Modeling war

No, I do not mean giving big guns to waif-like girls with eating disorders. What I am talking about is recent research by the US military to try and accurately model high-stress battlefield conditions - and it looks a lot like high end computer

No, I do not mean giving big guns to waif-like girls with eating disorders. What I am talking about is recent research by the US military to try and accurately model high-stress battlefield conditions - and it looks a lot like high end computer gaming, with 3D models and sound, and advanced AIs to simulate human interaction.

What the researchers are trying to model is not so much 'how do men react under fire' kind of stuff, but instead, 'how do soldiers reacts under stress'. One test places an officer in command of a situation where a military vehicle has just injured a civilian, the angry family is looking on, and a colleague in the field is calling for reinforcements. It's not a purely military situation, but given the US military's increased role in peacekeeping, and the often large amount of civilian interaction, this kind of research is just about as important as developing new weapons technologies. Teaching your soldiers to fight is all well and good, but if they cannot relate to the civilians they are trying to defend, then more serious problems could ensue.

The 'game' (everything's modeled in 3D, so it looks like a rather detailed computer game more than anything else) is shown in a large, $45 million theatre; the screen wraps around most of the room, and the sound system is full multidirectional. Now that would make for a good game of Counterstrike. Seriously though, it would be interesting to see the results of your average gamer, if he or she were put through similar tests as compared to a career soldier. I imagine the results would show a far more creative outlook to problem solving.