As an Army Reserve Unit we are now restricted from meeting for Battle Assembly (BA) and prior to this Soldiers requiring commercial lodging or air travel were barred from attending BA.  Since then we in the S3 shop have planned to utilize the DCS connect service to run our YTB with the Companies.  We’ve also started using approved screening questions coming in for mission critical activities and are exercising prescribed sanitation procedures.

One of the biggest challenges we face is maintaining readiness and executing some kind of training.  Skill atrophy with time and we have discussed how do we keep Soldiers engaged, the classic “lets do a powerpoint class” leads pretty much to groans as we can all imagine the Soldiers logging into the DCS connect and then ‘disconnecting’ from the class.

I’ve imagined how we can use other technology; specifically one designed to keep Soldiers engaged.  It’s going to sound pretty silly and will likely generate more eye rolls but I do believe online FPS gaming, to a specific degree, can be used as a learning tool.  This isn’t to say we should all go out and buy a console and the latest copy of Call of Duty.

There’s America’s Army at https://www.americasarmy.com/ which on the Proving Grounds edition allows for customized missions.  I’m not sure of the strength of the AAR tools but it maybe worth exploring as it already has internet connectivity to allow Soldiers to join an online session.

The Milgaming Website https://milgaming.army.mil/ which includes Virtual Battlespace 3.  Virtual Battlespace 3 (VBS3) US Army is the updated replacement to the highly successful VBS2 training simulation.  VBS3 is a 3D first-person games-for-training platform that provides realistic semi-immersive environments; large, dynamic terrain areas; hundreds of simulated military and civilian entities; and a range of geo-typical (generic) terrain areas, as well as actual, geo-specific terrains from U.S. Army areas of operation. Numerous U.S. Army, Marine Corps and US Air Force items of equipment are modeled in the game.  Supporting over 100 trainees in the same exercise, VBS3 and its powerful after-action review capability provides a versatile environment to train both individual and collective tasks.  It also comes with a robust development toolkit that includes the ability to edit and create scenarios, models, and terrain datasets.  VBS3 is compatible with DIS and HLA, providing integration with Live, Virtual, Constructive architectures.  I just don’t know if it allows for an internet connected session on the VBS3 lite version which was available for download.