Branches of the UK and US armies conducted a joint training experiment last month in the OLIVE environment developed by Forterra. The coalition training experiment, STX Safe Passage 08-01 , was a collaboration between Army Research Development and Engineering Command's Simulation and Training Technology Center (RDECOM – STTC), the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Social and Behavioral Sciences (ARI) in Orlando, Florida, and the U.K. Land Warfare Centre in Warminster, England. The goal of the experiment, the first of 4 to 6 focused on multinational team training, was to test the usability of a virtual world for "planning, conducting and reviewing a geographically distributed training exercise involving two coalition forces." It seems like the experiment, so far, has been regarded as a success.
"Any training exercise or SIMEX which [enables] junior leaders and Soldiers to make tactical decisions based on processing information and events around them allows us to train and develop creative adaptive leaders and units” stated MAJ Bobby Toon, who led the U.S. Army battalion during STX Safe passage. He added “I saw many examples of this during our joint exercise." (Image provided by Forterra)
The British are equally enthusiastic.
“I am very proud that the British Army’s Land Warfare Centre has grasped this new technology and is looking to exploit it for its low-level training applications and to explore interoperability issues between our two armies,” Lt Col Julian Moir, U.K. Land Warfare Centre, who led the U.K. Army battalion, said in a statement.
This comes at a time of increasing interest, and many other projects, from the Army in virtual worlds. We've talked before about the benefits virtual worlds for single-nation training, but the savings are only magnified when training forces from multiple nations.
“This research project is a first for the U.S. and U.K. armies," added Dr. Stephen Goldberg, Chief of the ARI Orlando Research Unit and U.S. Science Advisor for the TTCP Human Performance Group. "Present and future conflicts will involve deployment of multi-national forces. This technology gives our Soldiers the opportunity to experience planning and operating with Soldiers from other countries at low cost. It will allow Soldiers to gain experience working with people from other cultures. This type of training will hasten the adjustment period when our Soldiers are deployed as part of a coalition.”
The next test is set for early October 2008 with two more planned for February and July 2009.
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