Orlando, Fla. (September 22, 2021) – Orlando-based Serious Simulations has delivered another industry first, a simulated hand grenade – the “Sim Grenade” – that can be safely employed in military and security force live training. The new Sim Grenade provides accurate damage assessments and sound and light feedback to nearby individuals.
Currently, hand grenade training is limited to tossing practice popper grenades and live explosive grenades on ranges with static targets. Using fake hand grenades for live force-on-force maneuver training has been impractical or dangerous, and inaccurate – relying on exercise leaders to make guesses as to the likely effects of a fake grenade’s blast radius.
Military units that desired to train with grenades in their maneuvers sometimes improvised by using tennis balls, baseballs, or even rocks with chemical lights.
“We don’t like to hear that a problem can’t be solved”, said Chris Chambers, founder of Serious Simulations. “A simulated hand grenade has long been viewed as just not possible for realistic use in live training, so, we innovated a way to do it,” he adds.
In 2018, Serious Simulations began work on a better system for training in maneuvers with hand grenades. A working prototype was made in 2019 and performed very successfully in local testing. Three versions are now available, and the patent-pending proximity technology is now being extended to simulate fixed and scatterable mines, IEDs, and Claymore Mines.
The Sim Grenade simulates a real grenade by:
- determining its exact proximity to human targets within its blast radius upon detonation, regardless of when or where it was tossed,
- immediately communicating wound or kill status to the individuals and the training exercise managers, based on an actual grenade’s blast radius,
- not inducing injury when thrown and/or hitting people,
- employing exactly the same as the actual live hand grenade, including the pull pin, spoon fly-off, and 5 second fuse delay,
- not altering the real grenade’s effective throwing range,
- being heard and seen when “detonated,” by all individuals in the vicinity,
- reacting to appropriate protective cover such as heavy trees, rugged walls, ditches versus inadequate cover such as bushes, thin walls, vegetation as not to induce negative training, and
- being rugged, reusable, and easily reassembled for more use in training.
Early in 2021, Serious Simulations began to market the Sim Grenade and received significant interest from serious military and government security forces. The first Sim Grenade order was placed in June by an undisclosed U.S. government agency.
“The technology we developed for our Sim Grenade makes one of the most important dismounted infantry weapons realistically trainable in live training for the very first time,” Chambers says. “We are extremely proud of our product and hope that training with the Sim Grenade has a great effect on soldiers’ lethality and survivability when they find themselves in the close fight.”
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For more information media should contact –
Christopher Chambers, Serious Simulations, 407-538-1927, cchambers@serioussimulations.com
UCF Business Incubation Program: Carol Ann Dykes Logue, 407-635-9882, carolann.dykeslogue@ucf.edu or Alan Byrd, Alan Byrd & Associates, 407-415-8470, Alan@ByrdConnections.com
About Serious Simulations, LLC: Serious Simulations LLC, an Orlando based Veteran Owned simulation business, designs immersive training systems using custom made hardware and software components for specific skill training needs, combined with motion tracking systems, wireless communications devices, wireless display technologies and commercial game engines. We have unique approaches to integrate real devices and weapons into simulators and live training. We produce wireless video technology and wireless head/helmet mounted displays (HMDs) with very high resolutions and wide fields of view. Serious Simulations’ professional grade VR training systems focus on military, police, emergency responders, and professional grade sports and entertainment experiences. For more information, visit our web site at www.serioussimulations.com . Inquiries: info@serioussimulations.com.
About the UCF Business Incubation Program: The University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program is a community resource that provides early-stage companies with the tools, training and infrastructure to become financially stable, high growth/impact enterprises. Since 1999, this award-winning program has provided vital business development resources resulting in over 300 local startup companies reaching their potential faster and graduating into the community where they continue to grow and positively impact the local economy.
With seven facilities throughout the region, the UCF Business Incubation Program is an economic development partnership between the University of Central Florida, the Corridor, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia Counties, and the cities of Kissimmee, Orlando and Winter Springs. For the 2017/2018 fiscal years, the activities of these participating firms have helped to sustain more than 6,725 local jobs and have had a cumulative impact of over $725 million on regional GDP and over $1.3 billion on regional sales. During the same period, the program has returned more than $12.00 in state and local taxes for every $1.00 invested in the program. In addition, for every $1.00 of public investment the firms also produced $118 of additional regional GDP and $226 of regional sales. For more information, visit www.incubator.ucf.edu.
