VR medical training

CASE STUDY

 The Royal Australian Air Force Uses Mixed Reality to Support Life-Saving Military Medical Training 

The Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) Health Operational Conversion Unit is harnessing the power of mixed reality with BlueRoom Simulations to prepare its personnel to save lives under the most demanding conditions.

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Customer

Industry

Medical

Category

Simulated Training

Headset

Varjo XR-3 Focal Edition

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Software

BlueRoom

Preparing Health Officers for Any Mission

The Health Operational Conversion Unit (HOCU) of the Royal Australian Air Force is where civilian expertise transforms into military readiness. Every doctor, nurse, and medic entering the service begins their journey at the unit, learning how to adapt their clinical skills to the realities of defense operations.

The training ranges everywhere from preparing the trainees for aeromedical evacuation missions to working in a field hospital. The unit’s mission is to ensure that every health officer and medic is deployment-ready, capable of delivering life-saving care in both combatant and non-combatant operational areas.

 

 

Benefits of mixed reality medical simulation

  • Added efficiency: ability to train more people, in more scenarios, at lower resourcing

  • Reduced logistics and costs: eliminating the expense of organizing full-scale exercises

  • Authentic spatial experience: dimensions mirror real environments in immersive, realistic conditions that go beyond theory or classroom learning

  • Hands-on, no-risk practice: trainees can practice with real equipment in a contained space without real-world risk

  • Unrestricted access and replays: training can happen anytime and be repeated until skills stick

 

Australian Air Force training

Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Reality

Creating realistic setups for hands-on medical training comes with significant limitations. Exercises are either confined to the classroom or conducted in the field where space and logistics are difficult to replicate. “Instructors would say, ‘It’ll be like this when you get out there,’ but you couldn’t truly replicate space constraints or environmental detail,” explains Paul Street, Leading Aircraftman at the Royal Australian Air Force.

The unit began looking for a more innovative approach, one that could bridge the gap between classroom theory and operational reality. The turning point came when Street was tasked with exploring new ideas for a simulated environment. “My corporal asked me to come up with ideas for a room that could support simulation and augmented reality,” he recalls. “He specifically wanted to know if we could support a C 130 fuselage frame and build something that replicated it inside a room.” That challenge sparked the discovery of BlueRoom.

Documentary film on the Royal Australian Air Force and their use of BlueRoom Simulation

Mixed reality simulation

Blending Real and Virtual for Next-Generation Training

Born out of the Australian Defence Innovation Hub and brought to life by medical training company Real Response, BlueRoom is a powerful and practical training solution that blends the real and the virtual. The solution is built inside a blue chroma key–painted space and it allows users to integrate real-world equipment and hands-on learning into a synthetic environment.

“BlueRoom was developed to solve the challenge of accessing environments that are normally very difficult to reach, such as aircraft interiors and combat zones, while still allowing learners to practice with real-world objects and perform physical skills,” explains Ben Krynski, CEO & Co-Founder of BlueRoom Simulations.

Working closely with HOCU, the team refined BlueRoom’s design to ensure the technology would function in a real training context. It took just two months to go from bare walls and no materials to a fully operational immersive training room, ready to prepare Air Force health personnel for deployment.

 

Step Into Any Mission

When trainees put on their headsets, the device’s front facing cameras replace the blue backdrop with any environment imaginable: the cabin of a C-130J or C-17, a combat zone, or a hospital ward, with environmental artifacts like smoke, moving vehicles, crowds, or even nighttime effects available. Instructors can shift the setting in real time, changing aircraft type, weather, or adding stressors like sirens, bystanders, or enemy soldiers.

This flexibility allows training that once required aircraft and complex logistics to take place in a single room. Trainees can even practice high-pressure Tactical Combat Casualty Care, which means returning fire while treating the wounded, or conduct retrieval training, which turns the aircraft into a simulated flying ICU. Trainees can practice a wide range of medical procedures on a real manikin using authentic equipment, and instructors can demonstrate and guide hands-on skills like placing an IV, inserting an intravenous cannula, or performing airway procedures.

The immersion is visceral, as you can see and hear the world around you: the roar of tanks, even the chirp of birds. All the elements help learners gauge how they react and realistically feel the stress of the situation. Additionally, physiological monitors track heart rate and stress and give instructors the ability to fine-tune the environment’s pressures in real time.

Varjo XR-4 for military

 

The Power of Interoperability in Mixed Reality

While the backdrop becomes virtual, anything in front of it stays real. Hands, manikins, ventilators, colleagues, and instructors remain visible and tangible, allowing trainees to work with the same people and tools they would in the field. They can bring in IV cannulas, syringes, drug ampoules, saline flushes, or even weapons and handle them exactly as they would during an operation.

This is thanks to the advanced mixed reality and chroma key support delivered by the Varjo headsets. Krynski explains: “We had explored virtual reality extensively in the past, trying out many of the headsets available on the market. However, in medical training, we found that it was mixed reality that could adequately address scenarios requiring fine motor skills.”

The BlueRoom is configured for two medics working side by side at one station and synchronizes multiple headsets to the same interactive scene. Operators can rapidly switch between environments and bring in real ventilators, monitors, and other devices without needing to wait for developers to add them digitally. “Just grab it and use it. That’s the power of interoperability in mixed reality,” says Ben James, Flight Lieutenant at the Royal Australian Air Force. 

Immersion So Real, It Shifts Your Mindset

Preparing people for combat, humanitarian crises, and intensive care requires training that is high fidelity. According to James, the level of immersion that BlueRoom delivers hadn’t been possible in any previous simulation experience. “By using products such as Varjo headsets with the BlueRoom, we can deliver high-fidelity, realistic training,” he says.

“The first time I put on the headset, I immediately understood how powerful this technology could be for training. I wasn’t simply looking at an image of a C-130 – I felt as though I was actually standing on board the aircraft itself,” James recalls.

The haptic flooring, the immersive sound, the true-to-life scale and even the temperature of the room, which matches the cold of the aircraft, reinforces the illusion. “My mindset instantly shifted to: ‘I’m on board the aircraft, treat your patient.’”

Leading Aircraftman Street similarly recalls being struck by the realism of his first experience: "The detail and accuracy, the sense of depth, and the amount of complexity in it makes it feel so real.”

 

"The first time I put the headset on, it blew me away. The detail and accuracy, the sense of depth, and the amount of complexity in it makes it feel so real." Paul Street, Leading Aircraftman at RAAF

The Next Chapter of Simulation

For the Health Operational Conversion Unit, today’s training is just the beginning. “We’re exceptionally excited about where simulation training is going,” says Flight Lieutenant James. “What we’re doing now is just scratching the surface and we’re exploring what else we can deliver next. “

At its core, the mission is clear: cover every aspect of preparing the Defence Force for deployment and into the realities of war. Comprehensive training allows them to act decisively and deliver the required outcomes. “We need to ensure they have the skills required before they encounter these situations for the first time,” James says.

“Training with solutions such as the BlueRoom ensures that when our people are confronted with real-world scenarios, they don’t freeze or feel unprepared. Instead, they can immediately recall their training and say: ‘I’ve done this before. I know what to do.’”

 

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