Virtual Reality (VR) is getting to be a really important tool for training for military and law enforcement and with the use of blowback airsoft guns, they get a more realistic experience given the tactile of feeling of using blowbacks that also simulate recoil of a real gun. ABC7NY gets to have a exclusive report showing the New York Police Department (NYPD) trying the combination of VR and airsoft guns for active shooter drills and real world scenarios.

In the news report, the NYPD tries for the first time using VR for training. The officers took part in a training in Williamsburg, Brooklyn early this month. The training was conducted by the Louisiana State University and V- Armed with funding from the Department of Homeland Security.

V-Armed is a subsidiary of Animated Storyboards Ltd., a leading supplier of motion capture animation and CGI. According to its website it “creates custom 3D VR simulations for large-scale training. Our life-like multiplayer scenarios enhance mission readiness and situational awareness for defense, law enforcement, first-responder and engineering teams”.

Watching the video, airsofters can notice that they use airsoft guns, in this case blowbacks from KWA Performance Industries. These guns are equipped with motion capture devices so these are also reflected in the VR environment used in the training. They have at present the Active Shooter and Traffic Stop demos. With the training session records and performance data viewable from any POV, it makes it better to do an AAR and allows those involved in training to correct mistakes and help improve performance.

One important advantage of using VR for training is scenarios can be changed quickly and more scenarios can be trained in a lesser amount of time and does not need much space according to the NYPD officers who were at the training.

I wonder if it can be used by civilians, such as airsoft and milsim players who are serious with such types of training. Pretty sure some would cough up the money just to try VR with airsoft guns.