20 April 2019 _ PopularMechanics.com PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHNNY SALDIVARTHE FUTURE of U.S. Air Force Special War-
fare stomps into the room on the double—a
half-dozen men and women, fresh out of basic
training, clad in identical off-white T-shirts
and blue shorts. At Lackland Air Force Base
in San Antonio, no trainee walks. Ever. This
facility is about sustained maximum effort.
The trainees want to be among the Air
Force’s elite Special Warfare troops, those
who leap from airplanes on rescue missions
or embed w ith front-line troops to direct air
strikes. But before they can do that, they
face a gantlet of unforgiving qualification
courses with infamously high wash-outKayden, a 23-year-old firefighter from
Oregon, is one of the trainees who came here
to chase his dream of becoming a parares-
cueman, or PJ. When called, he steps out of
line and trots into what looks like a Holly-
wood movie green-screen set. This is the
Dari motion-capture system. It’s been in
use since 2012, adopted by pro and NCA A
sports teams. The prep course here at Lack-
land became the first in the Air Force to use it
in 2015, but several other training units saw
the results and have since bought their own.
“This is just like an aircraft return-
ing from a flight, when maintenance hook
up the computers to it and they download
how well that aircraft performed,” says
Chief Master Sergeant Joshua Smith, an
instructor with the 350th training squad-
ron. “We’re doing the same thing with these
warriors we’re developing.”
As Kayden strikes a scarecrow pose, eight
high-resolution cameras measure the motion
of his major joints, tracking their movementT
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
The Air Force is using new
technology to determine the
precise mental and physical
limits of special warfare
trainees—and push past them.
/ BY JOE PAPPALARDO /Can Big
Data Train
America’s
Elite Forces?
rates. A Rand report from May 2018 found
that the attrition rate during the initial
Special Warfare assessment and selection
course hovers at roughly 75 percent.
The Air Force’s solution aims the most
cutting-edge sports technology at young
airmen. Over eight weeks, the 350th Special
Warfare Training Squadron in Lackland
will use big data, video analysis, wearable
sensors, and extreme exercise to teach
airmen how to optimize their bodies like
machines.
It’s not just their bodies. Instructors here
say the airmen’s minds also need calibration.
One of the Rand report’s key takeaways was
that many airmen did not understand the
challenge they faced. They prepared for the
minimum standards instead of planning
to go far beyond them. “They have to switch
their mindset if they want to prepare them-
selves for what they’re getting into,” says
Master Sergeant Dean Criswell, an instruc-
tor pararescueman with the 350th.The Dari motion-capture
system maps airmen’s
bodies to locate any
imbalances or flaws in
their movement.