Amid stagnant budgets and declining force size, Army leaders routinely stress the need to maintain readiness. Finite funding has placed a greater emphasis on simulation, virtual environments and shared platforms for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in helping prepare soldiers for the next war.

The Army is planning to collapse at least three virtual programs into a single environment that encompasses integrated, across-the-board training, according to Army officials speaking last week at the AUSA Aviation symposium in Arlington, Va.

"For us to be able to execute realistic training, good training, we have to be able to bring that operational environment" into the virtual world and live gaming, said Brig. Gen. Michael Lundy, deputy commanding general at the Army Combined Arms Center. "As we look to the future, we are going to transition ... into the future holistic training environment, live synthetic. We want to get away from having multiple environments, virtual gaming and instruction, and go to one synthetic environment, get to a lower overhead and integrate the full operations process... according to the common operating picture."

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