Virtual Reality Advances in Armed Forces Combat Systemic Challenges

By Ralph R. Zerbonia, MNN Columnist

Virtual Reality. The Armed Forces of all technologically capable countries are using Metaverse tech to be the wind beneath their wings of war. From headset directed drone engagements to ‘look-down’ vision transmitted to soldiers on the battlefield. Now that same technology is becoming warm and cuddly toward solving human issues of soldiers under command.

In this context, the word Virtual has always translated as “equal to”. The U.S. Air Force may soon be translating it in the training context as “Superior to” if their initial data, as analyzed, scales in a similar trend. Virtually, everyone using VR training for Suicide Prevention and Sexual Assault Preventative Education and Training were enthusiastic in their approval. At the time of its first report this past Spring, 98% of leaders training under the program recommended its further use. 93% said it would be more effective than traditional training.

Suicide Prevention Counselor training and Preventative Sexual Assault Education are trainings that address two burgeoning problem for the U.S. Armed Forces:

The suicide rate for active-duty troops during 2014-2019 increased by over 25% from 20.4 to 25.9 suicides per 100,000. In that same period, National Guard troops almost tripled their suicide rate from 14 the prior year to 39.

Note: The Air Force has just over a half million people in the branch. So, those numbers mean the problem went from 100 to over 125 individual lives being lost every year to suicide.

Sexual Assault reports increased in 2019 by 3% from the prior year with a total of 7,825 reports. Investigations returned findings that there was a lack of “basic knowledge and understanding regarding core tenets” of the Armed Forces Sexual Assault Prevention program. Further they reported the primary effective tactic for SA prevention is intervention by witnessing bystanders, which in and of itself may be a problem in a military culture where intervening against someone of higher rank is potentially perilous, becoming a ‘Career Decision’.

For Sexual Assault Prevention the training answer is role based training, a group of trainees face a situation of physical sexual harassment and practice appropriate responses. This educates in proper procedure, practices speaking to power without fear of reprisal, and helps to get over shocked inertia often paralyzing action on the part of bystanders. In-person, in sterile classroom venues, this was usually a self-conscious, strained, play-act that repetition sometimes made worse.

When virtualized, experiences became real. The ability to put both visual and textual clues into the environment greatly enhanced training while created characters of victims and aggressors gave role-play realism. This left some real humans needing time to compose upon departing the tense-to-the-max VR scenario of confronting and intervening against a (possible) superior officer.

In both suicide prevention and sexual assault prevention there is a natural emotional/psychological impact upon all involved. It is heightened when the additional choice of intervening or not is the start of an obviously extreme time. We often look back and say, “I wish I had thought to…”, always sad for what might have been.

With VR role-play, one has the chance to do it right the first time when it will really count. You not only get multiple rehearsals of role training, but one can view recorded training scenes to see how you might improve. It was mentioned by more than one trainee that VR training versions put users in scenarios that were mentally compelling, not in a classroom where you have the choice of viewing your cellphone or even zoning out. The very environment created by VR is a much more immersive experience.

Carmen Schott, Program Manager for the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program said this about the VR training, “You are an active participant. You have to be ready. I think that it is going to help airmen retain and remember knowledge. We don’t want people to feel judged. They may not make perfect decisions, but they will learn skills.”

Real emotions begin to appear; the trainee comes to train as if they believe they are dealing with real people, in a real situation, with real consequences. ?The training advantages of this are obvious, less obvious are emotional repercussions and physical comedowns after adrenalin stops pulsing into your bloodstream. Which is really the point – it is superior training because it helps to replicate the chaos and emotional brutality which will be a piece of every step in a real situation. Training for the battlefield is done in controlled, terrifying circumstances for this very reason, to give you a chance to understand what will be happening and how you will need to keep on point or possibly perish.

Working for the prevention of Sexual Assault or suicide, in reality, will always be dangerous, even life-threatening for anyone intervening in these situations. When use of spatial and educational computing are training means, you can be assured of having a medium that can communicate dangers and help to recognize signs before danger even appears. Such a training system can offer gradually less help in dealing with situations, making trainees the source of what will be done to bring about a happy ending.

When we polled the data and reports of Air Mobility Command’s responsible personnel, they were unanimous in supporting more VR programs for a broader array of training exercises. The Suicide Prevention program is already contracting further teaching and training scenarios. Throughout the U.S. Armed Services, we are seeing major contracts in Augmented and Virtual Reality, Spatial Computing, and Artificial Intelligence reaching into the 100s of Billions.

Recently, Microsoft won a contract to provide the Army with 120,000 Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) at a cost of $22 Billion. ($22B/120,000=$183,333!) An average retail HoloLens 2 is approximately $3500. The remainder of $180,000 per headset, I imagine, is in making it battle-ready and supported world-wide with its own 5G!

What this trend in the military means for the Metaverse’s growth and ubiquity is this: that as personnel come out of service into civilian work, they will begin demanding similar tools, and already know how to use them. ?It’s not just the military that wins, the society it protects receives back treasure in technology and people. It also means the importance and proven success of Metaverse tech in the military beyond the battlefield will give additional weight and credibility to use of similar technologies in multiple civilian and institutional venues.

Returning to the main story, whatever produces results, these are terrible, systemic, human problems that need to be addressed with the best and brightest solutions. It is important to keep faith with our military people just as they keep faith in defending us, and count on our support-in-kind when they can no longer bear the burden. It’s quite pleasing to know that technologies of Spatial Computing are seeing to the wounded warrior in a way that only great tech can.

? 2021 Ralph R. Zerbonia with first publication rights to Shauna Lee Lange dba Metaverse News Network, All other rights reserved.

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Ralph R. Zerbonia is a serial ?technology entrepreneur. As a business consultant and Microsoft Partner and member in the Microsoft Mixed Reality Partners group, he has provided counsel on IoT and the Metaverse, Spatial Computing, AR/VR/XR. His entrepreneurial vision was recently recognized when he was one of three inaugural inductees to the Youngstown Press Club Hall of Fame. His ability to see ahead has been a great source of revenue for his clients; Ralph is now focused on changes and opportunities coming from the Metaverse. The content of this article is solely the opinion of the author.

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