Virtual Hangar User Workshop: A Platform for Collaboration Among Defense Professionals

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Mass Virtual, in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force Integrated Technology Platform (ITP) office, recently celebrated a highly successful 2024 Virtual Hangar User Workshop in Orlando. The event attracted over 100 attendees, including Airmen from the U.S., Japan, United Kingdom and Germany, as well as Guardsmen and representatives from the U.S. Army and Navy.

The workshop sparked strong demand in forming a recurring user group to bolster collaboration across the Virtual Hangar community. It showcased the profound influence Virtual Hangar is having on the defense community, underscored by its global presence and impressive return on investment (ROI) figures.

The workshop’s intent is to foster innovative capabilities throughout the Department of Defense (DoD) by creating a collaborative, open ecosystem.  We successfully brought together key minds from various defense branches to discuss how Virtual Hangar supports evolving training needs.

Mass Virtual's CEO, John Brooks, remarked that the growing interest in establishing the Virtual Hangar user group reflects its increasing importance to the defense community. "It's important for us to take care of our customers—the people using Virtual Hangar every day," he said. "This event united defense professionals, fostering collaboration across military branches and industry partners."

The Virtual Hangar solution is deployed at Air Force bases worldwide. For Air Force commands looking to create a training classroom, the learning modules are available to any of them, as well as any DoD branch. For government customers, Virtual Hangar modules are accessible to them with zero licensing fees.  

Additionally, a major highlight was the announcement of the expanded development of the Universal Learning Content Management System (uLCMS), a centralized XR solution that empowers the government to continue its collaboration. This new capability will host all XR content developed for the open enterprise ecosystem without requiring participation fees from vendors, providing the government with unlimited access to tailored XR training resources from multiple companies.

Working together, the government and industry are shaping the future of XR training, maintaining momentum for continued innovation and enhancing training effectiveness across the entire DoD.