![handle is hein.crs/govesjq0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
Congressional Research Service
Informing the legislative debate since 1914
Updated February 5, 2025
Military Applications of Extended Reality
Although commercial and consumer industries have been
investing in extended reality (XR) for decades, recent
advances have expanded the number of potential
applications for the U.S. military. As such, the Office of the
Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering
has identified human-machine interfaces for XR as 1 of 14
critical technology areas for the Department of Defense
(DOD). As DOD continues to develop XR and related
applications, Congress may consider implications for
defense authorizations and appropriations, military force
structure, and cybersecurity.
Overview
XR encompasses three main categories of physical and
digital environments (Figure 1):
* Virtual reality (VR), a fully immersive digital
environment (e.g., video games that place the user
within the virtual world of the game).
* Augmented reality (AR), an overlay of digital
objects on physical environments (e.g., Instagram
filters that overlay preset digital effects on a user's
videos or photographs).
* Mixed reality (MR), a hybrid of physical and
digital environments in which physical and digital
objects can interact. Unlike AR, MR could enable
a user to manipulate physical or digital objects and
share their view of those objects with other users
within the same mixed reality environment (e.g.,
collaboratively marking adversary troop locations
on a projected digital map).
Figure I. Main Categories of Extended Reality
Source: Tutorials Link, Difference Between AR, VR, MR, at
https://tutorialslink.com/Articles/Difference-Between-AR-VR-MR/973.
A number of advanced enabling capabilities, such as 5G
and edge computing-a type of computing that is done at
or near the source of data-are likely to expand XR
applications in the future. These capabilities could improve
data rates, increase user capacity, and reduce latency (i.e.,
time delay), all of which could support large-scale,
networked applications. DOD has tested 5G-enabled
applications of XR at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (WA)
and Joint Base San Antonio (TX).
Military Applications of Extended Reality
The U.S. military is exploring a range of applications for
XR, with research and development programs in each of the
services. These applications include tactical, flight,
maintenance, medical, and other training, as well as
warfighting.
Training
According to former Under Secretary of Defense for
Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu, DOD intends to
leverage AR/VR and live training ... [that is being
matured] by the gaming industry as a basis for developing
its own tailored XR programs. Doing so could enable the
military to conduct training exercises that are too costly or
dangerous to conduct in physical environments, as well as
enable servicemembers in distant locations to train together.
For example, the Army's Synthetic Training Environment
(STE)-an XR training environment intended to
complement or integrate with live training-seeks to enable
soldiers to train where they will fight, with the partners
S](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govesjq0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most