Strengthening XR’s Role as a Tool in the Military and Government Learning Enterprise

This September 25, the National Training and Simulation Association hosted a webinar entitled “Extended Reality for Government and Military: Securing the Future with Immersive Technology.” Don’t let the title from the one-hour and some-odd minute session drive you away – the panel of subject matter experts added a healthy dose of rigor and credibility to the event by addressing a wide breadth of topics from hardware devices on the market to near-term advancements in this sector.

And don’t expect this webinar to be a push to integrate XR into military and government instructional strategies by close of business today. Yes, there are a number of competing forces at play, most significant, the rapid pace of technology advancements are compelling training organizations to often update and rewrite their requirements. At the same time while defense and industry teams are adding XR to their roster of instructional strategies they are doing so deliberately – encouraging collaboration and discussion among learning organizations and industry suppliers, and eyeing XR’s impact on human performance.

Extracts of the webinar moderated by Eliot Winer, PhD, Iowa State University, are provided below.

Move Beyond Requirements to Conversations

There should have been no surprise when Doug Patton, Sims Innovation Cell Chief, US Air Force, led off the discussion by noting “there are a lot of different groups doing a lot of different training” when it comes to XR, from maintenance to flight and more. The service technology leader suggested the community “needs to stay from those big heavy silos” by having a mindset that moves beyond requirements, to “get a good grasp of what everyone else is using and determine how we can collectively work together to build a common environment for simulation and training.” Patton’s solution in part: having good conversations at community events such as this webinar and at NTSA’s I/ITSEC. And to manage expectations, Patton added, when his USAF team is at I/ITSEC they are not focused on picking one XR solution, but rather, talking to the vendor community to figure out “how we can leverage all the technologies that are out there and bring that into the DoD workspace.”

The Imperative for Human Performance Impact

Dave Dwyer, COO, Mass Virtual, reflected on his company’s expanding portfolio and noted that his team is highly focused on building the right experience to get the desired user outcome that is tied to proficiency. “The solutions we have must warrant that the learner is going to put that headset on. It has to warrant what the outcome is on the backside.” The executive also significantly noted that any of Mass Virtual’s diverse solutions, from XR to desktop training to operational apps, and tailored to myriad requirements, for instance, security, must have a human performance impact when it goes to the field.

XR is Going to be a Tool

Dan O’Brien, President of Americas, HTC Vive, confidently told the webinar attendees that XR “is going to be a tool, not a replacement, but a tool that benefits us.”

The company president presented a survey and cited the work’s results that point to the XR sector’s continued growth. In one instance, 81% of respondents said XR training “increased their confidence and cultivated the muscle memory required for successful application.” Looking to the near future, another survey outcome said 75% of respondents “plan to implement an XR-based training outcome by 2028.”

View Webinar Here

MS&T will continue to follow and comment on the quickening pace of activities in the XR market.

The webinar may be viewed here.