The Marine Corps is launching a series of working groups aimed at finding ways to make the service's Corps' simulated training hyper-more realistic and more effective.

A sequence of 12 simulation assessment working groups will convene at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, between May and September of this year, according to a Marine Aadministrative Mmessage published Monday. The groups will gather input from the operating forces on the "use of current simulation systems and immersive training," the message states.

Officials with Training and Education Command will lead subject matter experts through simulation assessments. The goal will be who will set out to develop Marine Corps training standards that can be met via simulators.

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The message follows a clear mandate from Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford's planning guidance, published in January. Dunford called for a review of all training across the Marine air-ground task force, with an emphasis on immersion and simulation technologies to enable Marines to experience realistic decision points and combat scenarios before deploying to the battlefield.

"I expect all elements of the MAGTF to make extensive use of simulators where appropriate," Dunford said in the guidance. "My intent is for Marines to encounter their initial tactical and ethical dilemmas in a simulated battlefield vice actual combat."

In a panel discussion with fellow service chiefs at the Sea Air Space conference Monday, Dunford discussed his particular interest in developing the Corps' use of its immersive trainers, which are designed replicate the sights, sounds, smells and stressors of the operating theater.

"That probably is one area where we're going to take a harder look at both the capacity and the capability to completely immerse our units in an environment where they can learn to make ethical decisions in a timely manner, in what I describe as 10,000 hours of repetition," Dunford said.

He referred to Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers," which has a spot on the Commandant's Reading List as recommended reading for noncommissioned officers and officers. In the book, Gladwell argues that mastery in a field or discipline requires approximately 10,000 hours of practice.

"How do you get 10,000 hours before you make contact with the enemy?" Dunford said. "I think [immersive training is] one of the ways you can actually do that."

While the Corps' three immersion trainers are designed for use by infantry squads, the working groups will take a broader approach that examines the possibilities for simulation training within all ground combat fields and some support specialties.

In a recent interview with Marine Corps Times regarding the Corps' immersive simulators, Jack Cuddy, TECOM's range and training area management branch head, praised the realism of the trainers, which use role players, explosions, and a spectrum of sensory feedback to make Marines experience the "fog of war" in a realistic settingcombat theater. But he acknowledges that certain challenges still thwarted planners. For example, he said, computer-generated avatars were still too stiff to stand in for role players, and ideas for trainers that simulated jungle or arctic conditions were prohibitively expensive.

"The Star Trek holodeck is still a ways down the road," he said.

1st Lt. Nathan Sidwell (left) and 1st Lt. Tyler Spring, KC-130J copilots with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152, Marine Aircraft Group 36, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, use the KC-130J flight simulator to rehearse flight patterns for taking off and landing on Okinawa.

Marines with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152, Marine Aircraft Group 36, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, use the KC-130J flight simulator to rehearse flight patterns for taking off and landing on Okinawa.

Photo Credit: Cpl. Daniel Flynn/Marine Corps

However, Cuddy said, the Marines were meeting success in efforts that adapted the trainers for use by a wider variety of units. He cited recent efforts to take elements of immersive training and reconfigure them on a vehicle course for a motor transportation unit.

Over the five month period, the working groups will analyze the following training simulations: A published schedule shows the fields will be analyzed as follows:

  • May: Tanks; fires, including artillery, air naval gunfire liaison company and tactical air control party; and intelligence
  • June: Amphibious assault vehicles; MAGTF operations, including combat element, command and control, Marine expeditionary units and MAGTF plans; light armored reconnaissance
  • July: Infantry, including reconnaissance, Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, security forces and Marine security guards
  • August: Logistics, including motor transportation; communications; engineers, including Marine wing support squadrons
  • September: Military police; entry-level training

In a separate effort, TECOM will survey the operating forces this month to get input on how Marines view the Corps' current use of ground simulation, using the feedback to find ways to better use existing simulation technologies.

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