The coming network needed for autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things will also bring cybersecurity danger.

After decades using the same clunky simulators, the Army is about to buy new sims drawing on the latest innovations in online gaming.

Until cyber operators can both train realistically and see the their digital battlespace as clearly as traditional commanders see physical battlespace, they’ll be hard-pressed to defend everyone else’s systems.

The first phase of the Synthetic Training Environment initiative replaces existing simulators for vehicles. The second phase aims to create — in just two years — something the Army’s never had before: an “immersive” virtual training environment for troops on foot.

“To get a quantum increase in the quality of close combat forces, we can do it in the next two years, (and) the cost compared to the rest of the DoD budget is very small,” said retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, who chairs the advisory board for Secretary Mattis’s Close Combat Lethality Task Force.

What’s the one technology the Marine Corps Commandant wants more than any other for his riflemen? It wasn’t an amphibious vehicle, more JLTVs, a new rifle or friggin’ lasers. It is “a smart way to recharge batteries,” Gen. Robert Neller told reporters.

Think of it as Google Glass goes to war — only less nerd and more Marine. Budget cuts and readiness shortfalls have the US military looking at virtual reality as a partial replacement for expensive field exercises. But VR has real limits. So this month, young Marines at the Infantry Officer Course in Quantico tested a… Keep reading →

http://youtu.be/AMyoQhUcPgM This summer, the US Army’s research & development command, RDECOM, has kicked off an experiment to try infusing the latest commercial video game technology into the Army’s most important combat simulator. The new tech brings real potential for better military training – but also a very real danger. Famous for powering games like 2012’s… Keep reading →