A new combat simulation system puts soldiers virtually in extreme deployment scenarios and helps to improve stress techniques. Soldiers on deployment experience extreme stress and dangerous situations. But how can you train for such situations without actually putting yourself in danger? And how can valid data be collected during such training to show how well the forces can control their stress? One answer to this question is provided by the “VR4Sit” combat simulation system, which former paratrooper Paul Kaden developed together with the Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub.
At the heart of the system are VR goggles that allow soldiers to experience various combat simulations. They run through a training course, see obstacles, enemy forces, houses or vehicles. Enemy fire can be simulated, or casualties on the ground. “Whatever you want to train - the system can display it,” says Kaden. His system also includes biofeedback sensors that record stress levels. The trainers can use this data to draw conclusions about the deployment and the effectiveness of the soldiers' stress control techniques during stress training. A quantum leap compared to previous methods.
The project name VR4Sit is derived from “virtual reality” (VR) and “stress inoculation training” (SIT), a central component of training not only for special forces. “Stress inoculation training offers an opportunity to prepare highly stressed groups of people in the best possible way for periods of high stress,” says operational and troop psychologist Dr. Gorzka. The aim is to “impart and train knowledge, techniques and methods for dealing with stress in an adaptive manner, with a particular focus on self-reflection”, says the psychologist. Because “only by recognizing deficits can stress management be sustainably improved and adapted”.
