Training Simulations

[specialist]

The US Army and US Marines (seperately) commissioned three squad/small unit training simulations that have been released as games. That was part of the deal with the gaming companies in order to save the US army/marines money.

These were America's Army (US Army), Full Spectrum Warrior (US Army) and First to Kill (US Marines). All three have been released on PC and XBox but not sure about PS.

Here are some links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America's_Army
http://www.americasarmy.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=5742699
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Spectrum_Warrior

On one of them, ('Close Comabt-First to Fight' I think) has a cheat code that actually places you in the version the US marines use.

I was wondering if anyone has used these simulations and what you think about using them as a Team Training aid- i.e. basic ideas of fire team organisation, fireteam tactics, roles and playing out scenarios?

Also, are you aware of any other 'Simulations' out there that may have training value?

[insanity prawn boy]

Re: Training Simulations

For airsoft training? Not worth it, I had both the Full Spectrum Warrior games on PS2, they were good fun and the second one was even pretty hard but you wouldn't really get much out of it. I couldn't comment on the others. If you wanted to do a bit of training, you'd be better asking if your site could do a training day, e.g Any teams that wanted to could turn up and practice with each other or seperatley for a few hours.

[specialist]

Re: Training Simulations

For airsoft training? Not worth it, I had both the Full Spectrum Warrior games on PS2, they were good fun and the second one was even pretty hard but you wouldn't really get much out of it. I couldn't comment on the others. If you wanted to do a bit of training, you'd be better asking if your site could do a training day, e.g Any teams that wanted to could turn up and practice with each other or seperatley for a few hours.

I and others do in fact attend training by ex-army and army trained instructors twice a month. The context was the use of the simulations as a training aid and not a replacement for training.

The US army and possibly others use the simulations as a training aid and not a replacement. Whether it's airsoft or for real I don't think matters- but then I'm thinking about Milsim style and not the day walk on skirmishing. With Milsim, real life small unit tactics apply 100%.

The simulations above show how fire teams are organised and operate together as a small unit. The exercises mirror real life fire team management and operation. Just that on it's own is useful- I guess that's why the Army commissioned them.

I'm thinking about standardising on one of the simulations but would be interested to hear if anyone else has tried these and used as part of the team training. I suppose it's a question of how and when these simulations are used in the training regime.

I can imagine a situation where a beginner could learn the basics by using the simulation and practice in the field with other team mates who share the same understanding of fire teams.

There may also be a situation where a team cannot meet up as often and where everyone's understanding of fire team roles and operation should be at the same level. A simulation that all team members use as a training aid might be a good help- a lot more fun than reading a book!

I'm sure the US army have commissioned and use the above simulations for many good reasons as a training aid as opposed to a primary training approach.