Tyndall Air Force Base unveils digital twin

PARKER, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - Tyndall Air Force Base is diving into the world of virtual reality.

“Taking all of the facilities that exist in the real world space and put them into a virtual world. So you can view the world or interact with the world essentially like you would with any other video game,” Lowell Usrey, Integration Branch Chief at the Natural Disaster Recovery Office, said.

But this isn’t a video game. It’s the digital twin mapped out to be identical to the base. Using virtual reality goggles, remote controllers, and monitors, users will be able to do a range of exercises.

Officials said this new system brings endless opportunities.

“So many things. The digital twin will provide so many things,” Usrey said. “I mean above and beyond being first of its kind, best in class for the DOD, it’ll provide the ability for the base to do you know exercises, to do drills.”

One example is active shooter training.

“How the security forces would respond to that active shooter situation. We’re able to run those scenarios hundreds of times to come up with what we think is a likely outcome,” Usrey said.

As the base continues to rebuild better and stronger after Hurricane Michael, the digital twin will make every step a little simpler.

“We can do all of this now digitally. We’re able to move facilities around, we’re able to move roads around, we’re able to move infrastructure around if we need to,” Usrey said.

And that is only the beginning.

“You could do storm surge modeling and simulations, you could see the impacts of another hurricane on the base, you can model that inside the system because it’s built on this gaming platform,” Usrey said.

It’s a platform pushing Tyndall one step closer to becoming the base of the future.

Officials said Tyndall is the first Air Force base, and possibly the first base in the Department of Defense, to have a campus-wide digital twin.

They weren’t able to comment on an exact price tag.

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