4GD - Over the last five months urban warfare has been in the spotlight with the war in Ukraine

In particular it has highlighted the importance of combined arms operations and the employment of these assets at the tactical level. As well as reinforcing old lessons, new ways of operating have been identified, iterated, and improved throughout the conflict.

For those not engaged directly in the war, this raises the question of how we can keep pace with these changes. Training for combined arms operations is resource intensive, difficult and dangerous but demonstrably essential. Furthermore, to develop competence training must be conducted regularly.

At 4GD we believe that the solution to this lies in the employment of blended Live & Virtual urban training environments, where the strengths of each domain can combine to deliver a capability greater than the sum of its parts. Where possible, urban training should take place in the Live environment. Soldiering after all is an arduous activity that requires dexterity and an intimate understanding of the dynamics of one’s team; something which cannot yet be delivered satisfactorily using Virtual systems. Where these systems come into their own is in replicating high-cost combined arms assets. The key, though, is in linking these two environments together so that Virtual and Live can be

exercised together. Imagine a street clearance being conducted by physical troops who simultaneously have their actions rendered virtually in a digital twin of the objective. This virtual render could then be sent to a Commander using a dismounted situational awareness device in the form of a drone feed, who is then able to control the FLOT using this virtual drone. If armed the same Commander can us the synthetic drone to strike an enemy position. In the virtual world the weapon effect as it would be seen in the digital twin. Moreover, if the physical environment is fitted with appropriate special effects, the audio and visual weapon effect can seen and felt in the physical environment. This loop, where actions taken in the physical have an effect in the virtual and vice versa, is termed by 4GD ‘IntegratedRealities’ . While this example focuses on drones, IntegratedRealities can use any combined arms asset. synthetic environment which sits inside our SmartFacility. Our vision is that through the blend of virtual and live we can deliver high quality training systems that make targeted improvements to team and individual performances; enhance the ability to respond to various complex situations; and build battle winning capability. All whilst ensuring training is as true to operations as possible and that soldiers train how they fight.

Our flagship SmartFacility is in service with the Army’s 16 Air Assault Brigade at Merville Barracks in Colchester. It offers a range of special effects and monitoring features and can be upgraded to also include data capture and analysis, as well as the ACIES synthetic environment which was demonstrated during the Army War Fighting Experiment earlier this year.