Training Capabilities Assessment in Support of Enhanced Military Training: Comparing Head-Mounted Displays

The U.S. Army invests significant resources to modernize and develop new training systems. The Synthetic Training Environment (STE) converges different environments into a common synthetic environment, including integration with Live Training Environment (LTE) systems that are considered to replace legacy systems with more realistic technology. This paper describes use of the Training Capabilities Assessment (TCA) method to assess a training proof of concept for a STE LTE-enabled M320 grenade launcher, using two mixed reality headsets. This method relies heavily on input from Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in terms of criticality of realism in a set of attributes for training/task execution and in terms of capability of the system to provide these attributes. The results show where the proof of concept is meeting the requirement and where a gap exists between capability and requirement with the headsets. The paper concludes with recommendations for improvement.