US Air Force acquires new tech for force training

The U.S. Air Force Security Forces (SF) Academy has added an innovative technology into its apprentice course to help with force training.

The 343rd Training Squadron schoolhouse recently acquiredeight Multiple Interactive Learning Objectives simulators from the securityforces career field team, as well as a VR-based (virtual reality) trainingsystem from industry through a partnership facilitated through an AFWERX, tohelp them teach students how to employ both lethal and non-lethal force.

“Both of these tools have shown to be valuable assets inhelping teach our airmen how to make critical, life and death, decision-makingskills,” said Master Sgt. Justin Consley, non-commissioned officer in charge ofthe Security Forces apprentice course. “Using this immersive trainingtechnology to train on law enforcement-specific scenarios is definitely helpingus produce more lethal and ready Defenders.”

The opportunity to partner with Street Smarts VR on thisbeta-test came about after the vendor contacted the schoolhouse to inquireabout their interest in field testing a system aimed at putting trainees inscenarios they will find themselves in when they arrive at their permanent dutystations at no cost to the unit.

“With some of the standard procurement processes, by thetime we acquire certain technologies, they’re obsolete,” said Capt. ZacharyWatkins, officer in charge of the Security Forces officer technical trainingcourse. “With the help of AFWERX, what we are doing through this one-yearpartnership is removing the barriers to getting that leading-edge technologyinto the schoolhouse now before it becomes obsolete and giving our commanderno-risk flexibility to decide if this is technology we need long-term.”

The opportunity to create realistic training scenarios usingthe VR system, including both the law enforcement and air base defenseenvironments, that allows Defenders to learn the proper application of forcebased on the priority level assets involved or the rules of engagement, is ahuge gain for the students and the instructors.

“This system limits us to only our imagination to createscenarios, so we can place students in situations which differ from the publiclaw enforcement side,” said Tech. Sgt. Jesse Bechtel, 343rd TRS instructorsupervisor, who has been overseeing the use of the VR system in the apprenticecourse.

Using the VR system, the instructors have noted the value ofthe immediate feedback the system provides to students, as well as the controlthey have over the actors in the scenarios, and can change the tone of ascenario at the click of a button.

“Unlike with real role-play scenarios, if a student is notgiving the right verbal commands to the subject, as an instructor I can easilyclick a button and have the subject become more aggressive,” Bechtel said. “Ifthe student is using good verbal commands then I can have the subject becomecompliant. This immediate feedback is important for students to understand howtheir actions play a part in the response.”

After each scenario, students also get the opportunity toview their actions from an “outside the body” viewpoint, and if the student hadto utilize deadly force, the system shows them the trajectory of their shots,giving them that additional feedback on whether or not they made a good shot.

“As the student is viewing this, we the instructors willtalk them through their reactions and ask them to explain why they used thelevel of force they did,” Bechtel said. “It is extremely helpful for thestudents to be able to see their mistakes to be able to learn from them.”

With the Security Forces career field currently intransition from the M9 Beretta pistol to the M18 SIG Sauer Modular HandgunSystem as part of the Air Force’s Reconstitute the Defender Initiative, thevendor created an M18 handgun model to use in the VR environment, giving futureDefenders a first look at the weapon they will soon be carrying.

A key part of the partnership is the ability for theschoolhouse to provide feedback to the vendor in real-time and in turn, the companycan make changes inside the virtual environment that can put an airman at acertain Air Force base all the way down to very specific details.

The MILO system was acquired by the Academy to put studentsin various interactive use of force training scenarios, including the potentialapplication of deadly force, through the use of enhanced video screens.

“The MILO really adds multiple dimensions to the trainingand helps present training in a way that is learner-centric,” said Tech. Sgt.Kathryn James, 343rd TRS instructor supervisor at the Security Forcesapprentice course. “All of our students learn differently and we canincorporate different types of learning styles in one scenario, such as visual,auditory and kinesthetic.”

The SF Academy has six MILO systems in place at the MedinaAnnex training campus, including two 180-degree video theater systems, as wellas four single-screen systems, James said.

A key feature of the system is that gives instructors theability to dictate a scenario’s outcome in terms of what level of force isneeded to be executed by the student as the exercise unfolds based off thestudent’s responses, which prevents them from having the ability to act in a pre-prescribedmanner.

As part of the three-day use of force training, students areexpected to explain the decision-making process they used when determining theamount of force applied in the scenario. With the MILO, instructors can pinpoint exactly when certain decisionswere made by the student in reaction to the scenario on the screen, and evenshow those decision points in video playback to the students, James said.

Another added benefit to having the MILO system is anincrease in efficiency in terms of the number of system-based repetitions eachstudent gets to experience.

“The ability to run students through more scenarios asopposed to having to set up each individual scenario using other students aslive role players gives them more reps and practical application of theconcepts we are trying to teach them,” James said.

One other benefit of the system that adds efficiency is theability of instructors to replicate a training environment that students willfind themselves in, such as a weapons storage area, or even a flight line. Thiscapability facilitates training without interrupting real-world operations.

Other uses for the MILO include weapons familiarization drills and courses of fire that replicate the Air Force’s weapons qualification courses.

Source: US Air Force