The Connected Soldier Revolution: Augmented Reality as a Force Multiplier for Military Readiness
"The only real measurement of an army is its fighting power, its lethality in the face of very real, and converging, threats [...] my challenge to the British Army is to double that lethality in three years and treble it by the end of the decade."
– Chief of the General Staff Sir Roland Walker
It’s telling that one of the first things General Walker did after being appointed was to issue this challenge to a force that increasingly has to do more with less. The urgency of the demand is matched in equal measure by its enormity and clarity: we need force multipliers to make each individual more impactful so our militaries can fight with limited resources and win.
One drone operator, for instance, can achieve the same effect as a traditional section of soldiers. We live now with a reality being played out on numerous battlefields, where drone swarms are revolutionising the way in which combat power is defined. Lethality is undoubtedly a well-defined problem to which technology is increasingly becoming an answer, but I’d argue that the aims and ambitions of digital transformation could, and should, extend beyond making our armed forces better at neutralising threats. If UK MoD, or any of its allies, is to build and maintain a resilient, battle-ready force, then we need to amplify those functions of defence on which lethality depends, from engineering and sustainment efforts through to survivability and productivity.
The Challenge of Enacting Change
Profound technological change happens slowly, and then all at once. We couldn’t have known the massive, rapid impact that autonomous or FPV drones would have on the modern battlespace even as recently as five years ago. Like all technologies, the value of drones isn’t some intrinsic, immutable quality but rather lies in what they enable users to do (or do more of, with less). The same can be said for connected soldier technologies, such as Augmented Reality (AR), which act as a force multiplier for engineers, medics, trainees, and industry suppliers, for whom lethality is only one part of a much larger picture.
Through the Defence Technology Exploitation Programme (DTEP) with Defence and Security Accelrator (DASA), Kognitiv Spark, working with Serco, have been able to demonstrate an AR platform deployed on a secure defence network, operating at TRL9 in support of Equipment and Medical Support.
When it comes to defence, profound technological change is happening slowly because it isn’t always easy to enact. Even a drone swarm needs developing and manufacturing with the requisite tactics, techniques, and procedures in place, underpinned by relevant and effective training. In MoD’s case (and, indeed, allied militaries more widely), embedded doctrine, policies, and strict adherence to ‘the way things have always been done’ can run at odds with the fundamental principles, aims, and ambitions of digital transformation. If we’re to transform training, operations, and industry collaboration from the training school to the front line, then we’ve still got some work to do. When it comes to enabling technologies like AR, we need to turn policies and doctrine into a catalyst for adoption, rather than a barrier to it.
The message that the MoD wants to change is encouraging. The intent and will is there. The strategies are there. The frameworks, initiatives, and projects are there, all of which aim to reposition MoD as industry’s ideal customer; one that’s open to change and willing to collaborate.
Building on the Equipment Support Augmented Reality Triage (ESART) contract, Kognitiv’s Augmented Reality Pan Army Implementation (ARPAI) approach involved supporting the immediate and future operational use of AR technology.
Such programmes and projects are the vehicles for change, the ‘ways and means’, if you will, to more quickly realise and refine the ‘ends’: AR as a force multiplier for military readiness, across domains, across continents, and as much for the front-line engineer as for the industry specialist who supplies it. They provide confidence in the technology and underpin more rapid operational adoption.
Augmented Reality as a Force Multiplier… on Operations
The British Army, the Royal Navy, and the Royal Air Force will need to prepare, deploy, and move at a higher level of readiness than ever before, and sustain that. But recruitment challenges leave skill gaps across all Services, and those that remain are stretched across more tasks and projects while dealing with increasingly advanced platforms.
Step forward AR. Whether a soldier, sailor, marine, or aviator, whether deployed in a home-based location or at the edge, whether the task in front of them is tactical or technical, they can pull previously missing or unattainable information into their field of view and increase their understanding of a situation in a matter of minutes. They can overlay critical data onto their real-world view, collaborate with experts, and make split-second decisions with unprecedented accuracy, delivering relevant and time sensitive knowledge and information at the point of need.
This is as much of a force multiplier for manpower as it is morale. Fixing a vehicle is one thing. Saving lives is quite another. For the medic who knows all too well just how high the stakes are, it’s a powerful thing to have an expert in their ear with help, guidance, and sometimes just a simple, reassuring reminder: “You’ve got this. Remember your training”.
AR as a Force Multiplier… For Training
Remember your training only works, however, if the training itself is effective and realistic enough to keep pace with the level of change at the ‘sharp end’. When our adversaries are constantly looking to outcompete us militarily and technologically, personnel at every level need to be prepared for a front line that’s constantly in flux.
Everyone who has served is familiar with military training methodologies like Explain, Demonstrate, Imitate, Practice (EDIP), or watch me; now you do it. AR takes this, propels it into a digital space, and grants access to EDIP training wherever and whenever it’s needed without incurring the time and travel costs that come with physically syncing whole training groups with trainers or centralised training schools.
In the training environment, exercise grounds and workshops, repair guides ‘float’ beside some of the military’s most technologically complex assets and platforms, transforming technical manuals into searchable and accessible interactive content. Virtual mentors and Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents and models guide newer REME craftsmen and engineers through complex procedures, ensuring expertise is shared and retained without the need for physical proximity. These mentors might be military or they might be Subject Matter Experts from Prime Contractors, or Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) that support the front line, and who can now build trust, competence, and confidence in their platforms through AR-enhanced collaborative environments.
Training becomes faster, more interactive, and more immersive, and whole units can familiarise themselves with key pieces of kit or processes that may have otherwise been inaccessible due to differences in diaries, time zones or procedures.
AR as a Force Multiplier… For Industry
In a previous article, I wrote about the enabling effects of AR and adjacent emerging technologies in fostering better collaboration, and therefore more effective communication between primes, systems integrators, OEMs, and industry suppliers.
If we’re to achieve a pan-enterprise defence connected soldier platform that will transform training and operations, and if AR’s going to be normalised, standardised, and embedded into operations, then it needs the best of industry collaborating and communicating effectively in order to make it so. In this way, AR both fosters and necessitates a supportive, cross pollinating industry ecosystem where knowledge, insight, and expertise is shared and given where and when it’s needed. After all, it’s rare that programmes and projects like DTEP, ESART and ARPAI can be delivered by just one industry player. It’s why partners like Serco, Prolinx, RMMV and RBSL are so valuable to and valued by Kognitiv Spark, and why in partnership we are now able to deliver a UK sovereign AR solution that can be used at multiple classifications addressing the critical need for enabling technicians and operators in the field and connecting them with direct support, and why we are always looking to collaborate with many more industry leaders.
AR as a Force Multiplier… For Change
It’s a hugely important focus and one I’d most like to end on, especially when we consider that digital transformation is rapidly evolving now. Revolutions might not always be apparent at the time but perhaps, a few years hence, we’ll look back at 2025 as a pivotal year, the moment extended realities like AR fulfilled the promise of decades of development. UK MoD, with the help of industry, is on a path towards change. New use cases appear every week, and I’m more than excited to see not only what the future holds for XR’s role as a force multiplier amongst militaries but, crucially, how Kognitiv can work with industry, its primes, its start-ups, its SMEs, its specialists, to help shape it.
As I conclude, my thoughts go back to the unifying purpose laid down by CGS. General Walker has given the British Army a challenge to significantly enhance its Combat Effectiveness, and implicitly the availability of its battle winning equipment and trained soldiers. The work of the Army Futures team, alongside pioneering OEMs and Defence Primes is already demonstrating to the Field Army and Strategic Command how AR can be a highly effective part of the solution needed to achieve that goal of doubling the lethality of the Army by 2030.
