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Gaming maximizes Army training resources

FORT RILEY, Kan. — A team of advisers listens to instructions about the pending mission, where to go and what to expect winding through Baghdad’s streets.

Contact with insurgents is likely, so the team is reminded of basic techniques: stay focused, stay alert and talk to each other.

They strap on helmets, pick up their weapons and climb into four Humvees.

Lights go out. Sounds come up. The mission begins.

Although it looks like just a video game, for these soldiers it’s also a training session designed to simulate combat. The Army believes lessons learned while shooting at a computer-generated insurgent can save lives when the bullets are not just pixels on a monitor.

“It’s all based on the commander’s guidance and commander’s intent. I’m not here to play games with them,” said Mario Miramontez, an instructor at Fort Riley’s Warrior Skills Trainer. “We just make sure they are doing the tactics, techniques and procedures right.”

The Army feels so strongly about gaming technologies that it carved out an area inside the National Simulations Center at Fort Leavenworth to develop the next generation of computer simulators. Working off the commercially available Virtual Battle Space 2 gaming engine, a team of 20 soldiers and civilians is creating something new that could put realistic training for soldiers on a laptop, even linking them to others in the world.

The Army is building on the VBS2 platform to replicate buildings, vehicles, weapons and troop movements. All the elements can be manipulated to increase the frequency of attacks or impact of explosions, for example.

Fort Riley soon will get one of the first prototypes of the system, replacing DARWARS Ambush!, which links groups of computers to teach soldiers how to run basic convoys. Soldiers using DARWARS sit in groups of five behind a keyboard and monitor, except for the driver, who has a small steering wheel.

Firing weapons, looking out windows or getting out of the Humvee is done by using the mouse or by keyboard commands. All movements and radio traffic are recorded so soldiers can be evaluated later.

After soldiers have practiced on the DARWARS system, they graduate to simulators that use huge monitors mounted to plywood Humvees, walls and ceilings. The soldiers shoot at the screens using weapons modified for the program.

Maj. Bill Adler, a former Stryker brigade officer, said an advantage to simulations comes when soldiers head to ranges for live-fire exercises. Soldiers spend time with the games working on marksmanship skills. Adler found that after his soldiers had practiced basic weapons qualifications, they were proficient enough to begin more complex drills.

“It did pay dividends once you went to the field. It gave the [noncommissioned officer] the ability to focus on one soldier while he was on the simulator,” Adler said.

While new technologies are slick, Adler said nothing replicates firing weapons in the field — the stress, dust and heat.

“It doesn’t supplant live-fire training, but it enhances it,” he said.

With VBS2, the Army hopes to develop a system that could allow units to do their own training, rather than requiring them to come a simulations center. Deployed soldiers might rehearse missions before going out on the battlefield. The program will be easily updated to reflect changes, such as new roads or destroyed buildings.

With laptops, soldiers could train individually at any time of the day.

The computer programs also save the Army money, particularly when fuel prices are at historical highs. Moving a company of armored vehicles to the field for a day costs thousands of dollars in fuel, compared with the pennies it takes to run computers and other simulators on electricity.

Ammunition also costs money. In the simulators, soldiers can “shoot” $45,000 worth of ammunition in a day.

“If we did that on the ranges, the taxpayers would get quite upset,” Miramontez said.

Also, weather is never an issue, and soldiers don’t have to spend hours prepping vehicles and equipment.

Miramontez said the training center constantly enhances realism. Soon, he plans to add more speakers inside the plywood Humvees to improve sound. New twists to the computer scenarios are lab tested before being thrown at soldiers.

Staff Sgt. Darron Dahl, a 10-year veteran who has been to Iraq, gives the simulators high praise. Soon to be an adviser, Dahl describes the realism and benefits as “awesome.” The simulators allow soldiers to develop confidence in each other before they deploy, he said.

“If we make contact, we know exactly that this guy in this truck is going to do this,” He said. “I know that he’s going to do that, so I don’t have to worry about that. He’s going to do that, I’m going to do this, and we all work together.”

Mike McCaffrey, digital training coordinator at Fort Riley’s simulation center, said technology’s role has grown exponentially in the 14 years he has been working there. Last year, 11,000 soldiers went through Fort Riley’s simulation complex, most heading to combat soon thereafter. McCaffrey said simulators maximize training efforts when time is a factor.

“It saves a lot of money. It saves a lot of ammo. It saves lives because you don’t have the training accidents that do occur. You don’t have as many,” he said. “As long as you’re practicing the things you’re going to do when you get to the dirt, it’s time well spent.

“It’s going to get bigger and bigger.”