VR gets real

[HagarTheHorrible]

"The Edinburgh-based Army rifleman is believed to be the first soldier to be punished under UK military law for offences in a virtual scenario rather than in real life."

 

soldier-charged-going-rogue-computer-game-virtual-battlefield

 

Next time you're dicking (arsing) about in VR or a computer game, with a little bit of fracticide to go, think yourself lucky you don't have to pull a few extra guard stags (duties) as punishment.

 

 

Edited March 25, 2019 by HagarTheHorrible

[Trooper117]

Deserves all he gets... if the stupid little sod can't keep control in a indoor training scenario, there's no way he can be trusted out on the streets.

[Legioneod]

Pointless if you ask me. I really don't see the benefit of conducting infantry training in a virtual environment, makes very little sense.

Also, the fact that he was disciplined is pretty bogus as well imo.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Legioneod

[Trooper117]

It has massive benefits actually... I used to run small arms trainer packages for my platoon... you can put guys through intensive scenarios, very similar to what the police put their armed officers through in their anti terror training... but I suppose that's a waste of time too... you have no idea!

It will of course never replace live firing exercises, and it was never designed to do that, but of course, some of you armchair warriors know what is best... 

[HagarTheHorrible]

Having been there and done that (and got the buggered knees to prove it) I can say, with some authority, that even with the best intentions, technological limitations can often render even the best brain storming ideas as ridiculous, the theory might be good but the implementation makes a mockery of it and then, the powers that be, expect young soldiers to take it seriously.  Sometimes they just can’t be doing with all the pretend nonsense and do what soldiers do best.........hit things.

 

........and I don’t mind saying that from the comfort of my armchair ?

 

That said it is all and bit of stuff and nonsense, a couple of nights behind the guard, being arsed about, is hardly a dramatic punishment, it doesn’t even go on your record and the soldier probably thought it was well worth his trouble, especially in today’s touchy-feely inclusive Army.

Edited March 25, 2019 by HagarTheHorrible

[Trooper117]

I was in the army system for over 25 years, 20 of them as an airborne soldier, so yes, been there as well, got the knackered body to prove it also... but I can honestly say that never once did I have a recruit or even a soldier of mine ever eff about in one of my weapons and tactics, battlefield first aid, NBC lessons etc.

Some of them would hit things down town in Aldershot or Catterick, usually involving alcohol, but never when I was trying to teach them things that would save their lives... that's in a simulator, on a computer, or in the field or on the ranges.

That young man mentioned above had to be given some sort of punishment, otherwise you would have every little git who got bored arsing about and disrupting every training session.

[Legioneod]

1 hour ago, Trooper117 said:

It has massive benefits actually... I used to run small arms trainer packages for my platoon... you can put guys through intensive scenarios, very similar to what the police put their armed officers through in their anti terror training... but I suppose that's a waste of time too... you have no idea!

It will of course never replace live firing exercises, and it was never designed to do that, but of course, some of you armchair warriors know what is best... 

 

Like I said, I personally don't see the point but that's just me. Simulations for vehicles and other complex and expensive machinery sure I can see value in that, but for infantry I don't see any value in doing virtual simulations rather than live training.

[Rothary]

Atleast the Finnish Defence Forces have already found a big improvement in training results thanks to virtual training. The idea is that you go through the theory virtually so that before you go train in the field, everyone already has an idea of how it's supposed to be done and what they're supposed to do themselves (since they've already done it virtually). Results show that those who did virtual training before training in the field learned new tricks faster and more efficiently, performing better in following exercises than people who had to learn the theory either in a class room or directly in the field.

 

That being said, keeping everyone serious for a 2h virtual training session was already quite a challenge in our experience. Doing an entire two week exercise virtually is almost bound to get out of hand. Such large virtual exercises are imo hardly useful for individual soldiers, but I suspect they likely focus more on practicing the large scale strategic action, which is indeed significantly cheaper to do virtually than for real, while being barely different in practice for the people focusing on the large scale.

[Jaws2002]

Was the dude's name Leroy Jenkins by any chance?