10 November 2020

Keeping up with rapidly advancing technological progress is critical to a nation’s military effectiveness. Nowadays, massive research into new military technologies can provide states with qualitatively superior armed capabilities to better address even non-conventional and asymmetrical threats (Lele, 2013). For this reason, the military sector has been one of the first to implement virtual reality (VR) for the purpose of training land, maritime and air forces. The military sector also helped to significantly promote the development of VR worldwide, being the major investor in this technology (Joshi, 2019).

VR in defence and security is mainly used to improve the training of soldiers and officers and for the simulation of military missions and operations. The use of VR in military training has several benefits. First of all, it proves to be a viable, cost-effective alternative despite national military budget cuts (Lele, 2013). Indeed, virtual training, unlike live training, does not require the use of real munitions and resources. Moreover, VR can simulate any kind of training, re-creating different environments. Therefore, specific training can be carried out at any time thanks to detailed reconstruction and the high number of possible combinations offered by VR. To understand the value of the wide range of VR simulations, it is sufficient to imagine of all those military situations that would be expensive and difficult to reproduce in actual training with real equipment and that are instead easily made possible in virtual training. For instance, VR can recreate missions simulating a glacial environment or jungle conditions. Furthermore, this type of training enables the military to simulate scenarios avoiding the risk of human life loss. It saves resources, reduces risks and increases the safety of trainees. For example, VR allows soldiers to simulate very risky or dangerous scenarios, such as equipment malfunction or any unforeseen situation (ibid). Physical training also takes much more time than the virtual counterpart, having for example the issue of personnel transport to specific grounds or facilities (Joshi, 2019).

Military training firmly relies on virtual reality simulation and it is used in many military areas. For instance, it can simulate advanced ground vehicles, mimicking any kind of vehicles and making soldiers experience their shape and manoeuvrability. It also enables soldiers to simulate any role they could play on that vehicle, such as a driver or gunner (Velichko 2018).

VR has also taken training games to another level. While the first military games were played on regular consoles, now game-based activities can rely on “all kinds of devices and VR software including CAVE systems, motion trackers, and real-to-life equipment like vests and guns” (ibid). Finally, VR is also used in post-traumatic stress disorder recovering therapy. In fact, it is possible to thoroughly recreate the event that traumatised the soldier while keeping the subject absolutely safe, enabling him to re-experience the event in virtual reality and to overcome his fears (ibid).

In conclusion, virtual training will not replace live training, but its role will become increasingly important in the sector of military training. Undoubtedly, it can help soldiers to gain experience and situational awareness, reducing training expenses and increasing the safety of training.

Written by Florinda ARTESE, Researcher at Finabel – European Army Interoperability Centre

Sources

Joshi, N. (2019). VR is the future of military training. Allerin https://www.allerin.com/blog/vr-is-the-future-of-military-training 

Lele, A. (2013). Virtual reality and its military utility. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, 4(1), 17-26. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12652-011-0052-4 

Velichko, M. (2018). VR Military Training – the Next Step of Combat Evolution. Jasoren website https://jasoren.com/vr-military-training-the-next-step-of-combat-evolution/

Virtual Reality Society (VRS) website: virtual reality in the military https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality-military/

Zyda, M. (2005). From visual simulation to virtual reality to games. Computer, 38(9), 25-32. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/From-visual-simulation-to-virtual-reality-to-games-Zyda/a4592975c28861b8aae4870e23612388cdfda67a