IDF Using Virtual Reality Headsets To Prepare For Next Gaza War
The Israeli Defense Forces are using virtual reality headsets in order to train soldiers how to navigate and fight in Hamas’ network of underground tunnels.
The IDF began utilizing technology made by the Facebook-owned Oculus and the Taiwanese program HTC Vive in April, Bloomberg News reported Monday. Despite costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, the initiative has been beneficial and cost-effective, cutting training time in half and allowing soldiers to undergo exercises that they could not do in real life, an IDF officer said.
The soldiers use both specially-designed workstations and a physical, modifiable tunnel in order to simulate operating in such conditions.
The IDF destroyed dozens of Hamas tunnels during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, but the IDF reportedly believes that the terror group’s tunnel network has been totally rebuilt since then, with some pathways extending inside Israel itself. The IDF says that the quickest way to demolish such tunnels is for soldiers to enter them and plant explosives, hence the training sessions.
The army’s combat engineering unit hopes to expand the program so that a full squad of 20 can train together.
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter at @aidenpink.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30