By Ann Roosevelt
U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) is wrapping up its two-year Future Immersive Training Environment (FITE) joint capability technology demonstration (JCTD)–the virtual reality-based training system to improve decision-making through realistic scenarios individual and teams may encounter on the battlefield.
“What we’re doing is integrating emerging technologies into training prototypes for the benefit of service programs, predominantly focused at the small unit level, for those forces tending to be engaged in theater right now on the ground, that would mean predominantly the Army and Marine Corps,” Jay Reist, JFCOM FITE program manager, told Defense Daily in an interview.
A significant part of the work is focused on counter-IED threats that the small units face while dismounted and on the ground in theater.
“That creates an atmosphere where we’ve got a common challenge across the department,” he said. Improving training is of keen interest to all the services and combatant commands.
The FITE demonstration was done in two parts: Spiral 1 in March and April at Ft. Benning, Ga., and Camp Lejeune, N.C. In Spiral 1, individuals wore virtual reality training systems.
“Now we’ve turned to emphasis on looking at predominantly from Marine Corps and the Army within programs of record that they have, integrating emergent virtual technologies into a live training facility predominantly focused on urban training,” he said.
Spiral 2, at Camp Pendleton, Calif., conducted scenarios in what Reist calls “mixed reality”–using real role players, animatronics, simulated and virtual effects in an urban training facility.
“What we’re after is placing that young soldier or Marine individually or as [part of] a squad or team leader, collectively in a very complex environment that gives a three dimensional with the looks and feels and smells and the tastes of that environment,” Reist said.
This is bounded by Army and Marine requirements.
Spiral 2 was not only a 3D environment, but “further complicates decision making because we induce stress and we compress time and we make them work through a very, very high stress scenario and force decisions almost on the horns of a dilemma based on that complexity,” he said.
The FITE JCTD is after learning through different areas of training.
“We demonstrated in Spiral 1 that putting young soldiers and marines in an individually worn virtual system is a very effective next step,” he said. “If you take that to the next level, putting them in a live environment that gives them that 3D look, feel, smell and taste that induces stress and compresses time, now you’ve taken it to the next level so that when they take that learning experience into combat or into theater they’ve got a very direct place to bring their memory and their learning experiences with them.”
The demonstration also measured and assessed how real the effort has to be to get the desired training effect.
“We thought it was important to understand the human performance and social aspects of what we were trying to accomplish before we actually integrated technology,” he said. A group of experts were brought together to develop scenarios based on extensive interviews with soldiers and marines returning from combat, who lived such experiences.
Decision themes were created what those returning troops said were the “toughest calls” they had to make in complex situations. Then, based on that decision, what happened next.
All that was crafted into the scenario, and technologies were introduced to bring out those themes so the individual, team and leader had to go into a scenario and figure out what was normal, and find out what was out of place, then based on that specific anomaly, make a decision.
The squad emerged with a lot of intensity that Reist harnessed by holding debriefings and after action reviews, using the integrated technology.
“We can show them in a debrief where everybody was at any given time, show them audio and video that is collated, so we have ground truth what they said, how they moved what they did, how they engaged with village elders, children, and walk through that debrief with a master trainer, to bring out that learning experience,” he said.
Since soldiers and marines know they’re being watched, it enhances and amplifies their effort to try harder to make the right decision, he said.
Another effort was to measure and assess how to accelerate team building and learning.
“What we’re finding out is the more you create threads along the way of setting conditions amplifying the decision themes in a well-structured scenarios and then bringing out those points in the After Action Review, the linkage within the pre-test and the post test–the more that you’ve threaded and emphasized some of those key areas the more learning takes place,”Reist said. “Now you create mental models where that individual, team and leader when they go into those actual complex environments in theater have a reference point that stays with them.”
For young troops who grew up playing video games and familiar with virtual reality and theme parks the Spiral 2 environment was familiar, since the FITE JCTD introduced simulated as well as animatronic figures, one replicating a tribal elder, while troops were interacting with real role players in a mock-up Afghan village.
On Nov. 17, FITE JCTD officials meet with senior leaders at Ft. Benning to discuss results and show an abbreviated version of the demonstration. Leaders will then decide what they might want to incorporate into their programs of record.
How real was FITE Spiral 2? Anecdotally, one marine told Reist, “I didn’t feel I was at Camp Pendleton anymore.” He was immersed in the moment.