U.S. military organizations have been incorporating extended reality into their training programs to reap many benefits, such as reduced risk, lower costs, and greater training effectiveness and lethality. But as they do, they typically bump into a common constraint: Trainees wearing XR headsets are tethered by wires to computers, keeping them from training in a more realistic field environment.
AR and VR use large amounts of data traffic and computing power to deliver a dynamic, realistic, immersive training experience and to collect and assess a wide array of data. The data helps assess training performance at the individual and unit levels and ensures that the technology delivers an optimal training experience.
While there are wireless 4G networks, they do not have the bandwidth needed for data-intensive XR training. And, until recently, no one had been able to develop a workable 5G wireless XR training system for the military. XR training was limited to dedicated simulation centers.
In 2021, the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) sought to address this problem by calling on vendors to develop a wireless XR training system that would be enabled by 5G. The program office wanted a cyber-secure, customizable wireless system that could integrate with other Army systems, networks, and sensors, as well as with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) devices and products.
Leading a small team of vendors, Booz Allen designed, developed, and deployed a 5G-enabled, wireless XR training system for distributed field training. Our team understood early on that a single set of tools could not adequately meet the U.S. Army’s diverse training needs. That meant creating a highly modular and customizable system that could be easily configured for a wide array of military use cases and training environments.
The Booz Allen team relied heavily on the company’s internal expertise in emerging tech for defense, such as 5G networks, edge computing, XR, and systems design and integration. The team combined this technical proficiency with its deep experience and understanding of Army operations and mission requirements.
During the three-year project, Booz Allen started off as the lead developer of prototype XR applications that would test the 5G network but quickly took on additional project leadership roles. These included overseeing experimentation, data collection and analysis, soldier training, network development, systems integration, authority to operate (ATO), and execution.
Throughout the project, Booz Allen brought together Army experts with the firm’s own extensive lab network and in-house research and development infrastructure to ensure that the wireless system’s designs and configurations were aligned correctly with the client’s specific mission needs.
Booz Allen’s solution—an integrated system of software training applications, XR headsets, a specialized server, and the enabling 5G network—was rigorously field-tested across a battery of soldier exercises over two weeks at the Army’s Fort Cavazos in Texas in October 2023.
During those field tests, the customizable system was configured for a wide variety of distributed Army training environments and scenarios that employed VR, AR, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications to support mission training objectives.
In one exercise, for example, the 5G wireless system was integrated with heart rate monitors attached to soldiers performing field tests to help analyze their performance during field maneuvers. In another IoT application, the wireless system collected data from sensors embedded in the hand grips of firearms during target engagement exercises to assess soldiers’ effectiveness and lethality.
The wireless system gives trainees visual access to various resources and training aids with the confidence of built-in cybersecurity protection. At the same time, it provides video, data, and two-way communications to trainers, subject matter experts, and commanders in distant locations—who can all see what the trainees are seeing and doing and offer feedback. In various exercises, subject matter experts monitored XR training in areas such as maintenance and treating medical casualties in the field.
One exercise tested a Booz Allen-built VR application called Tabletop Commander. In it, soldiers in various locations performed mission planning and reconnaissance for a Military Operations in urban terrain (MOUT) operation. The application, which accessed Fort Cavazos’s geographic information system (GIS) data, allowed soldiers to walk virtually through the route they would take before executing the operation.
In another exercise, the Army used Booz Allen’s 5G network at Fort Cavazos for AR medical training. Soldiers wearing HoloLens headsets were connected to a remote medical expert, who instructed them how to perform a fasciotomy, which involves cutting tissue to relieve pressure—potentially saving a limb. Soldiers who had never undergone medical training were able to successfully complete fasciotomies.
This is the first system delivered to a defense organization that makes effective, scalable, customizable, wireless XR training possible for distributed military personnel in the field. Military training can now be done at the point of need: This wireless system takes the training to the soldiers instead of forcing the soldiers to come to the training.
At the same time, the wireless system’s robust data collection capabilities allow trainers to review, analyze, and optimize a trainee’s performance. Army organizations can make readiness decisions based on the data. Because the wireless system is customizable, Army organizations can cost-effectively configure it to any number of training types, environments, and scenarios.
The ability to bring XR training and feedback from remotely located experts to military personnel in real time means a much wider range of training options is now available. For example, several soldiers who used the wireless system to train for specific medical scenarios reported they could perform procedures that they couldn’t have done with other training technologies.
And wireless XR training systems enabled by 5G can provide a broad range of telemedicine applications. For example, if a seriously ill patient in a remote area cannot be evacuated, doctors worldwide could guide medics or team members through critical procedures. With 5G, medics or other caregivers don’t need to be close to the computer, connected by wires. They can be close to their patients, saving lives.
