‘Immersive Training’ – a new trend?

‘Immersive Training’ – a new trend?

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NATTC NAS Pensacola

There is a growing consensus around the issue of immersive training. As the training community gathers for the most important conference in Europe — ITEC 2015, in Prague, April 28-30 — the expression “immersive training” is often used.

Experts claim that five to 10 years from now, a far greater proportion of military training will be provided by training systems that use advanced software and hardware combinations to engage trainees in virtual simulations. In part, this is due to budget constraints, but it is comes as a direct result of the accelerating development of visualization technologies. Simulations have become highly realistic.

The industry has been taking advantage of this new trend. San Diego-based Cubic, for example is offering systems for individual soldiers, including the COMBATREDI system, which provides the soldier with a helmet-mounted display. Recognizing that the distinctions in training requirements between the pure military and security service worlds are blurring, Cubic’s products offers immersion for homeland security and law enforcement trainees as well as their military counterparts.

But immersion is not just about technology; it is about an intimate understanding of the training environment and the changes that have taken place in this field since the end of the Cold War. According to a Defense News article these changes continue to make their effects felt. So-called traditional warfare has given way to expeditionary warfare, peace support operations and low-intensity conflicts, and total immersion provides far better and more cost effective training for small infantry and combined arms units. According to officials quoted in the article, it also has the potential to improve training for a wide variety of other battlefield and support functions.

Close Air Solutions, another manufacturer, uses an approach which 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.”