Immersive Training Spreading Across NATO

[Asid]

Immersive Training Spreading Across NATO



LONDON — Five to 10 years from now, a far greater proportion of military training will be provided by immersive solutions — training systems that use advanced software and hardware combinations to fully engage individuals in virtual and constructive simulations.

Such has been the prediction stemming from workshops, colloquia and conferences such as ITEC and I/ITSEC in recent years. The reality of budget constraints coupled with the capabilities for highly realistic simulations, brought about, in part, by the accelerating development of visualization technologies, have created an environment in which immersive training is already being provided across a broad swath of nations.

According to statements from NATO's own e-learning portal, the Virtual Battlespace (VBS) immersive training package from Bohemia Interactive Simulations "is the world's most widely used military tactical training and mission rehearsal simulation software." The alliance further states that "more than 19 NATO nations and nine partner nations as well as three NATO entities" are current users of VBS. Because of the resulting efficiencies, NATO has negotiated an agreement with Bohemia for alliance-wide use of the latest iteration, VBS3, demonstrating the increasingly common employment of immersive training.

This widespread use also explains why immersive training environments are a key development priority for NATO's Smart Defence effort, which is aimed at promoting collaboration among members and partner nations to strengthen European defense, leverage the capabilities of developing technology, and make more effective use of increasingly scarce financial and equipment resources.

After a meeting hosted at the NATO Modelling & Simulation Centre of Excellence in Rome, Paul Thurkettle, from Allied Command Transformation Joint Education Training & Exercises division, stated, "Immersive Training Environments was selected as a Tier 1 Smart Defence program, and as this technology develops, it is an ideal subject which fits the NATO secretary general's idea for nations to work both together and with industry."

Industry has been swift to take advantage of these capabilities, and equally swift to recognize the almost ideal fit between innovative technology and evolving customer requirements. San Diego-based Cubic, for example, has bought heavily into the immersive issue, enhancing the capabilities of its several small arms engagement skills trainers, which combine improved high fidelity visuals with a greater sense of personal involvement for trainees. An industry source close to the company indicated during I/ITSEC in Orlando, Florida, last year that Cubic is focused on bringing immersive technologies to the fore across a wide range of its existing and developmental small unit training systems.

The company also is offering systems for individual soldiers, including the COMBATREDI system, which instantly brings a soldier into a highly realistic, fully immersive training environment through a helmet-mounted display.

Recognizing how the distinctions in training requirements between the pure military and security service worlds are blurring, Cubic's Mission Rehearsal and Planning System offers immersion for homeland security and law enforcement trainees as well as their counterparts in the armed forces.

Immersion is not just about technology; it is about an intimate understanding of the training environment and the sweeping changes that have taken place therein since the end of the Cold War. These changes continue to make their effects felt as the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan has forced military planners to debate the kind of training best suited for the future.

Given that so-called traditional set-piece warfare has given way to expeditionary warfare, peace support operations and low-intensity conflicts, total immersion provides far better and more cost effective training for small infantry and combined arms units, officials say.

It also has the potential to improve training for a wide variety of other battlefield and support functions. Take, for example, forward air controllers (FACs) and joint terminal attack coordinators (JTACs). Routinely operating in isolation as individuals or two-person teams, their training requires the accurate portrayal of a highly complex battlespace as well as a wide portfolio of weapons, platforms and kinetic effect requirements. This has to be done in an environment in which this complexity is hidden from the trainee, but in which the stresses and ambient factors that affect the speed and accuracy of the decision-making process are accurately replicated.

Close Air Solutions, a small British company based in Yorkshire, is the brainchild of two former Tornado pilots, both of whom spent time before leaving the Royal Air Force as instructors at the UK's Joint Forward Air Control Training and Standardisation Unit (JFACTSU).

Having developed their own simulator to provide for third party training for FAC and JTAC candidates, the company teamed with Selex ES in 2014 to provide JFACTSU with a fully immersive simulator for training operators. The result, the Immersive Close Air Support Simulator (iCASS), was delivered to the customer within four months from contract award — an example of how small, innovative companies can bring immediate effect to customer requirements.

"The key for the customer was ensuring that the solution was developed on the back of an intimate understanding of the cockpit environment," said Mike Squires, the company's business director. "Immersive training was the secret and not only facilitated a considerable uptick in training capability but also lays the groundwork for future enhancements and improvements."

Close Air Solutions brought together a mix of immersive technologies and a familiarity with the requirements of the users, not only on the ground but in the air — a pretty fair definition of total immersion.

Close Air Solutions' approach recognizes the all-embracing nature of successful immersive training: a mix of technological advancements and experience-based understanding of the trainee's needs. After a presentation delivered late last year to the NATO Immersive Workshop in London, Tom Ball, company chief technical officer, stated that one conclusion reached was that "technology alone cannot achieve immersion, the facilitator plays a vital role."

Innovative solutions delivered by the right team is what creates successful immersion in military training, experts say.

A consensus is coalescing around the issue of immersive training and a recognition that herein lies a powerful dynamic for the future of military training. It captures the imagination and enthusiasm of traditionalists and innovators in military planning, leverages technology and meets the ever present requirement for armed forces to "do more with less."

As the training community gathers for the most important conference in Europe — ITEC 2015, in Prague, Czech Republic, from April 28-30 — the expression "immersive training" will feature high on the list of well-used phrases in the conference rooms and exhibition booths.

Original post: http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/training-simulation/2015/04/23/training-immersive-itec-iitsec-simulation-nato-virtual/25772997/