The Department of the Air Force wants to invest in advanced training technologies—such as augmented and virtual reality, gaming, and synthetic training environments—to maintain an asymmetric advantage over competitors. In this report, the authors construct a framework for training technology transfer and lay out potential barriers and enablers associated with each step. They also examine six use cases from across the U.S. Department of Defense.

Accelerating the Transfer of Training Technologies to Support Evolving Department of the Air Force Mission Capabilities

A Framework, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations

Emmi Yonekura, Mark Toukan, Timothy Marler, Andrea M. Abler, Henry Hargrove, Eddie Ro, Isabelle Winston, Sankalp Kumar

ResearchPublished Aug 14, 2024

Training and education in the Department of the Air Force (DAF) is undergoing a major transformation as part of an effort to maintain an asymmetric advantage over competitors. As part of this transformation, the DAF wants to invest in advanced training technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality, gaming, and synthetic training environments. To reap the benefits of these new training technologies, the DAF must successfully transition them to the force.

In this report, the authors examine what factors enable a successful technology transfer and how those factors have come into play in select use cases. They use their findings from a literature review from academic, industry, and government sources about technology transfer and DAF subject-matter expert interviews to construct a framework for training technology transfer in the DAF. This framework provides a view of the steps in the process and the potential barriers and enablers associated with each step. The authors also examine six use cases from ongoing efforts across the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to provide further insights into the challenges of training technology transfer. The use cases examined are the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring, Synthetic Training Environment–Information System, Joint Simulation Environment, Standard Space Trainer, Special Operations Center for Medical Integration and Development, and Integration Technology Platform.

Key Findings

  • The factors that facilitate or hinder the transition of training technologies correspond to policy levers for the DAF. The factors include financial factors but also consider aspects of personnel, social factors, technology attributes, return on investment, absorptive capacity, and processes.
  • Across the six advanced training technology use cases, the most pervasive and critical barriers relate to insufficient funding, scalability, program understanding and socialization, inconsistent incorporation of technologies, enabling multilevel security for distributed training, and misalignment with science and technology plans.
  • Examples of key enablers to a successful technology transfer based on the lessons learned from the use cases are using agile software development, using a single vendor with a modular architecture, ensuring that training systems align with operational systems, ensuring continuity in development, securing advocacy, and ensuring funding continuity.

Recommendations

  • The training technology transfer framework should be used at the enterprise or organization level to make periodic (e.g., yearly) assessments of where the bottlenecks are in the process and pinpoint specific actions that can be taken to eliminate them.
  • At a more tactical level, the framework should be made available and used by innovation cells and training and education management at the major commands to troubleshoot and plan for specific ongoing or future training technology transfers.
  • Air Force Futures (AF/A5/7) should be responsible for enterprise-level application of the framework in coordination with other major commands and for making it available to other stakeholders to facilitate planning and troubleshooting.
  • The DAF should codify and socialize the lessons learned from our use cases as training technology transfer guidance for all DAF stakeholders and potentially a wider DoD audience.
  • Major training technology transfer barriers and challenges should begin to be addressed now to pave the way for the major transformation of the training and education enterprise.
  • The DAF should consider investments in adaptive training, performance assessment, virtual and augmented reality, natural language interfaces, and gaming technologies and take steps to enable their transition.
  • The analysis of emerging technologies is inherently iterative, and an updated assessment of the technology landscape, potential use for DAF training and education, and means of transitioning promising technologies should be conducted within the next five years. Experts indicated that many of the technologies we examined would reach promising maturity in five to ten years.

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Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Available
  • Year: 2024
  • Print Format: Paperback
  • Paperback Pages: 82
  • Paperback Price: $36.50
  • Paperback ISBN/EAN: 1-9774-1378-1
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/RRA2326-2
  • Document Number: RR-A2326-2

Citation

RAND Style Manual
Yonekura, Emmi, Mark Toukan, Timothy Marler, Andrea M. Abler, Henry Hargrove, Eddie Ro, Isabelle Winston, and Sankalp Kumar, Accelerating the Transfer of Training Technologies to Support Evolving Department of the Air Force Mission Capabilities: A Framework, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations, RAND Corporation, RR-A2326-2, 2024. As of September 17, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA2326-2.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Yonekura, Emmi, Mark Toukan, Timothy Marler, Andrea M. Abler, Henry Hargrove, Eddie Ro, Isabelle Winston, and Sankalp Kumar, Accelerating the Transfer of Training Technologies to Support Evolving Department of the Air Force Mission Capabilities: A Framework, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA2326-2.html. Also available in print form.
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