Using Commercial Games to Enhance Agility and Flexibility in Training

摘要

The transformation of the Army into a more versatile and agile land force must also be reflected in a training strategy that shares these traits. Training for both warfighting and Operations Other Than War (OOTW) is, however, leading to a tendency to let the unit Mission Essential Task List (METL) to grow out of proportion - with reduced standards of performance and readiness resulting. Live training remains the cornerstone of the Army's training strategy and although the growth of simulations reflects the emergence of a 2nd training revolution, most current simulations focus on combat operations with a limited ability to simulate OOTW or urban terrain. In particular, our virtual simulation tools are predominantly combat system focused, very specialized expensive, have a long development cycles, and are economically hard to modify. The trend in industry and education is toward Personal Computer and Internet based applications that are more flexible cost effective and able to reach a broad audience. Commercial computer games already allow hundreds of players to compete as individuals or on teams in a virtual world. The ability to incorporate voice commands, improved graphics, mission-planning editors, and automated or semi- automated opposing forces are examples of recent innovations that significantly enhance realism.