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Writer's pictureAngus Royal

Implementing the Metaverse into the ADF’s Future Training Environment.

Centralised digital environment to store data, assets and simulation environments.

Implementing the Metaverse into a military training environment is a new concept that has gained traction with the United States Military and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The Metaverse allows for a simulated training environment where scenarios, assets and virtual environments can be all stored in one centralised digital space. However, the requirements to implement the Metaverse will be a challenge for the Australian Defence Force (ADF). To successfully implement the Metaverse, the ADF will require it to increase its data centres, industry capability and cyber security.

This provides a prime opportunity for the private defence industry to build a sovereign capability around the metaverse to allow the ADF to successfully implement the Metaverse in its future training environment.

 

NATO and the US are developing a metaverse for virtual training. How can the ADF implement the metaverse into its future training environment?

In the current geopolitical environment, there is a greater need for large-scale military training to test the readiness of the ADF. The capacity to be able to carry out these large-scale military training exercises each year is small. A large amount of planning, logistics and personnel to manage to run these exercises creates a significant challenge for the ADF. Given the importance of carrying out joint training between the Army, Navy and Airforce to test Australia’s ability to counter future threats, highlights the importance of implementing the metaverse for training.

Implementing the metaverse into the ADF’s future training environment will require investment in ICT infrastructure, industry and training. These fundamental inputs are crucial to develop the metaverse into a capability, which can train and test the readiness of the ADF. As the demand to have a defence force ready to face any future threats or capabilities is growing. The need for a metaverse to enable on-demand training between the three branches of the ADF in a virtual environment is crucial to achieving this.





What is the defence metaverse?

The metaverse is a centralised digital point which can contain a whole range of data from synthetic environments to data on an individual avatar’s performance in a simulation. It acts as a centralised access point for a user to enter a virtual world through virtual reality or augmented reality. Once the user has entered the virtual world, data can be collected such as the individual’s biometrics, actions and decision-making.

In defence, the metaverse presents an opportunity to have a centralised simulation space where ADF personnel can access training at any base they are currently posted at. The metaverse provides more opportunities for different branches of the ADF to either do training in small battle groups testing capabilities in their branch or take part in larger training exercises which involve all branches of the ADF.

Considerations for Implementation:

To enable the ADF to implement the metaverse into the future training environment there are three key fundamental inputs to capability that need to be considered:

Industry

Industry is a key fundamental input to enable the metaverse to be implemented into the ADF’s future training environment. Through industry partnerships, the ADF can develop a metaverse utilising the Australian private defence industry and build a sovereign capability involving the metaverse (Pittaway, 2021). To develop the supporting equipment which will allow the ADF to have a fully functioning metaverse industry can provide a foundation of skills and manufacturing. This will enable the ADF to have the ICT systems, equipment and infrastructure to run a defence metaverse for simulation training.

Major Systems

Major systems requirements for the ADF to implement the metaverse into the future training environment are data centres and network infrastructure. Data centres will act as centralised data points where simulation environments, assets and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be accessed and used by ADF personnel across Australia for training (Blackmore & Allitt, 2019). These data centres will also be located across the country in each major city to allow training bases in each state and territory to have local access to the simulation assets.

High bandwidth network infrastructure will be needed to allow for the streaming of simulation environments, data and AI into the virtual training environments. This will enable high-speed data links between the data centres located in each state and territory out to training bases that need to access the simulation data (Blackmore & Allitt, 2019). Having a high-speed connection allows for real-time data updates while the simulation is running to measure performance in real-time.

Collective Training

When it comes to collective training metaverse-enabled simulation-based training is not designed to replace the whole training process. It should only be one tool a part of the ADF’s training toolbox to train personnel. Where the metaverse-enabled simulation-based training can be inputted into the ADF’s training process towards the end of a recruits training cycle. At this stage, it enables the ADF to train personnel in large-scale battle environments to test performance and identify key areas of improvement before they are deployed to their role (Whitney &Vozzo, 2012).

Simulation-based training through the metaverse reduces the bias in training and enables universal performance targets to measure the overall performance of personnel. Key performance targets which can be used to measure performance allow for better performance management within a simulation training environment.

Current Developments

The most notable development in this space is Land Simulation Core 2.0 where ADF personnel can access simulation software to train in different environments, scenarios and capabilities (WO2 Bree & CPL Joseph, 2022). Metaverse being implemented using Land Simulation Core 2.0 as a foundation to build a military metaverse where all assets, environments and scenarios are stored and can be accessed in any base across the country (WO2 Bree & CPL Joseph, 2022). This structure is seen in tranche 2 of the project where the Land Simulation Network will enable ADF personnel to access assets, environments and scenarios through a connection to a central network (WO2 Bree & CPL Joseph, 2022).

Opportunity

At Meikai, we believe the opportunity with the metaverse being implemented into the ADF’s future training environment provides an important capability to enable the testing of future capabilities in a simulated battle environment. This enables the ADF to test future capability in a secure environment to see how it performs in different scenarios. It also provides an opportunity for ADF personnel to experience what new and upcoming capabilities will do on the battlefield and train them on how to effectively use that new capability.

Another opportunity Meikai believes the metaverse can provide to the ADF’s future training environment is having a simulation that can train ADF personnel in future threats such as cyber, nuclear and drone warfare. This opens the door for training where ADF personnel can experience future threats in a simulated environment and be trained on how to counter them. By training the ADF on future threats in a simulated environment it builds resilience and the adaptability of the ADF against future threats.


Angus Royal (Graduate Project Manager) presented his article to the team


Implementing the Metaverse into the ADF’s future training environment will enable large-scale simulation training between Army, Navy and Airforce. The metaverse allows the ADF to train with future capability and train for future threats personnel could face on the battlefield. If this blog post has peaked your interest in the metaverse and simulation-based training check out our other blog posts or enquire about our Simulation Enabled Training Design Course here (Link).


 

Meikai Group:

Meikai is a Professional Services Consultancy dedicated to facilitating and solving capability problems and challenges for our clients.  Meikai specialises in the provision of engineering, project management and program delivery services to support the implementation of emerging and disruptive technology within the ICT, simulation, and training domains.

About the Author:

Angus Royal – Graduate Project Manager

As a Graduate Project Manager, Angus is committed to supporting projects within our Professional Services Portfolio, thereby assisting the government with the implementation of emerging and disruptive technology. Initially, he will be developing his skills within a Project Support role.


References

Blackmore, KL & Allitt, EVH 2019, ‘Building and sustaining the defense simulation training workforce’, The Journal of Defence Modeling and Simulation: Applications, Methodology, Technology, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 157-170, accessed 22 March 2023,

Pittaway, N 2021, ‘Interactive & integrated simulation in the Land domain’, Australian Defence Magazine, accessed 22 March 2023,

<https://www.australiandefence.com.au/defence/land/interactive-and-integrated-simulation-in-the-land-domain>

Whitney, SJ & Vozzo, A 2012, Recommendations for Collective Training for the Battle Management System, Defence Science and Technology Organisation, accessed 22 March 2023,

<https://www.dst.defence.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/documents/DSTO-TR-2685%20PR.pdf>

WO2 Bree, M & CPL Joseph, J 2022, ‘Fighting threats, real and imagined’, Department of Defence, accessed 22 March 2023,

<https://www.defence.gov.au/news-events/news/2022-06-07/fighting-threats-real-and-imagined>

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