▲ Naviworks' RealBX video simulation shooting training system. It is currently being used by four Army division reserve units and can even reproduce gun firing sounds and recoil.

On June 22, at the 1st floor Living Lab of Naviworks, an education and training VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) specialized company in Anyang-si, Gyeonggi-do. Six company employees were sitting in front of their monitors, demonstrating urban warfare training using the virtual tactical training platform, ‘Real BX.’

Domestically produced K1A1 tanks and K200 armored vehicles, fully armed Army soldiers, and virtual enemy buildings were advanced, recreated in VR to look like real people. Screens (monitors) showing the view of not only the soldiers but also the squad and platoon leaders were also featured. 
Without mobilizing actual tanks, armored vehicles, or combatants, you can train in various situations such as urban warfare, counter-infiltration operations, special operations, combined arms cooperation, overseas deployment, and GP/GOP operations by sitting in front of a computer. Urban warfare training is essential training for our military to prepare for stabilization operations in the event of a sudden change in North Korea.

However, it costs a huge amount of money, from tens of billions to hundreds of billions of won, to properly build an urban warfare training ground consisting of various buildings. There is also a lack of space to build the training ground. On the other hand, the advantage of training using VR is that more units can do it at a much lower cost.

A company-level platform that can train 300 people

RealBX was developed from 2012 to 2015 as a joint inter-ministerial IT convergence project between the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the Ministry of National Defense with a budget of approximately 8 billion won (3 billion won from the government + 5 billion won from the company). It is a company-level training platform that can train up to 300 people at once. However, considering the limitations of the number of computers and training space, it is suitable for squad-level (around 10 people) and platoon-level (around 40 people) training.

Training using RealBX is conducted in four stages. In the first stage, the preparatory stage, a virtual environment such as 3D terrain and buildings is created and edited. Numerous combinations can be created, including large buildings as well as detailed situations such as barbed wire and barricades. Tanks, armored vehicles, self-propelled guns, and soldiers are also edited according to the training purpose. In the second stage, a scenario creation tool is used to create various training scenarios. In the third stage, training is conducted by providing various unexpected situations. In the final fourth stage, the virtual training is concluded through a post-evaluation that reproduces the training results and analyzes and evaluates the training content. Won Jun-hee, CEO of Naviworks, said about RealBX, “It can be applied to the scientific simulation training system of the Korean military by replacing the foreign simulation engines that some military units are currently introducing and utilizing.” It can also be used to familiarize yourself with terrain features and other things before the frontline units enter the Army Science Combat Training Corps (KCTC), which has now been expanded to a brigade level, and conduct preliminary training. 
RealBX also has a video simulation shooting training system. It is a program that allows you to practice shooting indoors against virtual enemies that appear on the screen. It detects the trainee's actions with sensors and recognizes shooting postures such as lying down, sitting down, and standing up. It is said to be useful for reserve forces when conducting anti-infiltration training because it makes sounds and feels recoil just like shooting a real gun. It is currently being introduced and operated by reserve forces from four Army divisions. 
Last April, an incident occurred at a golf course in Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do, where a female caddy was hit in the head by a bullet from a nearby Army unit's shooting range and fell, causing all Army units to temporarily suspend shooting training. As the training suspension period was longer than expected, there were criticisms among frontline unit commanders that “accident prevention is good, but isn’t it excessive to completely suspend the most basic rifle shooting training?” A video simulation shooting training system using VR can help solve such problems.

▲ The US Army's DSTS combat virtual training system was put into operation after a long period of research and development, but the project was eventually discontinued.

Also developing military game ‘BattleX’

Neviworks also developed military game ‘BattleX’ based on RealBX. There is concern in the military that soldiers are using their phones for games as they are allowed to use their phones. BattleX is a ‘tailored for the military’ game that allows them to do shooting training while playing games. The aviation tactical training simulator, which is already widely used in the military, is also evolving. The Variable Air Tactical Training Platform (RTTP), of which 30 sets have been delivered to 5 units under the Army Aviation Operations Command since 2015, can train 6 types of aircraft with one simulator.

It is a low-cost, high-efficiency simulator. It can train not only utility helicopters such as the UH-60, CH-47, and UH-1H, but also attack helicopters such as the AH-1 and 500MD. The helicopter (simulator)'s two cockpits can be changed from left-right arrangement to front-back arrangement in 20 minutes.

It can be changed from a mobile helicopter type to an attack helicopter type. Previously, only one simulator could be used for training one type of aircraft, so separate simulators were needed for each type. These simulators were imported from overseas, and each unit cost between 6 billion and 20 billion won. This means that if 30 sets of 6 types of aircraft were introduced, at least 1 trillion won would be needed. On the other hand, the cost of introducing 30 sets of RTTP was only 15 billion won.

Naviworks is also developing training equipment that utilizes the 'head-mounted display (HMD)', which is currently popular as VR equipment. This next-generation simulator called VRSP can be used to train helicopters, fighter jets, and even tanks using the HMD. It was selected in 2018 as a global defense industry powerhouse fostering R&D project led by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, and is currently in progress with the goal of completing development by next year. 
Established in 2000, Naviworks has participated in a total of 250 military education and training projects and supplied 84.7 billion won worth of products. It is said that 90 of its 110 employees are IT engineers. 
CEO Won emphasizes the effect of reducing the defense budget due to localization. In addition to the aviation tactical training simulator, the ‘DIRECT C4I (command and control system)’ already being used in the military command system (KJCCS, etc.) is also cited as an example of budget reduction. CEO Won said, “About 40 billion won has been spent on the DIRECT C4I project over the past 20 years,” and “If we had used foreign products, 92 billion won would have been needed, so we have achieved a budget reduction effect of about 52 billion won.”
Some advanced countries, including the United States, have been working to utilize VR and AR for military purposes since the 1980s. The U.S. Army began to use VR technology in earnest for education and training in the 1980s when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) developed the ‘SIMNET (Simulator Network).’

Various platforms, such as tanks, armored vehicles, attack helicopters, and Air Force aircraft, could be depicted in a virtual space linked to a simulator. As a result of long-term research efforts, the U.S. Army deployed the Dismounted Soldier Training System (DSTS) in 2012. It was a squad-level infantry training system that could implement various environments, such as urban areas and jungles. Despite the considerable time and effort put into its development, the U.S. Army discontinued the DSTS project in 2016, four years after its introduction.

This is because developing a training system using VR technology was not easy. The U.S. Army is currently developing a new individual and small unit virtual training system called the Soldier/Squad Virtual Trainer (S/SVT).

Source: http://weekly.chosun.com/client/news/viw.asp?nNewsNumb=002614100017&ctcd=C02