Most likely, the first thing that our readers will wish upon reading the title is, “Please let it be airsoft! Please let it be airsoft!”  Having the U.S. Army choosing airsoft as the force on force training system would surely be a massive thing, as it will influence how allies of the U.S. will also select their training tools.

According to Military.com, the U.S. Army is planning to replace the MILES (Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System) which is in use for decades as well as good number of allied countries. The system uses laser and blank cartridges to simulate hits as well as have real weapons discharge for a more realistic training. It was improved over the years with the last one being the I-MILES which can be used on vehicles such as the Bradley fighting vehicles and Abrams battle tanks.

Soldiers wear laser sensors on their gear which detect a laser when it gets illuminated by the opposing soldier’s firearm laser. Even a medic can use a digital readout to determine type of treatment to apply to a “hit” soldier.

U.S. Army Soldiers at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, Louisiana in 2018. (U.S. Army photo)

While the U.S. Army is developing the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) just like the U.S. Marines, which uses virtual and augmented reality, they want a more realistic direct fire force on force training and have asked the training simulation community to help develop an effective sims system. This will focus on identifying, testing and fielding new direct-fire simulation technology that can be used in small-unit training at home station and to rotations at the combat training centers.

It would be wishful thinking if airsoft will be the MILES replacement since MILES is not just about the portable weapons systems that soldiers carry to the field but also about vehicles such as fighting vehicles and tanks which airsoft would be totally inadequate for such purposes. Airsoft can still be valuable as a training tool especially for safe small unit training such as CQB or kill house training. But for large scale field training exercises on the scale only an army can organize, airsoft will not be thoroughly lacking.

Top photo:  A U.S. Army Soldier At Saber Guardian 2019 in Ujdororgd, Hungary (Photo by Pfc. Denice Lopez, U.S. Army Training Support Activity Europe)