Maariv online reports that a first-of-its-kind drill was held last week at an IDF base in southern Israel to mentally prepare a group of elite special forces for the disturbing sights, smells and sounds they might face in future battlefield scenarios.
The training drill included life-like bloodied and burned fake body parts strewn on the ground which are produced by the Xtreme Simulations startup company. The company uses hyper realistic props and special effects developed in the film industry.
“This is the closest thing to the real situations fighters will experience in the field,” Yonatan Bahat, the chief operating officer of Xtreme Simulations, said. Bahat, who served as a lieutenant colonel in the reserves, added, “After an exercise like this, the readiness of fighters to deal with such circumstances, which we all hope they never come across, will be better.”
The body parts made by Xtreme Simulations were developed to train medical teams how to treat battle wounds in combat conditions and how to react to mass casualty incidents by prioritizing and administering first aid to reduce casualty rates.
A year ago, Xtreme simulations completed a successful pilot with United Rescue (“Ichud Hazala”) of a mass casualty incident drill with 40 “casualties”. As a result United Rescue is planning to conduct 65 MCI training drills in Israel and the US.