The Army’s Virtual Battlespace 3 (VBS3), a three dimensional gaming program to train soldiers and aid in leader development, is now available and offers a significant increase in capability over the previous version, officials said.
This virtual training game is a multi-user simulation that allows units to train at home station, on more than 150 battle drills, platoon-level collective tasks, combined maneuver tasks and other collective tasks.
Since its March 31 release, 17,000 licenses have been issued for VBS3 and it is anticipated that by Oct. 1 all VBS2 users will have migrated to the newest version. The Army will run both models until everyone is on VBS3.
Marco Conners, chief of Army Games for Training, said Virtual Battlespace 2 has been the flagship program with 36,000 soldiers training on it every day.
VB3, a first person simulation, has numerous improvements from the previous version, he said during an April 8 roundtable.
VB3 has a more realistic visual environment, with “better acuity and shading,” on land and water, he said.
“If you’re working in a Middle Eastern-type setting, it will look more like the Middle East than previously,” Connors said. There’s more detail in the setting. Maps are larger, with high-detail insets. They are more robust and reflecting real-world activities more accurately than commercial entertainment.
Actions are more realistic, too, he said. Soldiers’ avatars move more realistically, they are more detailed, and strike more realistic poses. For the user, there’s a cleaner, wider field of view, and they see more of the gaming environment.
For example, previously, structures had only two or three states: fully functional, somewhat destroyed, or completely destroyed, Connors said. Now there are more states, so there’s a more realistic “rubbling” effect when soldiers fire at the structures. There’s accurate battle geometry.
There’s also an increased After Action Review capability, so soldiers can talk about what they did, what went right, what went wrong and how to get better.
Images: US Army
Additionally, there are plug-ins to be used with the base software. For example, VB3 Fires offers a more realistic indirect fire capability and uses the call-for-fires process for artillery and mortars.
Another plug-in is called Ambience, which automates crowds and insurgents in the battlespace. It “replicates patterns of life and how they operate in a defined area,” Connors said.
The new VB3 also can import a soldier’s height, weight, gender, and scores in areas such as marksmanship and physical training, so “your avatar is as proficient as you are.” But the avatar won’t do better than you can do. This is a capability soldiers wanted, Connors noted, soldiers “didn’t want a false sense of capability.”
A commander-centric feature is a digital chalk board, where leaders can develop a concept of operations, look at operational graphics in a 3D environment and examine how to execute a mission. It’s also a collaborative rehearsal tool.
Behind the scenes, there’s a scenario tool that allows VB3 to import scenarios more easily and connect to live, virtual and constructive training environments.
Maj. Greg Pavlichko, chief of the requirements branch, said because the Army is moving away from training toward counterinsurgency and stability operations and back to decisive operations for full spectrum operations, more of those tasks are being added and tested for VB3.
Over the summer, some 92 training and support packages will be updated for full spectrum training operations, Connors said.
VB3 allows soldiers to rehearse individual and collective skills, but it is not designed to replace live training. The goal is to enable live training at a higher level of proficiency, where soldiers are better prepared going in to live training, such as at the National Training Center in Calif.
When soldiers use VB3, it’s likely at a Mission Training Center on base, where they have professionals to help and facilitate activities, Capt. Chuck Williams, Chief, Field Operations Branch, said.
At such centers, there is the capability to show soldiers via other simulations, what is to the side of their units and in the rear. Additionally, as the scenario moves along, the administrator has the ability to interject more enemy or obstacles to increase the intensity of the game.
Hans Hull, Gaming Military Analyst, Field Operations Branch, said the game has to have all the pieces. In decisive action training, soldiers must be ready for offensive, defensive and stability operations at different times or simultaneously, which means the game “has to have pieces” from military equipment to enemy, to civilians to friendly nations the United States could be working with.
The VBS3 saves money for the Army, too, as it doesn’t need a fielding team to bring the game to bases and prepare it and train personnel for its use. Instead, soldiers go to the Army’s
www.https://milgaming.army.mil portal and use their CAC card.