Red Storm Entertainment Enlists Army Specialist for GRAW

The equipment the soldiers carry in Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare™ is more fact than fiction, even though the game is set in Mexico City, in the year 2013. That's because developer Red Storm Entertainment worked closely with Jean-Louis "Dutch" DeGay, an equipment specialist for the U.S. Army Natick Solider Center's Future Force Warrior (FFW) program. The in-game Integrated Warfighter System (IWS) is closely modeled after real weapons and technology that will be soon be available to soldiers.

"Future Force Warrior (FFW) is the Army's flagship Science and Technology initiative to develop and demonstrate revolutionary capabilities for the Future Force Soldier and Small Team," said DeGay. "A human-centric, integrated system of systems approach is being employed to support the Army transformation into a soldier centric force. The FFW is a major pillar of the Future Force Strategy, complementing the Future Combat System (FCS) and other Future Force programs."

Real-life soldiers brought their experience to GRAW.

DeGay said FFW seeks to create a lightweight, overwhelmingly lethal, fully integrated combat system including head-to-toe individual protection, ad-hoc networking, soldier-worn power sources, and enhanced human performance.

"The [FFW] program is aimed at providing unsurpassed individual and small team lethality, survivability, communications and responsiveness - a formidable warrior in an invincible team," said DeGay. "FFW will be fully integrated with FCS and other Future Force platforms."

"We'd all like to think that in the next 10 years we'll see chameleonic camouflage and exoskeletons being used by soldiers on the battlefield."

DeGay is a former Captain in the United States Army, and a graduate of Airborne School, the Bradley Leader's Course, Ranger School and the Ranger Assessment-Selection Phase/Ranger Orientation Program.  His assignments included: Bradley Platoon Leader and Executive Officer A Company 2/7 Infantry 3rd Infantry Division, Aide-de-Camp to the Assistant Division Commander (Support) 3rd Infantry Division, Weapons Platoon Leader, Battalion Training Officer, and Force Modernization Officer 1st Ranger Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment. 'Utilizing both DeGay's knowledge of modern military experience, and his knowledge of future warfare, Red Storm is able to present the most realistic example of what future combat will be like.

The Role Model
"Red Storm Entertainment understands that their gamers would like to have as real a military experience possible in a videogame," said DeGay. "That means that every facet of the game should look and feel correct."

Two years ago, members of the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter development team approached the FFW program to ensure that their next generation soldier was accurate, reflecting not only what the Army's next-gen soldier will look like, but also have similar capabilities. '

"My role has primarily been to help with authenticity," said DeGay. "That ranges from providing non-classified images and information to giving input on the correct verbiage used in the game."

DeGay said that many soldiers are gamers. The Army is involved in various videogame projects, including the America's Army®: Rise of a Soldier™ videogame. Degay said that realistic military games are one way new technologies can showcase the military.

"It's not a stretch of the imagination that people who have the chance to see the capabilities the next generation of soldier (whether it be in games, video or face-to-face interaction) might find the idea of being a soldier more appealing," said DeGay. "Or at the very least give them a better idea of what it might be like to be a soldier."

Do you really want to go out there?

Be All that You Can Be
DeGay said that while the game developers have taken artistic license to make the game and its soldiers more appealing to play, when it comes to the actual equipment that the "Ghosts" are kitted out in, barring a few exceptions, it's almost exactly what the soldier of the future will wear and look like.

"Technology is key when you talk about current and future battlefields," said DeGay. "We have seen great advances recently in body armor, weapons and night vision for example. No longer is it good enough that we 'own the night,' we now need to own any time of day and any portion of the battlespace. As civilians we can sit down with our laptops and an Internet connection and talk to/see anyone anywhere in the world. We want to have that same connectivity with any and all of the assets inside the battlespace."

Exhale and squeeeeeze.

The Future of War
Since DeGay works on the weapons of tomorrow, we asked him what his vision of the future is.

"That is very hard to say," said DeGay. "We'd all like to think that in the next 10 years we'll see chameleonic camouflage and exoskeletons being used by soldiers on the battlefield. We just don't know if we'll get there. I can tell you that the goal of places like the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center is to advance technology as fast as possible to give our soldiers the greatest capabilities possible for today and tomorrow."

Videogames will likely continue to play a major role within the military. The Army already uses an assortment of videogames and virtual reality technology to train soldiers.

"Most soldiers are gamers or are part of the gaming generation, so it's no shock to see that technology being used for training," said DeGay. "It' has always been a challenge to get the time, space and resources to train soldiers, so video games give leaders and commanders an easier portable training option.

The U.S. Army does not sponsor or endorse Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter.

Article by John Gaudiosi

• The Ghost Recon home page.
• Official Army Web site.
• Ubisoft's official Web site.