At this year’s Military Simulation Training Summit in Orlando, Florida, one of the key topics will be the impact of AI on simulation training. Experts from across the US military and defense industry will converge in Orlando to discuss and share the latest developments and research in AI, including Dr. Keith Brawner from the Institute for Creative Technologies University Affiliated Research Center (ICT UARC).

Dr. Brawner serves as the AI Lead and Program Manager of the ICT UARC for US Army DEVCOM Soldier Center, on behalf of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. In his career Dr. Brawner has served as a research leader in intelligent tutoring systems with over 100 publications in research/application of simulation and training technologies. In addition, he has worked on, or contributed to, systems which train land navigation, marksmanship, hovercraft operation, destroyer decision making, physics, UAV route planning, calling for indirect fires, submarine harbor navigation, sonar system operation, helicopter flight, counterinsurgency, and so many others. Before the Military Simulation Training industry converges in Orlando this February, IDGA sat down with Dr. Brawner to discuss the future of AI and synthetic modeling in military training.

Besides the use of AI in military training, the upcoming Military Simulation Training Summit will also explore interoperability, expansion, and implementation of military-simulated training, as well as a range of training types such as LVC, armored vehicles, and training procurement. To learn more about the summit, be sure to check out the latest agenda.

The US Military has a long history of leveraging video games to improve soldier training and readiness. In this article, we look at five cases in which the US military used video games.

When it comes to military training most people envision active- duty service members at bases such as Fort Moore or Fort Liberty. However, with over 430,000 citizen Soldiers the National Guard also faces a large responsibility when it comes to preparing personnel for domestic crises and overseas conflict.

Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Kinneer is the Operations Officer (S3) at Fort Indiantown Gap Training Center in Pennsylvania, where he also holds the title of Director of Plan Operations, Training, and Security. In over two decades of experience in the National Guard, including roles such as the State Simulations Officer at Fort Indiantown Gap, Lt Col Kinneer is passionate about integrating simulation technologies into training and leveraging his expertise to enhance operational readiness within the National Guard.

Next February, Lt Col Kinneer will join a panel of fellow National Guardsmen to discuss simulation training at IDGA’s Military Simulation Training Summit. This two-day event from February 25-26 in Orlando, Florida, will showcase the evolution of simulation and simulated training across the military branches and NATO nations. The conference will also extensively explore interoperability, expansion, and implementation of military-simulated training.

Before the event, Lt Col Kinneer sat down with IDGA to discuss:

• The National Guard’s training mission
• Where simulation and synthetic training fit in
• The future impact of simulation training
• What attendees will take away from this year's Military Simulation Training Summit

Curious to see who will be attending Military Simulation Training Summit where attendees gain unrivalled insights from senior military leaders from the U.S. and allied nations?

View the previous year's attendee's snapshot to find out which companies of key stakeholders in training and doctrine, training technology, tools, and simulation, to collaboratively focus on how warfighter readiness can be optimized for the future operational environment and emerging threats, will be at the 2025 conference.

This February, IDGA hosted Land Forces Training, which featured two days of thought-provoking discussions surrounding the evolving landscape of land forces training. Speakers representing military organizations around the world discussed topics such as increasing international collaboration, utilizing augmented versus virtual reality, and the interoperability of advanced training methods.

The key focus of last year’s event was to highlight efforts made by nations around the world in conducting live exercises to align their armed forces and strengthen the bonds between allied nations. Land Forces Training culminated in a unique opportunity to visit Team Orlando's headquarters at the Central Florida Tech Grove. Attendees experienced firsthand some of the latest and most advanced training technologies that promise to revolutionize the way nations prepare their forces for future challenges.

Throughout the event, attendees were urged to participate in live polling to analyze the state of live training exercises worldwide. The following infographic displays how attendees responded to topics such as virtual reality, feedback mechanisms, and achieving interoperability.

Next year, the IDGA Land Forces Training Summit will expand in scope to become the IDGA Military Simulation Training Summit, taking place in Orlando, Florida, on February 25-26, 2025. This conference will cover how the military is advancing efforts to prepare next generation soldiers with simulated training. There will be a focus on how simulated training is pushing militaries across the world to leverage data for training, advance competency-based training, and prepare to respond to modern day threats.

Speaking at our event in 2024, Colonel Steve Banks delivers this exclusive interview in preparation for our Land Forces Training Conference. This piece is ideal for anyone wanting to better understand NATO efforts in training the next warfighter. It maps out the current priorities of the Modelling and Simulation Learning Technology branch as well as the technologies that have caught its attention. Furthermore, it delves into the impact the Ukrainian War on training concepts.

In the age of near-peer competition, the warfighter must be ready to take on more challenges than ever before. To prepare the warfighter training must adapt to suit the needs of the battlefields of the future which will arguably be more complex and lethal. We had the privilege of interviewing the Major-General Roch Pelletier, Commander of the Canadian Army Doctrine and Training Centre (CADTC). Here he delves into:

• How CADTC is preparing Canadian forces for future combat in the current geopolitical landscape.
• The role technology and industry play in training the warfighter.
• How to set the appropriate limitations for training.
  

As our doctrine shifts towards multidomain warfare, our training and simulation tools must also adapt. Partner to the Land Forces Training 2024 conference, Team Orlando’s mission is to maximize DoD resources to deliver these first-rate training capabilities to the nation’s Warfighters by coalescing the training, simulation, and modelling communities. Find more about Team Orlando’ efforts by reading this interview with the organization’s Director, Daniel Torgler.

Professor David Benson delivers commentary on the evolving area of study of video games in the military. He delves into how video games play a critical role in “force development” and maintaining readiness and why it is a worthy area of study. In his preliminary research, he covers:

• Gaps in the public research
• What video games offer the military domain
• How video games can help to maximize the proficiency of our forces
• A call to action for further study across stakeholders
  

Land Forces Training is a complex, multifaceted domain in constant evolution as new technologies and ways to fight emerge. In this survey, we asked several representatives from military, academic, industry and government backgrounds to answer questions based on the current state of play and the future of the domain. The results were both revealing and surprising as they gave insight into the following:

• The barriers to mission readiness
• The opinions of Synthetic Training vs Live Training
• The dissonance in priorities between the military and industry
  

The importance of training cannot be understated. The age-old axiom of “the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat” remains as true as ever. In this piece, IDGA gives a quick birds-eye-view of the key training initiatives happening world-wide in 2023; ideal for someone wanting a quick update in the latest happening in the domain.

Curious to see who typically attends Land Forces Training Summit where attendees gain unrivalled insights from senior military leaders from the U.S. and allied nations?

View the attendee's snapshot to find out which companies of key stakeholders in training and doctrine, training technology, tools, and simulation, to collaboratively focus on how warfighter readiness can be optimized for the future operational environment and emerging threats, who attended in 2023.

Presentation by Lieutenant General S. Wojciechowski, Commander Multinational Corps Northeast, NATO, at the 2021 Land Forces Training Summit.

Download the presentation to find out:

• Fighting Power Context
• Regional Environment (CorpsTasks, AoO Geometry, & Political-Military)
• Training Environment (Activities, Combined Forces, & Complexity of Command)
• Combined Forces Training
• Combined Arms Training