Operations centers are designed to bring together and assimilate massive amounts of data for commanders to make decisions in reaction to real time stimuli. They provide command and control, continuity of operations, and resources required to sustain operations. The scope of responsibility often requires a large support staff dedicated to processing a significant amount of time sensitive data. Immersive technology can augment decision cycles in operations centers by intuitively representing complex data in physical space, enabling users to more easily understand and process that data. Additionally, virtual spaces can bring personnel closer to the action who may not physically sit on the operations floor due to space constraints or geographic proximity. Immersive technology offers Commanders the flexibility to maintain an operational and training environment in the same space. Imagine a scenario where trainers interact with trainees in a virtual space that so perfectly overlays on top of the operations floor the trainees believe they are actually in the operational space? What if, in this scenario, trainees interacted with real world data and through their training experience offered solutions Commanders could use to solve current problems? In operations centers with a classified mission, immersive technology could enable multiple levels of access through existing access control mechanisms without having to lower the overall classification of the physical ops floor. This environment could significantly increase collaboration, efficiency, improve partnerships, and open the structure of operations centers to configurations that may have previously challenged operations security. This paper will examine the implementation of immersive technology into an operations center by exploring the benefits of augmented and mixed reality through the concept of presence, experiential learning, virtual displays, training, and parallel virtual collaborative environments.

Keywords
AI, AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY (AR/VR), ENVIRONMENTS, MILITARY LEARNING, TRAINING

Additional Keywords
Immersion & Presence, Experiential Learning, Meta-Leadership, C2, Operations Centers, Common Operating Picture