Building the Virtual Battlefield: 2019 STE Program Updates and Recent Developments

Explore the future of combat training in the piece that outlines the latest Synthetic Training Environment (STE) program updates and recent developments.

The Synthetic Training Environment is the U.S. Army’s initiative to converge virtual, constructive and gaming training environments into a single unified architecture. This ambitious project will enable simulation systems Army-wide to leverage a persistent virtual world for every imaginable training need. As the Army shifts its focus to fighting in a multi-domain environment, this new, STE system will enable collective training across air, ground, sea, cyber and space with greater fidelity that can be used not only as a trainer but also as a mission-planning tool.

STE's Common Synthetic Environment (CSE), designed to allow interoperability between live training simulation systems, is scheduled to reach initial operational capability status in September 2021. The Army plans to deploy the system to more than 400 locations upon the attainment of full operational capability.

So far this summer, the DoD has awarded 5 contracts to accelerate the development and deployment of STE systems. The following is a summary of recently awarded contracts, OTAs and other new developments driving the STE initiative forward.

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