Virtual Immersion Training: Bloodless Battles for Small-Unit Readiness
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Virtual Immersion Trainiinngg:: BBllooooddlleessss BBaattttlleess FFoorr SSmmaallll--UUnniitt RReeaaddiinneessss By MG Bob Scales U.S. Army retired he quality of performance among today’s close-combat soldiers is high. Look at any Tphotograph of tactical engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you will notice enemy com - batants running about and shooting wildly, unlike American soldiers, who move in tightly formed groups and, even in the tensest moments, carry their rifles with fingers outside the trigger wells. These images prove the value of rigorous training, and no one respects and appreciates first-rate training more a r d e i P . than close-combat soldiers. They consistently rate N o l b a P good training higher than pay and benefits because G S S / y they know first-rate preparation for war is the best m r A . S . U life insurance. 24 ARMY I July 2013 Historically, however, this extraordinary pro - ficiency has not been won cheaply. In Vietnam, two-thirds of all small-unit combat deaths oc - curred during the first two months in the field, in part because the training system had mass- produced soldiers too quickly to properly pre - pare them for the complex task of close-in killing. One lesson shared by all senior leaders in the ground forces is that, in the future, small units must undergo far more rigorous and de - finitive conditioning before combat begins. No unit should be sent into a shooting situation until both leaders and followers have experi - enced bloodless battle first. The need for realistic immersion training that replicates the conditions of close combat is becoming even more vital as American mili - tary forces leave Afghanistan. Without ques - tion, ours remains the most combat-experi - enced ground force in the world. Some infantry mid- and senior-level leaders have had as many as five or six tours in the combat zone; some special operations forces have as a many as 12. Radical reductions in training and r o m operations budgets, however, threaten to dull a Z y the sharp edge honed during a decade of war. n n e The emergence of a new “garrison Army” that P J A will be locked into home stations with little M / y chance of overseas deployment creates the fear m r A . that units very soon will consist of new sol - S . U diers who do not have the advantage of close- y m r A . S . U Top: CPT Marcus Long of the 157th Infantry Brigade, First Army Division East, uses a helmet-mounted display to view a simulated battle platform at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, Ind. Sensors on the body harness capture his movements, and a helmet-mounted display shows him a realistic virtual-technology environment like the one above. Intel Corp. and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory are jointly developing this virtual-world training technology. Left: A soldier with Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade, uses a Dismounted Soldier Training System in Grafenwoehr, Germany. July 2013 I ARMY 25 dividuals within the zone of profi - ciency will demand a new set of atti - tudes and policies. Unit commanders will have to be held accountable for the education of their units both in garri - son and in the field. Such a reform will require constant reinforcement and validation, particularly at small-unit and individual levels. Tomorrow’s training regimens will increasingly become more episodic. Just before deployments, units are at their peak. Soldier assignments, both n internally and externally, have been e t t o stabilized. Turbulence is at a mini - c S t t a mum, distractions are few, and lead - M G ers concentrate their lessons solely on S S / those tasks to be accomplished in bat - y m r tle. Most deployments are preceded A . S . by a combat training center (CTC) ro - U Goggles are part of the uniform in a virtual combat zone, as shown at Camp tation in which leaders get the oppor - Atterbury by PFC Kevin Hadley (right) of the 151st Infantry Regiment, Indi - tunity to practice skills in rigorous, ana Army National Guard. Hadley took part in Bold Quest 2011, a joint staff- simulated combat. All too often, how - led combat coalition exercise designed to reduce friendly fire incidents. ever, even in combat these skills dete - riorate quickly. combat experience and have had no chance to prepare In order for the ground services to maintain a high level themselves for combat before going to war. of small-unit excellence, they must shift from an institu - This is not a problem for the distant future. Human and tional to a soldier-based system that rewards individual per - cognitive science confirms what combat leaders know al - formance rather than institutional efficiency. Soldiers must ready: Decision-making and psychomotor skills within be given time and support to study and continuously im - small units, squads and platoons atrophy quickly. Even a prove fighting skills over their lifetimes. Small-unit leaders few months away from realistic and immersive training re - must be taught at a much earlier age to lead indirectly, think sult in a sharply plummeting effectiveness curve for indi - quickly and “see” a battlefield that is dispersed, complex, viduals and small units. The challenge is clear: create superb hidden and ambiguous. The isolation inherent in urban small units and superb soldiers during a protracted period fighting puts even greater demands on small units and re - of peace. The ground services must create an attributable, quires a degree of cohesion never before seen in the U.S. measurable, servicewide system for training small units. military. Unfortunately, the enemy rarely takes downtime. The tempo within a theater of war continues while fighting skills oday, learning science can help identify those who atrophy at home. If the past is prologue, our ground forces can be taught to make tough decisions intuitively. will soon be required to deploy directly into a combat zone Such a system must replicate conditions of uncer - with little or no notice. A first priority will be to keep com - Ttainty, fear and ambiguity and might help identify bat proficiency from dipping so much that a unit will not natural leaders, perhaps even as early as commissioning. We have to go to war without extensive train-up or with last- should then cultivate those leaders and exercise them contin - minute personnel reshuffling. Individual small-unit profi - uously to sharpen their decision-making prowess before ciency must be constant, not subject to the same pendulum they lead soldiers into real combat. swings that diminish field proficiency. Keeping units and in - Good commanders know how to lead in combat. Great commanders possess an intuitive sense of how to transi - MG Bob Scales , USA Ret., served as commandant of the U.S. tion quickly from kinetic warfare to a subtler kind of cul - Army War College and deputy chief of staff for both U.S. Army tural warfare distinguished by the ability to win the war of V Corps and U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. A will and perception. Rare are the leaders who can rotate graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, he earned a master’s between these two disparate universes and lead and fight degree and a Ph.D. from Duke University. His books include competently in both. The key to achieving excellence in Certain Victory: The U.S. Army in the Gulf War; Yellow both domains is what leaders call combat inurement—that Smoke: The Future of Land Warfare for America’s Mili - is, the intuitive ability of leaders, soldiers and small units tary; and most recently, The Iraq War: A Military History to fight together with an unprecedented level of excellence. with Williamson Murray. Learning science dictates that inurement is achieved in 26 ARMY I July 2013 VIRTSIM motion-capture technology by Raytheon Co. and Motion Reality Inc. allows a team to train inter - actively. Reflective markers on users’ bodies take the place of wires and cables. c n I y t i l a e R n most not so much. The best o i t o candidate so far is VIRTSIM, M , y which comes from Raytheon n a p Co. and Motion Reality Inc. m o C VIRTSIM’s Hollywood-style n o e h simulation technology com - t y a R bines combat realism, re - / o t o peatability, infinite variation F s w and a learning-based system e N R for embedding the simula - P tion into the minds of indi - peacetime by applying three variables: full immersion, un - vidual soldiers and small-unit leaders. Using an amazingly predictable variation and repetition. realistic virtual environment, VIRTSIM steepens the learn - During the Cold War, the CTCs in places like Fort Irwin, ing curve bloodlessly by immersing the soldier in the sights Calif., were ideally suited for training and evaluating the and sounds of the tactical close fight. Through headsets, the fighting proficiency of large Army units, principally battal - system permits a small unit, squad or team of up to 13 sol - ions and brigades. Experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, diers to be carried away from a safe indoor space to the however, has shown that in counterinsurgencies, ground midst of an unfamiliar virtual battlefield. The system oper - forces generally fight in much smaller aggregations such as ates by attaching movement tracking “tags” to each soldier, squads and platoons. Leaders from both the Army and U.S. using a series of illuminators and cameras to allow partici - Marine Corps have acknowledged this fact by stressing the pants to move untethered by wires.