Critical Analysis on Identifying the Effect of Military Training Simulations on Confidence Level of Soldiers

Abstract

Simulations and games grow very rapidly and dynamically with technologies evolving every day. Technologies of military simulation are continuously evaluated and upgraded since it is a key factor for military training, analysis, planning, etc. The training simulations had been used to train soldiers for a long time period, but systematic analysis haven't been made to identify if the military simulations have been able to achieve increasing the confidence level of soldiers,. There have been many researches on military training simulations time to time around the world. Mainly defence research centers had done researches to identify the areas to improve in order to upgrade the quality of training. These have been used to train soldiers' way back in the World War II. In the advancement of technology these have become more and more advance and effective on achieving their goals. DARPA (Defence Advance Research Program Agency) and the US Army research institute were the major two researchers on this domain. This paper presents a research that was conducted to identify whether military training simulations make an effect on the confidence level of the soldiers when they are battling. The objective of this research was achieved through evaluating the existing background of military simulations against the confidence level of soldiers, investigating how military training is done in terms of simulations, evaluating how simulation based training are effective for soldiers, identifying the factors that affect the confidence level of soldier and introducing a model to evaluate the confidence level of soldiers. According to the conceptual model used, actual experience, experience of others, self-efficacy, mission readiness, persuasion and emotional arousal were identified as factors affecting the confidence level of a soldier. Based on the collected data, the conceptual model which was proposed to measure the confidence level of soldiers could be justified to acceptable level.