A challenge of conducting an effective after action review (AAR) for live training is relying on the recall of human observers. Expert trainers, leaders, and trainees are known to have fallible and incomplete memories of even recent events. The most common record of live training tends to be video captured from multiple cameras strategically located throughout the range. A 30 minute training event may generate several hours of video footage across all of these cameras. However, video footage does not easily yield quantifiable performance metrics to support evaluation or AAR. We recently collected audio files from Army squads executing battle drill 2A (i.e. squad attack) on a live-fire range. These audio files were processed to extract voice communications and rates of fire for fire team members laying down suppressive fire. Additionally, we collected hit data from targets. Using these non-video data sources we were able create timelines of the exercise to show how effectively the team members communicated and managed their volume of fire over time and space. We were also able to overlay doctrinal rates of fire so that they could directly compare their performance to those rates. Using the overlay, we could also show probabilities of hits and kills and the effectiveness of their fire at suppressing the targets. This type of visualization provides a succinct, quantifiable summary of squad performance that can be used for evaluation and AAR purposes and may offer significant advantages over video-based assessments for live training.
Data Visualization to Improve Evaluation for Live Training
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