From Defense One: Expect AR/VR on the Battlefield, Air Force CIO Says

All that time spent video gaming in virtual reality just might help national security. 

You'll probably still have to buy your own Cheetos though.

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Expect tomorrow’s airmen and guardians to use augmented- and virtual-reality tools to fight real battles, an Air Force leader said Wednesday.

“We're doing some pretty cool stuff across the Department of the Air Force with AR/VR, with our maintainers and with our pilots. And AR/VR, in some cases, it's gotten so good that you really can feel like you were there and experiencing something,” Department of the Air Force CIO Lauren Knausenberger said at a Mitchell Institute event. “And so I think that there will be increasing use cases where we are using AR and VR and where we are moving something throughout a battle space, for instance.”

Augmented and virtual reality tech isn’t new, but has become more prevalent for uses outside of video games. And for the military and intelligence community, it’s a multibillion-dollar space. The Air Force has been toying with the idea for years, experimenting with AR/VR to assist airmen prepare aircraft for combat missions and used helmets outfitted with the tech to help pilots train for encounters with enemy fighters. Moreover, the Air and Education Training Command has been testing models that let airmen train with VR and artificial intelligence simultaneously.

The Army has also been developing its synthetic training environment. It took a big swing with a more-than-$20 billion contract to field goggles that promise to improve soldiers’ ability to navigate the battlefield. The Navy, like the Air Force, has been using the tech for maintenance and repair training. There’s also potential for it to be used to help with training for unmanned vessels and communications systems.

And with the growing popularity of AR and VR tools, it’s possible that learning skills and tasks in a virtual-but-tactile world could become not only second nature but highly effective.

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- Understanding virtual reality and augmented reality.