Battle Ground Simulations

In a darkened hangar, two soldiers fire beams of light at computer-generated images of enemy troops on large video screens. Sounds of battle fill the air through a speaker system.

This virtual reality shooting range at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is not just for combat personnel anymore. The government is making it available to military truck drivers, finance officers and others who are increasingly being exposed to hostile fire in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“When they used to be qualified with a weapon, they were pretty sure they were never going to have to use it,” said base commander Col. Bradley Spacy. “They can’t be sure anymore.”

Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., said the Air Force has taken on roles such as base security and truck driving in Iraq and Afghanistan that it didn’t typically do in the past.

Numerous Air Force bases use firearms simulators, according to Air Force spokesman Vincent King at the Pentagon. Law enforcement agencies and other branches of the military also use virtual reality for shooting practice.

The walls of the hangar at Wright-Patterson are hung with camouflage netting. Real guns stripped of their bullets — from M-9 pistols to M-16 rifles — are lined up on the floor facing two home theater-sized video screens.

“You’re hot,” Master Sgt. David Small tells two shooters, warning them he is starting the computer program.

The screens light up. A desert scene is projected. Incoming mortars hit with a thud, sending showers of sand into the air. Shadowy figures and flashes of gunfire are seen in the distance.

The two U.S. shooters fire back. A computer marks and measures the accuracy of the shots.

Between 35 and 45 people are practicing with the system each week, most of them non-security personnel.

“It drives your adrenaline — those things that actually kick in in the real-world environment versus just sitting in a range,” said Small, who has used the system.

Maj. Christopher Duffley, an intelligence officer who has been deployed overseas five times, has practiced on the system between 10 and 20 times.

“Typically for a field like intelligence or other ones, we don’t get to touch firearms very often,” Duffley said. “You become a lot more confident in your own abilities.”
Staff Sgt. Zachary Odonish, a communications specialist, has used the system three times.

“It’s definitely a lot more realistic than just going to the firing range,” he said.

Thompson said virtual reality systems have become an effective training tool for the military.

“If you can capture the visual feeling of the combat experience, it is very, very similar to actually being in that experience,” Thompson said.

The system, which the base bought in January for $400,000, trains airmen how to hit moving targets in combat conditions and how to communicate with each other, reload quickly and fix a jammed weapon.

The simulator at Wright-Patterson is made by Meggitt Training Systems Inc., based in Suwanee, Ga., which has sold about 5,200 virtual systems around the world including about 900 to the U.S. Marines and Army National Guard.

This virtual terrain is available in MetaVR’s round-earth and flat-earth formats for use with Virtual Reality Scene Generator™ (VRSG™) for simulation and training, with particular emphasis on identifying and defeating IEDs using resources from combined military branches and nations. The terrain is also delivered with correlated SAF databases in CTDB and OTF formats. Unlike the simplified, flattened terrain used to simulate urban environments in most image generators and video games, MetaVR’s Afghan village is set within mountains, complex terrain of varying elevation, and cave complexes enabling realistic training scenarios for operations in mountainous villages. This virtual terrain, built with MetaVR Terrain Tools for ESRI ArcGIS, includes 1,120 square kilometers of 60-cm Digital Globe commercial satellite source imagery and 90 meter elevation posts and features a highly detailed 2 x 2 km inset terrain patch of a geospecific Afghan village. The effective terrain elevation resolution is much higher in the village areas as the construction of inferred cultural features from the geospecific imagery such as roads, buildings, courtyards, tree line, and crops further define the elevation relief. This terrain is built entirely from commercial, non-export controlled source data. Using MetaVR’s new terrain work flow process, additional terrain areas can be readily constructed.

The modeled village is based on the village of Khairabad in the southern part of the Kabul province. Khairabad, situated at an altitude of 1,843 meters, is located approximately 10-15 kilometers south of the Kabul city center, next to Qalai Naeem in the Char Asiab district. This virtual village and its surrounding mountainous terrain give users the ability to conduct ground combat simulations, such as sniper and forward air controller (JTAC) exercises, with a high degree of realism. Real-time recordings of a JTAC exercise scenario and other warfighter training scenarios based on the Afghanistan virtual terrain, can be viewed on MetaVR’s web site. MetaVR’s Afghanistan 3D terrain, built in collaboration with Simthetiq and VR Group, is available free of charge in MetaVR’s terrain formats and SAF formats to all U.S. Government and NATO agency and contractor customers (for official use only) on active software maintenance (VRSG version 5.5 required).

Capt. Heather Bautista (standing) checks the operation of a virtual reality software for returning veterans with combat post traumatic stress disorder at the David Grant USAF Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., April 17. Captain Bautista is a social worker at the center's mental health clinic. (U.S. Air Force photo/Lance Cheung)

Mental health therapists and social workers at the David Grant USAF Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., are currently using a virtual reality program to treat servicemembers who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, after returning from combat operations.

“PTSD is an anxiety disorder that occurs sometimes after a person has experienced a traumatic event,” said Capt. Heather Bautista, a social worker in the Mental Health Clinic.

“Not everybody who experiences trauma is going to develop PTSD but if this traumatic event is something that you witnessed either yourself or vicariously and you thought that your life was in danger or others were in danger you can develop this. We are helping the patient deal with avoidance. Avoidance is the key to PTSD.”

To help deal with the patient’s avoidance to their situation medical professionals use the virtual reality software, Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy Application for Post Traumatic Stress. The program includes a motion-inducing platform, headphones, a cued-smells generator, a mock M-16 with directional controls/game controller and a virtual reality visor to help veterans relive their situation. The software has been introduced to eight bases in the Air Force.

The system lets warriors re-experience their event under the supervision of a mental health expert and in the safety of a controlled setting in a hospital.

On average, patients are seen once a week by their therapists and use the virtual reality system about 10-12 times for 60 minutes each time at the medical center.

However, before any patient is placed in the system, the patient would have had several visits with the therapist, explaining the situation step-by-step. The therapist then tailors the system to the individual’s traumatic experience. The patient and therapist work through the scenario to help cope with the event.

“This is about as close to a Humvee experience I can give you without putting you into an actual Humvee,” Captain Bautista said. This helps you process it so that you realize it’s an event that happened but I survived it and I can process it and move on.”

By talking about their experience, people build details into the simulation. Little by little, they gain a better understanding of the traumatic experience. The technology complements the evidence-based treatment known as ‘Prolonged Exposure Therapy’ and other research proven approache. All are used here to help deployers live a normal life.

“The ultimate goal is to get the servicemember well and back to deploying again,” said Captain Bautista.

This system also has civilian uses and another version is being developed for medical personnel who experience trauma from treating people.

“In this context we think of war, but it can be any trauma, natural disasters, Hurricane Katrina we saw a huge influx of PTSD, car accident, sexual assault, anything that you perceive your life is in danger,” said Captain Bautista.