Mixed and Augmented Reality for Marine Corps Training

The United States Marine Corps faces numerous challenges in preparing Marines for current operations; among them are the cost of specialized training environments and the difficulty of realistically representing the deployed environment. This paper reports on two Office of Naval Research efforts to address these challenges. The first employs Mixed Reality, which combines real-world and virtual elements to create a Hollywood-set-like representation of an Afghan village where Marines can train prior to deployment. The second explores the use of Augmented Reality to train USMC observers. Observers are responsible for directing artillery and mortar fires and aircraft attacks in the proximity of friendly forces. While the live environment has numerous advantages, the costs of supporting troops, ammunition, and equipment are considerable. Augmented Reality can replace live supporting forces, resulting in lower cost use of training areas during down time and enabling almost any area to become an augmented training area.