British military leads the world in shooting-range safety

每年，来自手枪，步枪和自动武器的数千万小武器弹，每年都会在英国的军事训练范围内开火。即使在弦乐后，其中一些也可以行驶几公里。许多范围很小且受到限制，或者具有不寻常的地形。因此，保护​​服务人员和附近的公众免受流浪巡回赛和Ricochets至关重要 - 但这是一项非常复杂的任务。

The MOD owns 240,000 hectares of land in the UK, comprising 16 major and 104 minor training areas, ranges and camps. Over two-thirds of it, known as the defence training estate, is used solely for preparing the armed forces for service. Around 9,000 tri-service personnel (British Army, Royal Navy and RAF) pass through the estate each day.

Safety on the ranges is co-ordinated by the tri-service Defence Ordnance Safety Group (DOSG), led by Major (Ret’d) Charles Ross, previously of the Royal Artillery. He relies on Leica Geosystems equipment, including a UAV (drone), a multi-station and a GNSS rover, to get the job done.

“I can’t commend Leica Geosystems enough for their first-class support. They’ve given us a tremendous amount of advice and are very quick to come out and solve problems for us. We’ve been very lucky that they’re so interested in what we’re doing, and they just never say ‘no’.”
-Charlie Ross, Defence Ordnance Safety Group

Modelling ‘probabilistic solutions’
对于他们被要求评估的每个范围，查理·罗斯（Charlie Ross）和他的团队需要确定“武器危险区域”。首先，他们使用Leica设备收集行业标准的3D点云数据来绘制该区域。这将创建每个范围的非常精确且详细的3D数字模型，包括范围地板的相对高度和范围。

Next, the team feeds the DFX output from those surveys into triangulation software in their world-leading ballistic modelling software, which they developed in-house. This simulates the effect of firing weapons, using highly complex mathematics to model billions of possible trajectories. It identifies where ricochets could occur, and at which angle and distance. This delivers statistical probabilities which, when merged with the topography of each range, determines the weapon danger area.

“世界上没有人会做我们做的事情。”
- Charlie Ross, Defence Ordnance Safety Group

Originally developed in 1996, the DOSG’s ‘probabilistic’ model is continually being enhanced to deliver maximum value. That’s why it’s the engine behind models used by other NATO alliance members, including the USA. DOSG also provides global consultancy services in partnership with the International Range Safety Advisory Group; for example, they recently surveyed and modelled two problematic ranges in New Zealand.

From human subjectivity to extraordinary accuracy

根据查理（Charlie）的说法，“在我们有了这项技术之前，如果已经使用了100年，那么将军将批准一个范围为'Safe'，并且从未有人被枪杀！当很明显这太主观时，较小的范围和更复杂的地形的范围就简单地退役了。然后，我们开始使用工程承包商进行调查，但这不是很令人满意。”

然而，七年前，DSOG引入了Leica Geosystems的设备，此后再也没有回头。他们的设备当前包括：

• TheAibot X6智能航空测量无人机（无人机）
• TheNova MS60多站 - 世界上第一个自学多站
• TheGS18T– the world's fastest GNSS RTK rover.

查理说，Leica Geosystems套件使团队能够以极高的信心来计算风险。这意味着他们甚至可以保持最小，最复杂的范围，并且仍然可以确保所有人的安全。

“无人机非常快速地提供精确数据。曾经需要几天的时间才能拍摄和收集六到八公顷的点云数据，我们现在可以在六个小时内自行完成，从发布到成品。我们知道，我们的结果准确且至关重要，我们自己现在收集和存储所有数据。借助所有Leica Geospatial调查设备一起工作，我们已经显着提高了准确性 - 从五米到只有10毫米的确定性。”

Which is perhaps why the model has never failed in its calculations; failure would mean death or injury to a member of service personnel, an observer or a member of the public. “Our 3D representations are a major step-change in representing, in our model, the ground on our firing ranges, and they’ve never failed us,” says Charlie Ross.