The U.S. Army plans to spend $50 million on developing video games over the next six years for training soldiers.

The US Army publication Stars & Stripes reports that the Training and Doctrine Command will start video game development in 2010, with a projected delivery date sometime in 2015.

Meanwhile, the US military will be setting up its own network of LAN gaming parties, with 70 gaming systems to be installed at 53 sites in the US, Germany, Italy and South Korea by September 2009.

Gaming project director Leslie Duvow reportedly told Stars & Stripes, "Each system will consist of 52 computers with ancillary equipment including steering wheels, headsets and mice."

The expectation is that soldiers in training will be able to virtually drive simulated vehicles, fire simulated weapons, pilot simulated unmanned aircraft and do "most anything a soldier does" in a virtual theatre of battle up to 100 kilometers square, she said.

It sounds a lot more comfortable than banging about in the heat and dust of the Southwest American deserts with the real things, which are much more costly and tend to wear out. µ

L'Inq Wired