Military Synthetic Training Environment Innovations
It’s no longer just a concept in the minds of science fiction writers. Creating alternate worlds and allowing people to explore the environment and interact with each other has become a reality.
Today, U.S. military branches are developing a military metaverse to facilitate training for thousands of warfighters simultaneously, using realistic battlefield simulations referred to as synthetic training environments (STEs) or live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) environments. Regardless of how we refer to them, military metaverses are designed to address the limitations of traditional military training — providing a new level of realism and interactivity.
Table Of Contents
Table of Contents
1. Understanding the Metaverse
Years before we started calling it “the metaverse,” the Pentagon was experimenting with the broad concept of interconnected virtual worlds, with the commercial world exploring the same space.
Games like Fortnite and Minecraft may be the first to come to mind when considering civilian uses of virtual worlds, but the concept expanded beyond entertainment into areas like the events industry and healthcare. Now, tech giants like Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA, and Tencent are all investing in metaverse projects.
However, businesses continue to wrap their minds around the metaverse concept, as we call it today. The problem, said defense technology reporter Andrew Eversden at Breaking Defense, is that nobody seems to have an actual definition of the term.
“It’s everything and anything, which means it’s nothing,” said Jennifer McArdle, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and research head at Improbable U.S. Defense & National Security, a distributed simulation software company.
Despite differing use cases and explanations, experts share some common understanding of “the metaverse.” One key concept is that there isn’t one metaverse, with numerous civilian and military synthetic environments existing simultaneously. Once inside a metaverse, a person’s “avatar” can interact with the virtual world and other individual avatars.
Future efforts may develop standards and protocols that could lead to greater integration of disparate metaverses to create a single, simulated world that exists online and that multiple people can access through a device, such as a headset or tablet, from anywhere around the globe.
One well-defined use case — today and in the future — is a military “metaverse” or what we call an STE or LVC environment.
2. Understanding Military Synthetic Training Environments
The difference between the metaverse and a synthetic training environment lies primarily in their scope and purpose. The metaverse is a shared, immersive virtual world encompassing experiences ranging from gaming to commerce and often focused on user-generated content and community engagement.
An STE or LVC environment is specifically designed for realistic training experiences focused on targeted training outcomes using advanced simulations and scenarios. The core objective of a military STE is to enhance live training with virtual elements, creating hybrid exercises that are both accessible and repeatable. By combining these elements, STEs offer a comprehensive system for training and mission rehearsal across various levels without the risks and physical constraints of traditional training.
Technologies Used in an STE
The synthetic environment provides the infrastructure to create and manage training scenarios that can include live training deployments with virtual simulations and computer-generated, constructive scenarios. The STE integrates a range of developing and off-the-shelf technologies, including:
- Virtual Reality (VR): Creates fully immersive digital environments
- Augmented Reality (AR): Enhances the real world with digital overlays
- Mixed Reality (MR): Merges real and virtual worlds to create interactive experiences
- Enhanced Live Virtual Constructive Training (LVC): Combines live, virtual, and constructive simulations
- Haptic Sensors: Provides a sense of touch and force feedback
Military STEs allow our forces to match training to the real-life, rapidly evolving battlefield. There is still one hurdle to overcome.
Developing a Single Synthetic Training Environment
Currently, synthetic training takes place in relatively siloed virtual environments, a limitation that prevents training for the types of collaborative warfighting central to today’s military forces, and it can only be solved with a single synthetic training environment that can be leveraged across all military units and branches.
Training capacity within a single STE or LVC environment will enable military units to conduct realistic multi-echelon, multi-domain combined mission command training and arms maneuvers. It becomes easy to scale training and allow users in separate locations to work together in a coordinated training exercise.
Currently, this technology isn’t available. However, according to Tim Hill, Director of Central Florida Operations, Intuitive Research and Technology Corp and US Navy (retired), it’s reasonable that we could be leveraging a single STE within the next three to five years, depending on budgetary concerns and priorities. “It might be a little ugly, but it will work,” said Hill. “And then we’ll be in that process where we will start iterating and making it better over time.”
3. Advantages of a Synthetic Training Environment
As existing technologies evolve into a well-formed, single STE, the advantages will only multiply. Even today, thought, modeling, simulation, and training technologies are already overcoming many challenges of traditional live training and mitigating associated risks.
STE Is Software Focused
Military synthetic training environments represent a significant advancement in military training technology. As research continues into developing a single STE that can be leveraged across all of our military forces, it will be software-focused, offering numerous advantages over traditional virtual training methods.
Its non-proprietary nature allows for greater flexibility, easy updates, and cost-effective operation. The system's scalability ensures it can adapt to evolving training needs across various military branches.
The software-centric approach enables rapid integration of new technologies. By avoiding lock-in to specific hardware, vendors, or proprietary systems, an STE promotes innovation and competition among developers, leading to more robust and versatile training solutions for the modern warfighter.
Overcomes Traditional Virtual Training Challenges
There remain challenges with traditional virtual training methods, such as simulations or computer-based wargames. Because they are facility-specific, have long wait times for development, and can take four to six months — or longer — to set up, these methods simply aren’t adaptable to the pace of change in warfighting.
These challenges are solvable, and an innovative company recently overcame one consequential challenge.
Previously, as a simulation transitioned from beyond the visual range to within the visual range, the training system collapsed. There wasn’t a way to put synthetic adversaries into the pilot’s view and have them behave in a manner representative of real-world threats. Red 6, an Orlando-based company, has created an entirely new augmented reality technology that solves this problem. The Air Force is already fielding its product, and other services are working towards doing so.
As STE-based technologies replace traditional virtual training, there will be fewer challenges.
STE Addresses Training Gaps
Traditional virtual training, by its very nature, often includes terrain inconsistencies that take time and labor to update. Within an STE, however, data collected about an environment from deployed units can be used to recreate that theater with the latest terrain, improving standalone and collaborative training.
Michael Enloe, Department of the Army Government Civilian Chief Technical Officer for the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) Cross Functional Team (CFT) at Army Future Command, in a recent conversation we had with him, explained that a DoD-approved off-the-shelf drone can be set in automated mode to fly specific paths. When the drone returns, the servicemember can put the card from the drone into a computer which turns it into a very precise 3D terrain file, allowing the synthetic environment to be updated easily.
“You have the real buildings and the real roads and cars, so soldiers can experience the environment and lay out what they're going to see before they actually get there and do it,” said Enloe.
4. Obstacles to the Development of a Comprehensive Military STE
While there are significant advantages to using a synthetic environment for metaverse training, there are still some challenges to overcome. As the military continues to integrate STEs, there are four key issues that must be addressed.
1. Technology Integration
Today, STEs maintained by military branches and units employ different technologies, leveraging virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and enhanced LVC training products from different vendors, often using proprietary innovations. Merging these technologies into a cohesive system that can work together and deliver consistent results is mission-critical.
However, a significant investment of resources, time, and money is required to create interoperability standards and protocols for existing technologies. Emerging innovations add a layer of complexity to this challenge, as standards and protocols must have some level of flexibility to accommodate changes in future years.
2. Development Costs
The initial setup and development costs for a single STE that can be used by all of our military forces can be substantial, particularly with the need to include highly specialized and custom simulations. This financial barrier may limit the scope and scale of STE implementation across various military branches and training scenarios.
The expense involves not only software development but also the hardware infrastructure required to support these advanced systems. Additionally, ongoing maintenance, updates, and upgrades contribute to the overall cost.
While the long-term benefits of STE may outweigh these initial investments, securing adequate funding and justifying the expenditure to stakeholders can be challenging. Planners must carefully balance the need for cutting-edge training technology with budget constraints, potentially leading to phased implementations or prioritization of certain training areas over others.
3. User Adaptation
Ensuring that military personnel are comfortable and proficient with STE technology is crucial for effective training outcomes. Studies have shown that even tech-savvy service members can experience cognitive overload when presented with virtual-reality goggles and preloaded imagery, hindering their ability to effectively use the simulations. A potentially steep learning curve underscores the need for gradual integration and comprehensive user training programs.
Overcoming these hurdles requires a multi-faceted approach, including tailored training programs, intuitive user interfaces, and ongoing support. Additionally, military leaders must address potential generational gaps in technological proficiency and ensure that STE training complements, rather than replaces, traditional hands-on experience. Striking the right balance between technological innovation and user comfort is essential for maximizing the benefits of STE in military training.
4. Cybersecurity
Military training generates vast amounts of data on performance, tactical gaps, and weapon system efficacy, and the volume of data is increased exponentially when live, virtual, and constructive training is combined. This wealth of information makes synthetic environments high-value targets for cyberattacks. A security breach could provide adversaries with a treasure trove of sensitive military data, potentially compromising operational security and strategic advantages.
Robust cybersecurity measures are essential to protect STE-generated information. This includes implementing advanced encryption protocols, secure data storage and transmission methods, and regular security audits. Additionally, the military must develop comprehensive incident response plans to address potential breaches quickly and effectively.
The interconnected nature of an STE also introduces new vulnerabilities, as a breach in one area could potentially compromise the entire network. As such, cybersecurity considerations must be integrated into every aspect of STE development, from initial design to ongoing operations and maintenance, ensuring that the benefits of these advanced training environments are not outweighed by the risks they may introduce.
5. Future Directions for Synthetic Training Environment
The battlefield is ever-evolving, and warfighting must adapt to that continuous transformation. Effective military human performance training fundamentally demands an advanced training environment that spans live, virtual, and constructive needs.
Developing a military STE requires a capabilities-driven acquisition process and strong partnerships between the DoD, industry, and academia. Although technology continues to evolve rapidly, there is still much work to be done to iterate and refine this valuable digital training platform.
Efforts are ongoing through the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (OUSD) Critical Technologies Office (CTA) to drive more cross-service development and deployment of immersive reality in military training and funding to support it.
Tech Grove is working collaboratively with the OUSD CTA and facilitating cross-sector workshops to create the roadmap for that collaboration and funding.
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