U.S. Army Exercises Option on DiSTI UH-72A Lakota Virtual Maintenance Trainer

The DiSTI Corporation, a provider of graphical user interface software and customized 3D virtual maintenance training solutions, won the year 2 option of Interim Contractor Support (ICS) from the U.S Army for the UH-72A Lakota Virtual Maintenance Trainer (VMT).

The initial $4.4 million contract on the UH-72A included the development of a VMT to give students the ability to become familiar with and practice maintenance tasks in an interactive 3D game-like environment. The delivery included twelve (12) interactive student workstations with a networked Instructor station, an additional “hangar” workstation collocated with a hardware-based trainer, and a “reach-back” training capability to deploy virtual training content on hand-held mobile devices.

The trainer was implemented at the Western Army National Guard Aviation Training Site (WAATS) in Marana, Arizona in early 2016 and graduated its first class of trainees that June. Since the UH-72A is an Army variant of a commercial helicopter, the VMT is built so that students learn to maintain the aircraft to FAA standards.