“Serious Games and the Smart Defense Initiative” By Paul Thurkettle - Serious Play Conference 2012

1. Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Serious Games and the Smart Defence Initiative Serious Play Conference 22nd Aug 2012 Paul Thurkettle Education & Training Technologies Section Joint Education Training & Exercises 1

2. Introduction • I am a digital Immigrant but… – Built a pong game in 1975 – Had a BBC micro, Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore 32/64, Atari • Consider myself a geek • Adopted a mobile phone in 2009 • Joined Facebook • Still to twitter • Struggling to watch my son on the 100+ hrs playing Skyrim • Do get it, am excited about it but frustrated.. • Unable to multi-task effectively • Overwhelmed in our age – time management, social awareness acceptance • Partly avoidance of personal technology “need quiet time” 2

3. Overview • Who are we.. • What is Smart Defence and CFI • Virtual Worlds - Serious Games studies • Naming conventions • What are we up to? • Changing mind-sets • Future – working together 3

4. Who are we? North Atlantic Treaty Organisation serving 28 nations Allied Command Transformation Based in Norfolk, Virginia, USA One of two NATO Strategic Commands Created in 2003 Vision Statement: ACT is NATO’s leading agent for change, driving, facilitating, and advocating continuous improvement of Alliance capabilities to maintain and enhance the military relevance and effectiveness of the Alliance. Strategic Objectives: Provide appropriate support to NATO missions and operations. Lead NATO military transformation. Improve relationships, interaction and practical cooperation with partners, nations and international organisations. 4

5. ACT Domain Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) Joint Force Training Centre (JFTC) Allied Command Transformation (ACT) Allied Command Operation (ACO) SACT Representative in Europe (STRE) Staff Element Europe (SEE) NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC) 5

6. Joint Force Trainer (JFT) *** •Responsible for NATO’s individual and collective training • Global Training Architecture •“e-Learning is the future” • National engagements • Linking to academic standards – Bologna 6

7. NATO e-Learning Capabilities Collaboration  Portals ADL  Online  > 33,000 Students  > 300 hours online  Supports all NATO E&T  Supports nations  SCORM based Immersive Learning  Serious Game and Virtual World technology  Courses being developed  Distributed Learning Mobile Learning  New requirement to be supported  Specialist delivery (not reformatted) Computer Based Training  Stand Alone packages 7

8. Our customers Support to NATO/ Nations Individual Training Collective Training NATO School NATO SCHOOL eLearning NCCIS JFTC NCISS NDC NDC JWC NMIOTC 8

9. Partnerships 9

10. Training Spectrum & Implementation of E&T Technologies Individual Training Collective Training Exercises Education ONLINE COURSES DISTRIBUTED TRAINING SERIOUS GAMING / VIRTUAL WORLDS MOBILE TECHNOLOGY / DEVICES KNOWLEDGE PORTAL / COI SUPPORT 10

11. Smart Defence 11

12. "Smart Defence offers a new approach to the delivery of capabilities. It is designed to enhance the efficiency with which Allies, together, field critical capabilities, allowing them to do in cooperation what they could not do efficiently, if at all, alone." 12

13. Smart Defence? Smart Defence is based on capability areas that are critical for NATO, in particular as established at the Lisbon summit in 2010. Ballistic missile defence, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, maintenance of readiness, training and force preparation, effective engagement and force protection For the purposes of Smart Defence, the Alliance nations must give priority to those capabilities which NATO needs most, specialize in what they do best, and look for multinational solutions to shared problems. NATO can act as intermediary, helping the nations to establish what they can do together at lower cost, more efficiently and with less risk. • Capability Requirements • Specialisation • Cooperation • Share resources • All save money/manpower 13

14. Smart Defence Governments Industry Academia Partners Discussion, resource sharing, combined projects, coordination, “Pooling and sharing” 14

15. Connected Forces Initiative CFI “The Connected Forces Initiative aims to preserve the interoperability and enhance shared abilities that have resulted from years of operations in the field. It reinforces Smart Defense through greater collaboration in military education, training and exercises, and application of new technologies.” 15

16. CFI and Education & Training Governments Industry Academia Partners 16

17. Is serious gaming the solution, Or part of the solution? 17

18. NATO two development tracks Experimentation & Fielding 2009-2011 Virtual Worlds Investigation • Virtual worlds • Gaming technology • Tactical level 2011-2013 Strategic Decision Making Training through Games • Gaming technology • Serious games • Upper operational and political level Led to acceptance by JFT and the start of production 18

19. What’s in a name? Serious Games Immersive Training Virtual Worlds Immersive technology refers to technology that blurs the line between the physical world and digital or simulated world, thereby creating a sense of immersion. 19

20. Considerations for design • Useful, what if Guitar Hero had taught kids to learn to read music or play a real guitar, what if Skyrim taught map reading • Multinational, non native speaking • Limited bandwidths, platforms, military computer restrictions •“What’s in it for me” acceptance • Longevity (to earn back the cost in numbers) • Individual or multi player ? • Clark’s “10 years ago why games, now why not” 20

21. What are we up to?  NATO owned & licensed for NATO and nations to use for no fee  Ability to offer distributed training environment , convoy, FAC, C-IED….?  Multinational involvement already, proven joint training capability “Live” play 24/7 hosted servers on internet, Intranet ready  Ability to use as visualisation device for computer systems as well as for training and exercise training development  Over $15M spent by NATO nations 21

22. NATO VBS 2 Convoy Training IED TTP’s NATO Tactics/Doctrine Collation Ops ?????? 22

23. Skill Building “Yo-ho-ho and a vat of anthrax! Checking cargo ships for WMD and contraband isn’t exactly swashbuckling. In fact, as a NATO video game makes clear, it’s actually a lot of dreary, methodical work.” wired.com 23

24. Why VBS Worlds ? • User / Customer driven – ISD changeable • Affiliated with VBS 2 – sharable assets • Deliverable via multiple platforms • SCORM compatable • Multi player adaptable • State of the art? • Licensing that fits our needs 24

25. Changing mindsets • “Gamer” image • Self paced training – not institutionalised • Preparation for next gen of learners • Meet expectations, “one chance to capture them” 25

26. ROI Immersive learning e-Learning (ADL) => $75,000 per student hour => $36,000 per student hour 26

27. Future … • Convincing the Generals *+ (Budget holders) this is worth doing (not with “cool” but with metrics) • Should NATO be involved? (Nations seem to be doing fine …. at least some of them) (Smart Defence – share, cooperate, inform) •NATO E&T adoption …. Serious engagement - Resources • AWARENESS (Industry, academia, nations) •Mobile adoption “Fit the students needs” • Challenges – Work to solve the ability to share between nations both from industry and goverments 27

28. Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Paul Thurkettle Education & Training Technologies Section Joint Education Training & Exercises paul.thurkettle@act.nato.int 757 -747-3360 28