The military has always had the most advanced technology a country could offer. Specially in the United States where they allocated $711 billion on their military back in 2011. The technological advances the military has eventually finds its way to commercial releases and marketing people sell them as "high end" tech.
This time it's different. It's the commercial (or soon to be commercial) release tech that finds its way in military applications. The modern VR is being used in the military today to train their men for either combat or equipment.
Take this article from Motherboard.com for example entitled "New Military Jets Are So Powerful, Pilots Must Be Trained in Virtual Reality." According to General Mike Hostage, "The fifth generation brought us capabilities and lethalities that are straining my abilities at Red Flag to produce that same realistic combat environment. I can't turn on every bell and whistle on my new fifth-generation platforms because a) they're too destructive, and b) I don't want the bad guys to know what I’m able to do."
Putting your latest technology on display for the whole world to see isn't a good idea for the military. It would compromise them such as other countries could develop countermeasures to their technology. Their solution to this is to train pilots in VR more than their live training. This way, they could control the environment of the training, plus they are behind closed doors so no one would see what those planes are really capable of.
Other than pilots, soldiers are being trained too using VR. The official web site of the US Army, Army.mil, published an article entitled "Virtual Reality Used To Train Soldiers in New Training Simulator" wherein soldiers using VR to train are featured.
The first-ever simulated training facility can be found at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. They use their so-called "The Dismounted Soldier Training System" to train squads for actual combat. The training area is about 10x10 feet but the soldiers won't move around while in training. Each soldier stands on a module pad so they can move while staying in place.
"With a wide variety of environments, and the ability to insert specific entities into the scenarios, the options for training opportunities are virtually limitless; rehearsals for missions or live-fire exercises are just a couple of examples. Currently, the programmed training environments include mountainous, wooded, and desert. These are intended to simulate places like Afghanistan and Iraq, but are not limited to only these specific scenarios."
Soldiers won't have to leave the base to accustom themselves to different situations as they can, or will, simulate every battlefield known to man. However, it is still vital for them to train in the real world as there is still distinct differences between the real world and the virtual world. I also believe that "nothing can prepare you for war."
Simulators and VR has really gone a long way. You can say that both are meant for each other. With military technology and funding, VR may reach it's full potential. It may not be impossible that in the near future, bootcamps will be replaced with virtual bootcamps. We never know, but it's always possible.
References:
The Washington Post - "America's Staggering Defense Budget, In Charts"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/07/everything-chuck-hagel-needs-to-know-about-the-defense-budget-in-charts/
Motherboard - "New Military Jets Are So Powerful, Pilots Must Be Trained in Virtual Reality"
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/new-military-jets-are-so-powerful-pilots-must-be-trained-in-virtual-reality
The Official Homepage of the United States Army - "Virtual Reality Used To Train Soldiers in New Training Simulator"
http://www.army.mil/article/84453/
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