The U.S. military has been interested in commercial computer games for over two decades, beginning with the introduction of Mech War, created by James Dunnigan, into the Army War College curriculum in the late 1970s. More recently, two key factors have raised the visibility and importance of game technology and content to the Department of Defence (DoD) community. First, simulation technology—that is, the creation of virtual experiences—is now a major strategic capability for the U.S. military. No other country has invested as much in this capability as has the United States. For example, the United States has incorporated war gaming and simulation into the curriculum of every war college and into the operations of every commander-in-chief (CINC) headquarters. Second, computer modelling and simulation are considered essential to military transformation—the remaking of the armed forces for the new realities of the 21st century.

These tools present a powerful means for our military leadership to visualize the future and assess the needs of our new armed forces. The U.S. military is exploiting commercial entertainment technology and simulation to revolutionize education and training—with dramatic effect. DoD is leveraging the capabilities of commercial products by firms such as IBM, Sony, and Microsoft to take advantage of the huge investments these companies pour into research and development. Microsoft, for example, spent over $2 billion on development of the X-Box alone, far surpassing the U.S. Army’s entire science and technology budget of $1.6 billion.

Strategy and tactics games are particularly popular with the service colleges. For example, the commercial fleet tactics game, Jane’s Fleet Command, is used by the Naval War College. The game was developed by Sonalysts, a defence contractor, which reports that the British Royal Navy has asked for a license to modify the game for its operational planning. The use of such games has become so common that the Air University has for several years sponsored an annual conference called Connections.

Connections brings together the military and commercial war-gaming communities for both technical interchange and concept exploration. For the last two decades, DoD has been using commercial games to develop skills and to build teams. Early on, the army modified Atari’s Battlezone and the marines adapted ID Software’s Doom to teach a variety of skills and concepts. Perhaps the most successful use of commercial games for training has been with Microsoft’s Flight Simulator. The navy now issues a customized version of this software to all its student pilots and all undergraduates enrolled in naval ROTC courses at 65 colleges and universities. Extensive studies have shown that students who use such products tend to perform better in flight training than those who do not. The navy also realized that the majority of its flight training students were using Flight Simulator at home. Encouraged by the successful application of these and other commercial products, the military is undertaking a number of research efforts to further explore the use of commercial entertainment technology and content for education and training. As discussed at last year’s Forum symposium, the army and DoD have partnered with the University of Southern California to form the Institute for Creative Technologies, which will focus primarily on development of both the technology and the art to create virtual experiences. Their goal is to revolutionize how the military trains and rehearses for upcoming missions. Military leaders expect nothing less than a quantum leap in helping the army to prepare for the world, soldier, weaponry, and mission of the future.

MICHAEL MACEDONIA  U.S. Army Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation Command