Revolutionizing Training: The Virtual Hangar’s Impact on Military and Commercial Performance Enhancement
When you think about the most powerful military force in the world, one can only imagine the effort required to train its service members in the most sophisticated techniques of modern warfare. Live training exercises, which simulate real-world combat situations, are extremely complex. The planning and setup time alone could take months, presenting several challenges for our military leaders.
First, there is only so much space and equipment available to be dedicated to training. When a major training exercise is required, not all of the soldiers, sailors, and airmen will have the opportunity to see every aspect of their mission. Some may have to observe from the sideline as their peers work through challenges or wait for the next training session to come available. Obviously, if the soldier is missing an important training opportunity, he won’t have the tools necessary to accomplish his mission. Similarly, if equipment such as, tanks, aircraft, rifles, and ammunition is tied up in training exercises, then it’s not available for real-world use.
Then there is the challenge of what to do if a service member doesn’t pass his exercise exam. Sending him off to battle without passing the exam puts the entire unit (and country!) at risk. Do we retrain him? Of course, but that takes away a limited spot from another soldier who’s likely been waiting for this class. This conundrum is about resource constraint, and similar costs are incurred on the equipment and vehicles used for training. Additional wear and tear requires more frequent maintenance just from the exercises alone, not to mention the fact that the additional utilization will decrease its useful lifespan, which would cause the military to incur the expense of purchasing replacements earlier than originally required. Then there is the challenge with the cost of consumables, such as fuel and ammunition. All these resources need to be factored into the cost of training exercises.
As a solution to these challenges, Mass Virtual’s Virtual Hangar emerges as a leader. It is an integrated technology platform that combines XR (Extended reality (XR) is a term that refers to technologies that combine the physical world with a digital world. XR technologies include Augmented reality (AR), Mixed reality (MR), and Virtual reality (VR)) with LCMS (Learning Content Management Systems) to enable you to train in the virtual world as you would in the real world. Virtual Hangar’s universal learning content management system features an end-to-end workflow; from developing and deploying content to tracking student performance. One capability that really sets it apart as a leader is the ability for people to input real-world observations. As you know, with every technology solution, what the engineers think is very different from what people in the field experience. Having the ability to update the training with feedback from people in the trenches, brings the learning experience a whole lot closer to the real-world, without the associated risks of real-world combat or the expenses of live training exercises.
Mass Virtual’s mission with Virtual Hangar is to offer a solution that increases human performance. According to Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience, effective learning environments should offer memorable and rich experiences where learners can use multiple senses. With Virtual Hangar’s immersive XR learning environment, you have just that…a compelling learning experience. You’re able to interact with the virtual world as you would in the physical world. You can fly all kinds of aircraft and break things in the virtual environment, without actually breaking anything. Then you can dust yourself off and go right back and break things again! This way, when it comes to using real equipment and flying real aircraft, you’re that much better at it. I’ve experienced a similar thing when learning new technologies. I usually fire up a virtual machine and kick things around, take things apart, and completely break them. Then I spend nights trying to put things back together again. Afterwards, when it comes to deploying this technology in the real world, I already have the advantage of having worked through some pretty tough challenges, so that when things do go wrong, I am better equipped at handling them.
Because of the rich learning experience, students are better equipped to retain this knowledge, which means more people are passing the tests, so we don’t have to retrain as many people, which frees up more seats in the classroom. In addition to that, students are trained on a task, as opposed to x number of hours per lesson. They’re given clear step by step instructions that are taught in a way that students are better able to relate to them, resulting in a much faster learning rate. This learning efficiency gets people out of the classroom much quicker, freeing up seats for new students.
Training students in a virtual environment solves the challenges mentioned above. Because they’re not flying real aircraft and using real weapons, the actual equipment stands ready and available to be used on a moment’s notice. There is also no jet fuel or diesel being burned during these virtual exercises, nor is there wear and tear on vehicles. There is also the benefit of scalability. You can easily and rapidly deploy training exercises that support additional students who are training simultaneously on different aircraft, from multiple locations around the world! Not only do you not have to wait until the next session is available, you don’t even have to leave your home to travel to a specific training center. This efficiency helps get students mission-ready so much faster than traditional methods.
Virtual Hangar also has commercial benefits. Using the same learning methods as training soldiers for battle, aviation students can similarly get up to speed much faster and more efficiently than traditional methods. There are also benefits to the manufacturing industry where plant workers can learn how to operate industrial machinery in a safe and efficient manner, prior to actually operating real-world equipment.
In conclusion, by providing a scalable solution that eliminates the costs and constraints of live training, Virtual Hangar ensures that our service members and industry professionals are not only mission-ready today but are also equipped for the evolving challenges of tomorrow.
About the Author
Avrohom Gottheil is the founder of #AskTheCEO Media, where he helps global brands get heard over the noise on social media, by presenting their corporate message using language people understand.
Avrohom presents his clients as Thought Leaders, which challenges his audience to reimagine their own mission and vision, delivering actionable insights, and leaving them passionate, motivated, and with the necessary tools to take immediate action.
Avrohom comes from a 20+ year career in IT and Telecom, where he helped businesses around the world install and maintain their communication systems and contact centers. He is a Top-ranked global expert in IoT, AI, Cloud, and Cybersecurity, followed worldwide on Twitter, and a frequent speaker on leveraging technology to accelerate revenue growth.
Listen to him share the latest technology trends, tools, and best practices for IoT, AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity, and emerging technologies on the #AskTheCEO podcast — voted as the #1 Channel Friendly Podcast in 2019 by Forrester, and #2 Podcast from Thinkers360 Thought Leaders in 2020.
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