The armed forces may not be the first sector we think about when considering uses of Virtual Reality – gaming, film, construction purposes all come to mind. But VR is being used and has been adopted by UK military for training purposes for some time in all three services (army, navy and air force), particularly for combat scenarios. The VR equipment allows soldiers to experience a particular situation within a controlled, safe environment. And it is also used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.
The kind of scenarios that benefit from this type of training include flight simulation, battlefield simulation, medical training on the battlefield, vehicle simulation and military bootcamp. Clearly the benefits for governments of sourcing VR equipment for military training are time and cost. Real-life training is expensive, especially airborne training, so it is more cost-effective to use flight simulators than actual aircraft. Flight simulators are used to train pilots across all branches of the forces in flying skills, dealing with emergency situations and communications with ground control. VR also allows an element of danger into the scenarios without causing actual physical harm.
Read more here on Virtual Reality Website.
The UK government runs bespoke expert-level learning programmes on emerging technologies. It also offers funding through the National Space Technology Programme to encourage the development of space technology in the UK space sector. Read more about that here and here.