Guest Blogger - Will Parker: Military Training and Technology

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“Military Training Hollywood Style”

This kind of training that our military is receiving is as good and real as it gets. There are car bombs, bullets flying by, RPG’S, wounded soldiers screaming, broken glass and metal pieces everywhere, and you would think this is only in the movies. The new training for the military these days is called Strategic Operations, which is a small program, developed to make a scenario for the soldiers as if they were in a real battle. Hollywood-influenced military trainers use video, 3-D and mechanical simulations. But Strategic Operations brings advanced special effects, actors, and sets that can be moved quickly if needed, to create training grounds so real that troops feel stress and can come up with ways to get by it. The main goal for this program is so that the soldiers aren’t shocked by anything and feel as if they were just in another simulation.
Strategic Operations prides itself on hyper-realism to perfect what it calls "stress inoculation," the process of preparing troops for the horrors and surprises of wartime. The company creates incredibly life-like training environments, from objective-based scenarios such as boarding a cargo ship via helicopter, to environments like "Mojave Viper," Strategic Operations' massive desert grounds, which replicates an entire Middle Eastern city with a population of 50,000 or more. Strategic Operations has dozens of locations like these throughout the country, and has 80 full-time employees. In 2009, its revenues doubled due to strong military demand for its products and services ( Carr). This advance training has had outstanding results from our soldiers In the field and they mention how they feel a lot more safe and ready for battle than they have ever been before. This kind of training is relatively small but because of the impact its having, its starting to grow.

Here’s some links with videos and information.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1696703/how-the-military-trains-soldiers-using-hollywood-effects-amputated-actors-robots-laser-explo
http://www.okcteaparty.org/support-our-military/hollywood-magic-helps-military-training/