Living in the Digital Age
MAKING ADAPTIVE THINKING AND LEADERSHIP WORK IN THE SOF WORLD.
Adaptability has always been a crucial skill for success in the dynamic and ambiguous environment of Army special-operations forces. During the past several years, increases in ARSOF mission tempo and operations requirements have resulted in an increased focus on enhancing the adaptability of ARSOF during their initial training, so that they can deploy rapidly upon the completion of their training.
As the proponent for Army special-operations training, the United States Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (SWCS), has created a developmental learning program that targets adaptability. The program, initiated in 2003, is called Adaptive Thinking and Leadership. ATL is a unique program that uses a variety of instructional methods, including psychological assessment and feedback, small-group classroom instruction, individual and small-group exercises, and virtual-simulation exercises.
Virtual simulation is a key component of ATL. Virtual, simulation-based training has a 40-year history of enhancing military training, but the majority of training-based simulations have focused on aviation, armor and large-scale battlefield command and control. The rapid development of realistic, video-game-based personal-computer training platforms over the past five years has resulted in a number of first-person simulations that have the potential to enhance the individual training of SOF soldiers.
Recent research shows that individuals who are exposed to computer video games have both greater speed on visual attention tasks and an enhanced ability to process information. Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy also achieved a significant increase in their first-time marksmanship-qualification scores after they trained on a video-game-based training platform. Today’s soldiers are “digital natives” who have essentially grown up being exposed to video games and simulations. Building on their familiarity with simulations for training purposes significantly augments their training in SOF.
The ATL simulation is a training tool designed to provide a virtual training environment in which students can practice smallgroup negotiation exercises in a structured but dynamic environment. The simulation was developed in collaboration with Sandia National Labs and The U.S. Military Academy’s Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis (OEMA).
One of the primary goals of the SWCS pipeline-training transformation is to enhance and augment current training methods by leveraging commercial off-the-shelf products whenever possible. Rather than developing a simulation from scratch, the ATL simulation takes advantage of an existing platform: the $17 million “America’s Army” game. Initially developed as a recruiting tool, America’s Army, which provides a state-of-the-art graphic environment, is consistently ranked as one of the 10 most popular “first-person shooter” games. It has more than 6.5 million registered players and approximately 2,000 game servers running at any given time. Many students have direct experience with the commercial version of this Army-owned product before they arrive at SWCS for training.
SWCS has made significant modifications to the commercial version of the America’s Army platform, including the addition of a robust system for after-action reviews, or AARs; and SOF-specific interfaces, levels and communication capabilities. The virtual environment maximizes student involvement while providing performance metrics through the AAR capability.
The AAR system is the most important enhancement of the ATL simulation over the commercial game. The capability of measuring student performance is one key factor that differentiates commercial video games from training tools. In the ATL simulation, the performance of all participants can be measured by real-time spectator voting. Spectators or cadre are able to evaluate participants’ performance in a number of instructor-defined dimensions as the simulation progresses.
During the ATL simulation, the instructor can trigger several dynamic events that force students to adapt in real time. Dynamic events include directed sniper fire, command-detonated and proximity improvised explosive devices, mortar and artillery fire, and events such as human-rights violations. Students quickly learn to overcome static, script-driven events, so the ability to develop dynamic events that can be triggered at any time is essential.
Performance feedback is provided graphically to students during the simulation and in a summary-report format as part of the simulation AAR. The state-of-the-art AAR is capable of reviewing the full recording, including all voice traffic, all major events and spectator votes. Rather than having a fixed camera viewpoint similar to that of a VCR, the camera system can be “flown” throughout the environment at any point during the AAR to demonstrate a particular event. If an instructor has missed a significant event in the environment, he can “replay” the situation and adjust the camera angle to optimize the learning point.
Initially developed for the training of Special Forces officers, the ATL simulation has been expanded to include civil affairs- and psychological operations-specific missions, as well as enhancements geared toward the training of future civil affairs and psychological operations officers and NCOs.
The current ATL simulation has five different levels, or maps, with two or three missions developed for each of the maps. The five simulation maps developed specifically for the SOF environment include an Afghan village, a remote bridge, a Middle East-type courtyard, a hospital and an urban warehouse. Each map has a large, distinct virtual environment in which soldiers train. The instructor can customize the scenarios depicted in each of these maps in order to create an infinite number of scenarios for students to navigate.
Both single-player and multi-player training environments are available within the ATL simulation. The single-player environment was designed specifically for introducing students to the ATL simulation interface. However, because many of the students are already familiar with the system interface, so far the train-up time has been minimal in the single-player environment.
One significant enhancement of the ATL simulation over the commercial version of America’s Army is that the ATL simulation provides three channels for communication between instructors and students, so that students and cadre members can discuss scenarios and receive feedback in real time.
To better leverage distance-learning opportunities, the ATL simulation is both wireless- and Internet-capable, allowing soldiers to take part in distributed and remote training. Distributed learning allows small groups of students and cadre to participate in exercises from separate locations, and remote training allows instructors or role players to interact with Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers directly from SWCS. Custom student, spectator and instructor interfaces have also been developed to reduce student and instructor load. Using feedback from instructors and students, ATL continues to develop all the interfaces.
Future development paths for the ATL simulation involve enhancing the instructor interface by including a full-featured mission editor, developing additional dynamic events, adding more SOF-specific training maps, developing full-screen virtual environments and integrating laser and live-fire weapons. The America’s Army simulation, initially limited to use on laptop and desktop computers, can now be projected on multiple full-sized screens for a more immersive virtual environment. A three-screen system is in production, and the prototype of a five-screen, 270-degree system has been demonstrated.
The integration of laser and live fire weapons shows significant promise. America’s Army recently demonstrated a prototype live-fire system that is under development through a collaborative effort involving OEMA, a commercial contractor and SWCS. The live-fire system is based on the game’s stable platform, which is compatible not only with the SWCS ATL simulation but also has the ability to connect with other Army simulations such as Joint Forces Command’s Joint Conflict and Tactical Simulation.
The platform is also compatible with many other simulations currently under development as part of the America’s Army project. Because the platform is capable of having artificial-intelligence-based characters, or avatars, or live cadre in the virtual environment, the avatars and live players will present robust opposing forces, or OPFOR, that the student will have to engage.
Unlike static paper targets or even video-based vignettes, the virtual OPFOR projected on wall-sized screens will be dynamic, adaptive and capable of an almost infinite variety of responses. Scenarios will be able to flow rapidly and seamlessly from relatively calm negotiations-based scenarios to dynamic, high-threat situations.
Instructors will connect to the simulation using a laptop and engage students directly in the virtual environment. Because instructors will not have to be physically present, even advanced-skills scenarios, such as full-breaching training, will also be possible. The system will also be able to use the state-of-the-art AAR system that OEMA developed for the ATL simulation.
Soldiers will use specially modified laser weapons, or they will use their own weapons fitted with a laser sight and a modifiedbolt system. The modified-bolt system uses compressed air to simulate recoil; it allows a soldier to train with his own weapon in a safe environment. The system uses a highspeed infrared camera to detect the laser shots, and it provides that feedback into the system. The current live-fire system is capable of detecting 5.56 mm, 7.62 mm, 9 mm and .45 caliber ball ammunition, as well as simulated munitions, using a thermal camera instead of the laser-based infrared camera. The system uses self-sealing rubber screens for the image projection. These show good initial wear characteristics (4,000 rounds through a screen with minor visible wear).
As the live-fire and laser-simulation systems are further developed at SWCS, the ATL platform will be able to track where a given soldier is in the simulation by using a series of sensors placed on the soldier and on his weapon. Such tracking will allow the platform to provide feedback to the soldier to tell him if the OPFOR have been able to engage him. The sensor-tracking system is in the prototype stage of development, but it has been demonstrated as a proof of concept.
The ATL simulation is a state-of-the-art virtual simulation specifically designed to enhance the adaptability of ARSOF forces. It is designed as a training tool to be used within the overall ATL training program at SWCS. The ATL simulation builds directly on the classroom ATL instruction. It is not designed to be used without the ATL program or to replace traditional classroom or field exercises. Instead, the simulation is a powerful tool that allows instructors to maximize their training time. As the ATL simulation continues to develop and evolve, feedback from students and instructors has been overwhelmingly positive. ♦