US Marines Deploy New Training Software

The U.S. Marine Corps is distributing new tactical decision kits with software for virtual first-person simulations and field exercises to 24 infantry battalions.

Marines test out the HoloLens during a training exercise geared toward the development and strengthening of small- unit decision-making at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The HoloLens is an augmented-reality system designed to overlay digital information on top of an actual field of vision, and is part of the tactical decision kits that the U.S. Marine Corps is distributing to 24 infantry battalions. Courtesy of U.S. Marine Corps/Sgt. Kaitlyn V. Klein.

The training kits, to be rolled out over the next six months, include software sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). They can be used in field, barracks or classroom settings to provide service members with a versatile work space to practice and hone their decision-making skills.

"This suite of new training tools is easy to implement and can be tailored to Marines' needs," said Peter Squire, a program officer in ONR's Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare and Combating Terrorism Department. "It will allow Marines to think more critically and adapt more quickly to changing environments and adversaries."

The technology includes the Interactive Tactical Decision Game (I-TDG), an augmented-reality sand table application that uses a HoloLens visual display to insert virtual objects into an actual field of sight and a quadcopter-based system for quickly surveying and modeling terrain.