AlphaACT Combat Patrol

Attacks on combat patrols are the single most deadly threat
facing U.S. warfighters today. AlphaACT Combat Patrol will:

• Teach warfighters how to detect, recognize, and avoid complex attacks involving improvised explosive devices, snipers, and rocket propelled grenade attacks
• Quickly adapt to changing enemy tactics, techniques, and procedures
• Operate in training, battle drill, and mission rehearsal modes
• Provide 24/7 access to high-repetition learning through an engaging, game-like experience
• Facilitate after action reviews with the structured capture of key decisions and lessons learned

AlphaACT Combat Patrol will teach warfighters to rapidly reach effective decisions in the high-stress, chaotic environment of a combat patrol. It will integrate the decision processes, decision support tools, and knowledge bases needed to make urgent decisions in asymmetric combat, such as IED avoidance and complex attack response.

AlphaACT Combat Patrol scenarios will be based on actual, in-theater patrol experiences. A session will begin with a briefing similar to that given to warfighters before a mission. Additional information will be injected into the immersive, game-like play as the patrol rolls out and the scenario progresses.

Players will then be presented with visual, audible, and textual cues to help them identify an attack situation. They can pause play at any time to capture and input critical cues. The cues will be managed by a pattern recognition engine, which will help the player recognize the impending attack and match it to a real-life event.

AlphaACT Fire

Each year in the United States and its protectorates, approximately 100 on-duty firefighters are killed and tens of thousands are injured. AlphaACT Fire will help train firefighters to recognize, rehearse for, and respond to life and death situations involving single-family, residential structure fires.

The system will help firefighters address these important questions, including:

• What is the nature and extent of the fire?
• Should firefighters enter the building or not?
• Once engaged, should firefighters stay with their current strategy or change it (for example, remain in the building or exit)?

Inexperienced firefighters and newly promoted officers will especially benefit from AlphaACT Fire by learning about past cases and what successful decisions were made under similar circumstances.

Over time, the AlphaACT Fire application will evolve to deal with different types of fires (such as vehicle fires, wildland fires, and arson) and fire decisions (such as extinguishment, containment, and methods of entry and egress). In addition to fire risk assessment and response, AlphaACT Fire could be developed to support other activities, such as pre-call planning and rehearsal, and hazardous material response.

AlphaACT Law Enforcement

Law enforcement professionals face crisis situations unexpectedly and with little time to prepare, often having to rely on trained instinct in the moments before they respond. AlphaACT Law Enforcement will help teach law enforcement officers to make effective decisions in critical situations, where the ability to make split-second decisions with minimal information is vital.

AlphaACT Law Enforcement will:

• Improve the speed and success of critical law enforcement decisions by training officers using the decision methodology that experienced pros use most often
• Train novice law enforcement officers to make decisions like experienced officers
• Radically reduce the cost while increasing the frequency of training
• Create a virtual community of law enforcement decision makers that can share experiences, decisions, and lessons learned

AlphaACT Law Enforcement will help officers keep their skills honed while operating within the challenging constraints of modern criminal justice. It will offer a cost effective means to conduct realistic interactive training, using little or nothing of the traditional training infrastructure.

The AlphaACT Law Enforcement training application will operate as an immersive virtual environment. The initial training scenarios will provide officers with the decision methods, knowledge, and experience compression to make rapid, effective decisions in the active school shooter decision space. Subsequent scenarios will focus on investigations of a missing child. Unlike many other on-scene incidents where time is on the side of law enforcement, minutes and seconds make the absolute difference between someone living and someone dying in missing child cases.

Potential end users will be involved throughout the development and deployment process, providing advice on all aspects of design and implementation, through the input of a nationally recognized practitioner advisory board, surveys of representative practitioners to identify needs and requirements, and field testing of prototypes with early adopter practitioners.