Every move you make, they are watching you

Every single detail about every single soldier from his movements to the shots fired over the 33-day mission can be revealed within seconds.

This is the power of the Area Weapons Effect Simulator, or AWES.

And Worcestershire soldiers are the first to test the equipment in the battle on the isolated Canadian prairie of the British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS).

Every vehicle and soldier is fitted with sensors which relay every scrap of information to the control centre in the middle of the Prairie, called Ex Con.

Each soldier wears a jacket covered in sensors which also has a speaker and a display which tells him his status - whether, for example, he has been wounded or shot.

All the information is fed to computers at Ex Con, which keeps an intensely watchful eye over the battle.

This information is observed by a team of analysts sitting in a darkened room who then provide a full report at the end of the simulated battle.

"The great advantage of AWES is that the information we collect is indisputable," said Mike McGarrigle, the system's senior analyst.

"Before, when there was a mission debrief, soldiers could say 'I wasn't there' or 'I didn't say that'.

"But with this system we know exactly what they could have seen and exactly what they said.

"In the presentation we can show them what they did right and what they did wrong."

The AWES system has been in development since 1998 and has cost more than £81m.

In the past, the closest thing the Army could use to train in a simulated environment was TES, Tactical Engagement Systems, but these only worked with two soldiers shooting lasers directly at targets on each other.

But the AWES system is more than just a ridiculously expensive game of Laser Quest and can handle a variety of methods of attack, such as artillery fire, rather than just the simple point and shoot.

It can even change the environment of the battle zone, by creating things like rivers.

AWES also triumphs over its predecessors because anyone who cheats is automatically killed - unlike the old system where a soldier could become immortal by taking the battery out of the sensor. This system does not allow for any tampering.

All of the reams of data from hundreds of vehicles and more than 1,000 personnel is controlled at Ex Con, where analysts can review every second of the 33-day battle through the icons on the screen.

The whole thing could easily be mistaken for an elaborate computer game were it not for the forces outside actually enacting the events carried out on the screens.

Its creator is the multinational company Cubic, which also runs civilian projects such as the ticket system on the London Underground.

Cubic is confident this system will change the way armies train across the globe.

"Enhanced TES is the most ambitious ground combat training system ever created," said Gary Shrock, senior director and AWES programme manager for Cubic.

"The United Kingdom now has a comprehensive training system covering all of the most serious potential threats of war.

"This system will be a model for all future ground combat training systems developed on this scale."

Mr McGarrigle said the feedback so far had been very supportive but the real acid test would be in the full debrief due to take place over the next few days.

Soldiers in the field also praised the devices.

"It takes a bit of getting used to," said Cpl Pete Ward, aged 27 from Bromsgrove.

"To start with, you're accidentally pulling out the wires which makes the whole thing go crazy."

Thirty-five-year-old Sgt Steve King, also from Bromsgrove, is another officer who speaks highly of the new AWES system.

"I've used the much older TES system but this is much more realistic.

"It makes you want to kill and not be killed."

Creating this killer instinct not only makes the QRH Battle Group the perfect candidates to fight if war break out anywhere over the world, but also makes the AWES test, so far, a complete success.

TOMORROW: More war games on the Canadian prairies.