Military weapons systems continue to get more advanced and sophisticated, but some components of them might be recognizable to anyone who’s shopped at an electronics store recently.
Jared Keller, managing editor of content at military.com and a contributor to Wired Magazine, says it’s difficult to overstate how familiar the average American is with a video game controller, and that the military is trying to use that to its advantage. That means some weapons include controllers that are very similar to those used for gaming systems like Playstation or Xbox.
Keller has written about this and joined The Show to discuss how similar some of these controllers that the military is using are to what gamers would recognize from playing Call of Duty or other games.
Full conversation
JARED KELLER: At first glance, these controllers appear extremely similar to the standard Xbox or PlayStation controller. They have the same elongated hand grips for extra control. They have the same dual joysticks on either side, and they have the same top level trigger buttons as well. So they appear extremely similar to those that are to those control systems that come with a standard video game console.
MARK BRODIE: It sounds like there might be a but though, like I assume you they're not just going to Best Buy and like buying a PlayStation and attaching that to a drone or some other kind of weapon system.
KELLER: In some cases, that's actually been exactly what they've done, they’ve used all off the shelf systems like the Xbox controller to control, you know, for example, Explosive Ordnance Disposal robots, the tracked robots that soldiers will often send into dangerous zones to deal with improvised explosive devices or other unexploded munitions. So there are instances where militaries have used commercial, off the shelf controllers, exactly, literally identical to those that you would use on an Xbox. But yes, you're absolutely right the freedom of movement control unit, which is especially adopted for military systems, does have some unique systems attached to it. For example, some of the variants of the FMCU can include, like a safety switch so that you don't accidentally fire off a round or a or a new or a munition when you don't intend to.
BRODIE: So I imagine that part of the reason for this is that some number of folks in the military are just used to playing video games on Xbox or PlayStation, so they're kind of familiar with how the controller works. But I'm wondering if there are other reasons that the military is citing for why they're using these.
KELLER: One of the primary reasons is familiarity, right? The video game industry has spent decades training the entire subset of young Americans to operate these controllers. This means that when they eventually turn 18 and are eligible to join the armed forces, they're already familiar with a new system. So that's less time spent training people up on a unique, novel control system and more time spent focusing on other things like tactical training.
But the other reason is that the video game system has proven somewhat easier to use compared to the standard issue joystick or a panel of buttons or toggles. There's been studies that have indicated that joysticks and tactile controllers provide a much better sensory experience than a touch screen, for example, and therefore more precision and control over a system than a touchscreen may offer.
BRODIE: Are touch screens sort of the most recent previous technology that the military had been using for some of these systems?
KELLER: It really depends what system you're talking about. The most recent incident where a tactile system was proven more effective than a touch screen system was on the was during the 2017 collision between the Arleigh Burke-class Navy destroyer the USS John McCain and an oil tanker off the coast of Singapore. A National Transportation Safety Board report on the accident indicated that sailors weren't totally familiar with the touch screens that were used for Helmand control on the bridge, and had the control system been more tactile, instead a joystick or a wheel or a series of switches, and that would have proven potentially more useful to sailors reacting in a high stress situation like that collision.
BRODIE: So for how long have various branches of the military been using these kinds of, you know, sort of video game like or actual video game controllers?
KELLER: Upwards of 20 years that they've been experimenting with this. But the FMCU is interesting because it's been seen as proliferating more recently, across a variety of control, a variety of weapons platforms.
BRODIE: This the kind of thing that the military uses in its recruiting to try to get people to join in this, in a sense of saying, hey, look, we want you to join and look, you're already going to walk in knowing kind of how to use some of the stuff that you would be using?
KELLER: There's certainly a benefit to say to a prospective recruit that, “hey, if you can do Call of Duty, you can do this”, although that's not necessarily the case, as I'm sure most service members would argue. But to a certain extent, yeah, there is an appeal by saying, “hey, you know, this is just, this is just like a video game, except it has real world consequences,” to make to you know, the ease and familiarity that a service member, that a prospective service member may find fitting into the service is definitely lowers the barrier for entry for them in the long term.
BRODIE: I also wonder if this maybe says something about the amount of war like or, you know, shoot 'em up type games that exist that, you know, it's not. I would imagine there's a difference between playing, you know, NBA 2k on one of these controllers and operating, you know, a drone or something like I would I would think that having used these, these controllers in a combat conflict, war like setting, is maybe even more helpful than playing, you know, Legend of Zelda, for example.
KELLER: That's certainly true. I mean, there's the context of it, of course, but it also helps that the US military has used video games for explicitly for recruiting for years. I mean, they're the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force, all have esports teams that engage in video game tournaments on a pretty regular basis, usually around Call of Duty and other military themed games. So the DOD is constantly trying to bridge that gap between gamers and potential recruits.
BRODIE: What do folks who really pay attention to this kind of thing say the future is going to be like? What are you what are other folks looking for next?
KELLER: Well, it’s funny. There's a quote from The Simpsons from years ago where the commandant in a military academy is giving a graduation speech, and he says something to the effect of the next war will be fought on top in space or on top of a very tall mountain. But what he really says is that the next wars will be fought by robots fighting other robots, and it will be your job to service those robots.
And that's not actually too far off with the proliferation of drones commercial, off the shelf, small, fast, easily weaponizable drones. We're seeing those take over the battle space. Drones are the future, and making those drones as easy and intuitive to control as possible is going to be the future as well.
