Simulation Products to Every Soldier in the World

As computer and network resources become more reliable within military units, it will become feasible for every soldier in the Army to have a computer and a connection from which they can access and make use of a simulation products. Delivering training services to the edge of the force will require hosting most of the computation at server sites and making it accessible through a lightweight client on the soldiers’ PC. Simulation will have to be configured as a service rather than as a product that is installed on all of these computers. The desktop client application might fall into three different categories: (1) clients that are web pages and Flash content that load in real time – like the Phosphor flash-based game, (2) clients that are relatively small but need to be installed on every computer – like Google Earth, and (3) heavy clients that are the size of a full game - like Americas Army. Delivering content to these customers will require large compute and data centers that manage dozens of servers-side applications and hundreds of scenario databases. These servers can also be connected to virtual simulators to allow the soldier desktop to interact with virtual simulators like CCTT and AVCATT.

The goal is to deliver training to every soldier in the Army when he needs it, not when it is possible for him to go to a training center. IT-based solutions work well for constructive and game-based simulations. They can connect to Live and Virtual systems for collaborative training as well.