Cubic has developed a tetherless M-4 training rifle that uses a wireless technology rather than computer cables to allow greater freedom of movement and more realism during tactical simulations.

Cubic's Simulation Systems Division, delivered its first tetherless system last year to the Mississippi Air National Guard at the Combat Readiness Training Center. The division is under contract to deliver more tetherless M-4 rifles to the Wisconsin Air National Guard's Combat Readiness Training Center later this year. More than 1,000 EST 2000 systems are operational at Army and Air Force installations worldwide, including the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Korea, Germany, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq.

The new simulator weapons have a CO2 driven recoil with 2.4GHz wireless connection. The electronics are battery powered and the recoil is provided by the CO2, which can be housed in either the ammunition magazine or in attachments to the simulated weapon. They can be used either with Cubic's Engagement Skills Trainer or its Warrior Skills Trainer, an enhancement to EST 2000 that enables soldiers to move around either on foot or in a moving vehicle in a simulation environment that replicates the weather conditions, convoy attacks and judgment issues that arise in certain combat situations.

Cubic's Orlando division is now working on converting other weapons used in EST 2000 and the Warrior Skills Training to operate in a tetherless environment. Cubic could potentially create tetherless technology for law enforcement users in the future.