Air Force Turns to Virtual Reality for Suicide and Sexual Assault Training – By Brandi Vincent (Nextgov) / Nov 15 2021
Service members are also using the emerging technology for technical education purposes.
Texas-based Air Force officials and their spouses are being immersed in simulations of difficult sexual assault and suicide scenarios—via virtual reality—to become better equipped to deal with such encounters in their real-world military operations.
A new training program designed to support staff was recently implemented by members of the 317th Maintenance Group at Dyess Air Force Base, marking the latest of multiple virtual reality-driven applications being deployed there.
“Our Virtual Reality Training Center has become the gold-standard that the Integrated Technology Platform shares with every base to emulate,” Staff Sgt. Christopher Clinton, who helps steer the VRTC, told Nextgov in an email on Monday.
Virtual reality typically incorporates headsets that present computer-generated environments with simulated objects that look to be real and adapt as wearers engage. The military and federal agencies have tapped this technology for learning-centered and other mission-oriented purposes in recent years. Through the Integrated Technology Platform Initiative Clinton mentioned, the Air Force is collaborating with relevant players to develop and roll out a competency-based plan and environment that leans on virtual reality and other emerging technologies.
