U.S. Marines sharpen skills with virtual reality games
Battlefield commanders confront life-or-death situations requiring fast, yet informed, decisions. To develop, strengthen and accelerate these quick-thinking abilities — particularly among small-unit leaders — the U.S. Marine Corps is distributing new “tactical decision kits” to 24 infantry battalions.
The kits, to be rolled out over the next six months, include software sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). They can be used in field, barracks or classroom settings to provide warfighters with a versatile workspace to practice and hone their decision-making skills. The included software tools enhance existing training technologies like virtual first-person simulations or field exercises.
“This suite of new training tools is easy to implement and can be tailored to Marines’ needs,” said Dr. Peter Squire, a program officer in ONR’s Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare and Combating Terrorism Department. “It will allow Marines to think more critically and adapt more quickly to changing environments and adversaries.”
The ONR-sponsored technology includes the Interactive Tactical Decision Game (I-TDG); an augmented-reality Sand Table application that uses a HoloLens visual display to insert virtual objects into an actual field of sight; and a quadcopter-based system for quickly surveying and modeling terrain.
In a recent media interview, Col. James Jenkins, director of Science and Technology for the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, said the value of the system is in the ability of squads and small units to run the same scenario multiple times with detailed after-action feedback.
