Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of virtual-reality based training programmes for armed forces personnel.

The Defence Systems Approach to Training (DSAT) is the Ministry of Defence’s framework for designing, delivering, and evaluating all training, including that which uses Virtual-Reality (VR). DSAT ensures that training is aligned with needs, is both effective and cost-efficient, and is operationally relevant.

Each of the Services have plans to supplement live training with virtual training environments. The benefits are clear, although the blend varies on a case-by-case basis.

The Royal Navy’s SPARTAN programme aims at modernising and improving the delivery of Royal Navy Collective Training from unit to Joint Battle Staff level through an enhanced Live-Virtual-Constructive simulation approach that incorporates the use of virtual training environments.

The British Army has detailed plans to supplement live training with virtual training environments as part of a balanced and evidence-based approach. This is part of an integrated approach through its Collective Training Transformation Programme (CTTP).

The Royal Air Force (RAF) uses blended live and virtual training as a matter of routine. The RAF’s Gladiator Distributed Synthetic Training Capability is already delivering for Air personnel, and its potential to help integrate across the war-fighting domains is now being pursued.