Skylife Engineering is participating in VIRTACTIC, a Ministry of Defense project that will promote medical training in tactical medicine through virtual reality and artificial intelligence
Selected for the COINCIDENTE 2025 Program, VIRTACTIC will develop an immersive tactical-medical training system. Skylife Engineering will be responsible for developing the multiplayer extended reality (XR) platform and will contribute its prior experience in virtual training solutions.
The VIRTACTIC (VIRtual TACtical Immersive Combat training) project officially kicked off with a kickoff meeting held on November 10 at the Ministry of Defense headquarters in Madrid. The initiative, selected under the Ministry of Defense’s COINCIDENTE 2025 Program, will develop an immersive tactical-medical training system based on virtual reality and cognitive technologies applied to combat scenarios.
In this project, Skylife Engineering will be responsible for developing the multiplayer extended reality (XR) platform, one of the technological capabilities that will make up the training system.
Skylife Engineering Will Develop the Multiplayer XR Platform
Skylife Engineering’s contribution will focus on developing a multiplayer extended reality (XR) platform that supports different participant roles—medical personnel, assistant, and instructor—as well as voice communication, remote instruction, and operation via standalone extended reality headsets.
This solution will enable the creation of immersive training experiences in which different participants can interact from their respective roles within virtual scenarios.
Skylife’s participation in VIRTACTIC is further supported by its prior experience in developing virtual training solutions for groups in the security and emergency response sectors. The company has worked on multiplayer virtual training simulators, a line of work related to the capabilities it will bring to the project.
This track record provides a significant technological foundation for tackling the development of the VIRTACTIC XR platform.
A Project to Improve Tactical Medicine Training
VIRTACTIC aims to improve decision-making and operational performance among medical and non-medical personnel in high-intensity combat scenarios, in line with NATO’s doctrine of Human Performance Optimization.
To this end, the consortium will develop a technology demonstrator that will enable students to be trained using realistic, repeatable, objectively assessable scenarios tailored to their skill level.
The system is structured into four technological components:
Digital twins and 360° scenarios: capture of real-world spaces, spatial audio, and branching decisions.
Multiplayer XR platform: participation of different roles (medical professional, assistant, and instructor), voice communication, remote instructor, and operation via standalone extended reality headsets.
Adaptive virtual agents: based on artificial intelligence, they will adjust the difficulty to the trainee’s level and provide performance dashboards for instructors and researchers.
Psychophysiological assessment and clinical validation: conducted with emergency medical professionals and through a pilot test in a military setting.
Virtual Reality Applied to Complex Environments and Emergencies
The project addresses the need to prepare healthcare professionals to operate in complex, hostile, and resource-limited environments—such as those characteristic of tactical medicine and the care of casualties in combat situations, disasters, or mass casualty incidents.
Virtual reality makes it possible to safely recreate situations that are difficult to replicate in real-world practice, train decision-making under pressure, and objectively evaluate students’ performance and stress response.
Furthermore, the results of VIRTACTIC will have dual applications, with potential uses in both the defense sector and civilian emergency services.
A Multidisciplinary Consortium
VIRTACTIC is composed of five entities with complementary experience and capabilities in health research, emergency response, immersive technology, and artificial intelligence.
The project is led by the Catholic University of San Antonio in Murcia (UCAM), through the New Technologies for Health (NT4H) research group in the Faculty of Health Sciences, directed by Professor Manuel Pardo Ríos.
Alongside UCAM, the following organizations are participating:
- Skylife Engineering, S.L.: responsible for developing the multiplayer extended reality (XR) platform.
- Murcia Region’s 061 Emergency and Medical Emergency Management: contributes its operational expertise in selecting and validating scenarios with emergency healthcare professionals.
- Mirlo Blanco Health Care, S.L.: responsible for the artificial intelligence-powered virtual agents and assistants, as well as the difficulty-adjustment algorithms.
- Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation of the Principality of Asturias (FINBA): responsible for designing the clinical evaluation and analyzing cognitive and psychophysiological variables.
The project also benefits from the technical collaboration of the University of Murcia for laboratory analyses.
VIRTACTIC is being developed under an R&D services contract with the General Directorate for Strategy and Innovation in the Defense Industry (DIGEID), overseen by the Sub-General Directorate for Planning, Technology, and Innovation (SDGPLATIN). The project is scheduled to run through June 2029.
Skylife Engineering: Technological Innovation for New Training Environments
Skylife Engineering’s participation in VIRTACTIC is part of its broader efforts to develop technological solutions for various industrial and operational sectors. Through this project, the company will contribute to the application of extended reality technologies to tactical and medical training, collaborating with universities, research centers, and specialized companies.
