Abstract: In order to incorporate minor perturbations in the simulated operation of a weapon (to simulate dispersion between batches of ammunition or individual rounds, and/or the effects of changing environmental phenomena), a variable is generated at a rate related to the type of ammunition to be simulated. For ammunition exhibiting a high degree of dispersion between rounds, the variable changes rapidly and an accurately-aimed shot is deemed a hit only if the value of the variable at that instant is less than the predetermined probability of a hit with that ammunition. In the case of ammunition exhibiting some consistency between rounds but not between batches, the variable changes slowly, and its value controls the extent of a displacement applied to a laser projector before the projector is energised and scanned for a hit/miss determination.

Abstract: For initial alignment of a simulator laser-projector with a weapon, the weapon is boresighted on a target, the projector is fitted and the laser beam is scanned stepwise across the target successively along orthogonal axes. The range of steps on each axis for which a return from the target occurs is sensed, and the step corresponding to the median of all the returns taken as the position for which the laser beam is centered on the target. These calculated positions are stored and used as the reference positions during simulated firing of the weapon. The detection of the position of a target for hit/miss determination is achieved with the same scanning and median selection procedure.