Project WARDEC – India’s upcoming AI-powered wargame centre

Project WARDEC – India’s upcoming AI-powered wargame centre

Subject: Science & Technology

Section: IT

Context: ‘Development of simulation-based training centre in India that will use artificial intelligence to design virtual reality wargames – ‘WARDEC’.’

Content: 

WARDEC is a first-of-its-kind simulation-based training centre in India that will use artificial intelligence to design virtual reality wargames in the project.

• Artificial Intelligence combined with geospatial analysis can aid in the extraction of useful information from linked devices like radars and autonomous identification systems.
• Virtual reality – A computer-generated simulation of a 3D image that enables the person to interact with a digital environment.
• VR can also be used more passively, to help treat Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or provide ‘boot camp’ experience to new recruits, helping them adapt quickly, and with less anxiety, to military life. Medics can view field surgery and front-line triage, helping them understand and empathise with injured patients.
• The Army Training Command on May 13 signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Gandhinagar-based Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) to develop a ‘Wargame Research and Development Centre’ in New Delhi.
• The RRU, an institute under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), specialises in national security and policing. Located in Gandhinagar’s Lavad village, it is an “institute of national importance” – a status granted to it by an Act of Parliament.
• The Wargame Research and Development Centre will be used by the Army to train its soldiers and test their strategies through “metaverse-enabled gameplay”. The wargame models will be designed to prepare for wars as well as counter-terror and counter-insurgency operations.

Metaverse is a blockchain-based virtual reality platform. It’s a 3D open world and digital assets are at its center. Digital assets are the core of the Metaverse ecosystem.

• The metaverse platform will allow developers to build anything from VR to AR. It’s a collision between the digital and physical worlds.
• Gaming metaverse: It refers to shared, persistent digital space for meetings, games and socializing. People there are represented as avatars, usually cartoon-like 3D figures, and roam virtual spaces.
• The enemy can ambush you from 361 directions, where 360 sides are around the soldier, and one is above in case there is an airdrop. So, wargame simulation helps the Army think of all possible scenarios.
• Slope of terrain, weather, time, air pressure, enemy surveillance reach, reach of artillery, the position of troops, soldier’s health and enemy’s reaction capabilities are all taken into account by the use of AI