Marine Corps turns to virtual battlefield to train troops for drone warfare

The Marine Corps has fielded a new drone simulator at training sites from North Carolina to Okinawa, giving Marines a way to practice tactics involving attack drones and electronic warfare without expending aircraft or risking personnel.

FlowState — developed by OneArc, a BAE Systems subsidiary — allows Marines to fly highly customizable drones in simulated battlespaces alongside other forces and under conditions that include signal jamming, according to OneArc chief technology officer Oliver Arup.

The simulator reflects the Marine Corps’ push to incorporate lessons from recent conflicts, where inexpensive first-person-view and one-way attack drones have become increasingly important battlefield weapons.

Users can fly individually or take part in larger exercises involving small units or hundreds of trainees, while testing not only piloting skills but how drones should be incorporated into military operations.

“It’s all great that you have these drones, but in reality, if you’re a fighting force, you need to learn who owns the controller,” Arup told Stars and Stripes in an Aug. 25 video call. “Whose backpack does it live in? How many do you need?”

FlowState works with OneArc’s Virtual Battlespace 4, a sandbox-style simulation that models troops, vehicles and aircraft, allowing drone operators to train as part of larger formations.

FlowState users can integrate their simulators into OneArc's Virtual Battlespace 4 simulator, seen here, for larger-scale exercises. (OneArc)

Since its May 28 release, FlowState has been provided to the Fleet Marine Force through Project Tripoli and to training centers supporting the I, II and III Marine Expeditionary Forces, Maj. Hector Infante, a spokesman for the Marine Corps’ Training and Education Command, said in a Sept. 2 email.

Project Tripoli is a Marine Corps effort to modernize training by connecting live exercises with simulators and other virtual training systems.

FlowState is also available at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Infante said.

Commercial drone simulators can teach basic flying skills, but FlowState adds military-specific features, including compatibility with military equipment and post-flight assessments, he said.

“These capabilities support progression from basic flight proficiency to tactical application and more complex mission rehearsal,” Infante wrote.

The simulator provides a “safe and repeatable environment” for training and mission rehearsal but is only “one component of a layered training approach and is not a replacement for live flight,” he said.

The Marine Corps continues to evaluate FlowState and other simulators as drone technology and training requirements evolve, Infante added.

OneArc began developing the simulator after identifying growing military demand for first-person-view and one-way attack drones and a shortage of training systems designed for them, Arup said.

“It became very clear that every military we were working with was starting to purchase [first-person-view] drones and had started to look for competencies within their training environment,” he said.

OneArc developed FlowState in about six months, Arup said.

The software allows trainers to alter a simulated drone’s size, weight, battery life and payload and subject it to electronic attacks such as signal jamming.

It also models aircraft performance and damage. Developers are working to reproduce increasingly granular effects, such as a propeller striking vegetation and altering the drone’s flight characteristics, Arup said.

“The fact that these drones are fully manually controlled, that may just be a small sliver of history,” he said. “We’re going to get to a stage where they’re probably semi-autonomous or — at some point — autonomous.”