the 4th in spent 162 hours in the a Cost one week and 161 hours another week. They feel in was time Well spent. It s a Damn Fine Trainer and the mainstay of our battalion training program said maj. Pete Chiarel i battalion executive officer. We believe in it. A Cost allow us to fire As Many main gun rounds in the simulator As we want. Our gunners arc so Damn Quick now it s not funny Quick enough to Lake the lop time score at the Canadian army trophy Competition. And accurate enough to engage All 32 targets successfully on Range 301. To All added up to the Only 20,000-Potnl score inthe Competition. The 4th in is not the Only Success Story. Table Viii results for Oiler battalions have shown marked improvement. One of those units is 3rd in 8lh Cav 3rd army div. Last year it had one Crew achieve a maximum score of 1,000 Points on table Viii 11 with distinguished scores More than 900, and 26 Wilh Superior scores More than 800, this year it had six Crews Max table Viii Wilh 31 distinguished scores and is superiors. We used it weekends. We spent seven Days week in the sucker. It was the difference Between a whole Bunch of qualified and a whole Bunch of superiors said maj. Steve main 3rd in executive offi cer. But Chiarelli worries that the Success the Simula tors have had May mean further cutbacks in actual live fire training nothing replaces shooting main gun rounds he said. Simulators won t fill that void. They re great but they do have their limitations. What scares us is that the Success of he simulators will give someone the idea they can take away some More of our main gun rounds for  Chiarelli said his battalion was allowed to fire 134 main gun rounds in preparation for the Canadian army trophy. The number was what was allowed for units in the Competition. Now that it s  said his unit will be Down to 100 main gun rounds per year when it receives the upgraded mia1a Bra us tanks this fall. He does i want to Sec the firing go any lower but he also understands How Ihu Cost is helping his gunners make Luicir builds last longer. At the Canadian army trophy Competition the coax switch went bad on one tank and on another the circuit breaker kicked. They had logo to manual Mode Chi Arcioli said. That s something that s hardly train for when you Only have 134 main gun rounds a year. When you have a Cost you can reel off 100 rounds a Day under All sorts of conditions and in will  As dividends in  Sec. Benjamin b. Byler a master gunner who Wasin the Canadian army trophy Competition agrees with Chiarelli. We re going to get less training out of the tanks because we re going to get less ammunition. But we Are going o make up for that by training with the u although a Cost will help prepare Crews portable Viii and special competitions its real value is in preparing gunners for combat it s not designed so thai we can have soldiers Max on the Range. They Advance through the matrix under All sorts of conditions. It s designed for com Bat 10 our soldiers can kill the enemy Osblom said. Main agreed with Osborn s assessment. We re not training for table Viii that s just something for people to hang their Hals on he said. We re training for a real live Lank fight. Sometime sat Grafen Wocher we can t fire because of degraded gunnery conditions or limited safely situations. U Cost allows us to train to fight in those situations and la ammo s virtually free. Sgt. Jose Romero left programs what the gunner sees in the a Cost while sol. Kevin Peters run u Check on the sight inside a simulator. Angola hands captured american to congressmen Lisbon Portugal up an Amer ican Pilot shot Down by angolan fighters two months ago was released to a visiting . Congressional delegation in Luanda sunday the official angolan news Agency said. Joseph Frank Longo of Greensburg pa., will be reunited with his family inthe presence of presidential hopeful Rev. Jesse Jackson when they arrive in the United states tuesday the Ngop Pew Agency said in a dispatch received in Lisbon. The Agency said Longo was held for violating angolan Borders but it failed to repeat accusations that Longo had been spying for South Africa when angolan Mic jets Shol Down his single engine Bce Shcraft Bonanza Over South Ern Cunine province april 21, . Officials said Longo was ferrying he plane from the United slates to customer in South Africa when he was downed in South Angola where the cuban backed government is battling South african and anti communist Nita rebel forces. Following the release of Longo rep. Howard Wolpe a Michigan Democrat congratulated the marxist government on he Friendly gesture and said he hoped diplomatic lies would soon be established Between the United states and an Olathe news Agency reported. Woluc was joined by Mickey Leland of Texas and John p. Murtha of Pennsyl Vania in the All Democrat delegation. Angolan president Jose Eduardo Dos Santos was to receive the congressmen sunday afternoon Ngop snid Washington which has no diplomatic relations Wilh Oil producing Angola recently joined South Africa in providing arms to Jonas Sav Imbi s Unita insurgents in their 13-year-old War against Luanda and its 37,0 of Man cuban Force. Chester Crocker the . Assistant Secretary of state for african altars is expected to go to Luanda next month to revive Long deadlocked three Way Lalk sover a cuban withdrawal from Angola in Exchange for South Africa s granting in dependence to the neighbouring territory of Namibia. Crocker s visit to Angola was initially set for the weekend Hul was postponed until mid july before Luanda announce the Pilot s release. Western diplomatic sources in Portu Gal Angola s colonial ruler until 975, said the delay might be a sign washing ton wants to avoid any indication of a hostage Deal