WELCOME TO THE METAVERSE: How Interconnected, Simulated Worlds Could Transform Military Training.

• Author: Easley, Mikayla
• Position: TRAINING & SIMULATION

Earlier this year, two Berkut 540 aircraft--codenamed Red 1 and Red 2--raced down the runway of Santa Monica Airport and climbed into the California skies. As the two planes flew over Ventura County, a KC-46 Pegasus Tanker came into the pilots' view.

The tanker flew adjacent to Red 1, and the pilot navigated into position so the KC-46 could refuel the aircraft while Red 2 observed.

However, anyone looking up from the ground would have only seen two planes in the sky.

The third plane that "refueled" Red 1 wasn't real--it was generated using augmented reality. Once in the air, the Berkut 540 pilots entered a common network. This allowed them to see and interact with the AR tanker in real time from their separate aircraft while communicating with each other.

Controlled by Florida-based startup Red 6, the exercise was one of the first successful training flights that linked multiple real-world platforms with synthetic assets, according to the company.

The demonstrated extended reality and networking capabilities are just some of the many technologies ushering in a new era of military training --one operated in the metaverse.

The idea of the metaverse has dominated the commercial space in recent years. While tech giants and small startups alike have hopped on the bandwagon, the U.S. military has also been interested in and developing its own "military metaverse" that can be harnessed to train thousands of warfighters simultaneously in realistic battlefield simulations.

"The metaverse means a lot of different things to a lot of different people," Brig. Gen. William Glaser, director of the Army's Synthetic Training Environment Cross Functional Team, said in an email. "Microsoft may be focusing on a collaborative work effort. Facebook may focus on the social aspect. If you talk to Amazon, they may say it's about an improved shopping experience."

Despite differing use cases, experts share some common understanding of what the metaverse is. The idea is to create a single, simulated 3D world that exists online and that multiple people can access through a device, such as a headset or tablet, from anywhere around the globe. Once inside the metaverse, a person's "avatar" can interact with the virtual world and others in it.

Juliana Slye, founder and CEO of consulting firm Government Business Results, said the metaverse has become a viable reality due to "the commoditization and commercialization of the necessary hardware and software and other devices that make it happen."

These include hardware components --such as headsets or tablets--that allow users to enter the metaverse, as well as advancements in high-fidelity graphics and power from gaming engines by software companies, she said.

The metaverse would be so realistic that it suspends one's disbelief that it's a simulation, tricking their minds...