Varjo Chief Revenue Officer Valentin Storz says rapidly changing drone threats are pushing counter-UAS preparation into basic soldier training. He explains how mixed reality can extend limited equipment, ranges and instructors across defense, aviation and other high-risk sectors.
Ukraine’s military training problem is unusually pressing. Vehicles are in operational use, safe training grounds are limited and drone tactics can change faster than fixed facilities can be built.
Varjo’s support for Ukrainian forces now spans vehicle familiarization, pilot training and counter-UAS preparation. The company and Fynd Reality announced a 39-system vehicle-training rollout in March, while Applied Virtual Simulation’s Horizon Guardian places one trainee on an FPV drone and another behind a replica firearm.
Chief Revenue Officer Valentin Storz told The XR Beat that last-meter counter-drone preparation should become part of basic training:
“Your last line of defense against a drone is yourself and probably a shotgun or a rifle.”
Mixed Reality Can Increase Defense Training Capacity
Storz compares military training with a factory. Incoming recruits move through limited infrastructure, instructors and equipment before emerging qualified for specific tasks. New threats can increase the required output long before another base or group of instructors becomes available.
“You want to increase the output of the factory without building many new stations or bases … without compromising on the quality of training.”
Mixed reality can add portable training stations around those constraints and allow scenarios to change without waiting for a new physical range. Storz also warns that a stationary pilot or drone-training centre can become a target during a conflict.
Live training remains essential in his model. Classroom learning can cover procedures at scale, while actual vehicles and weapons provide the closest preparation. Mixed reality occupies the middle ground, allowing trainees to learn a vehicle before entering it and preserving live-equipment time for work that needs the real asset.
Varjo and VRAI report that weekly armor-crew training with the Irish Defence Forces improved the instructor-to-trainee ratio from approximately 1:3 to 1:12. The figure is company-reported and describes instructor capacity, rather than a direct measure of combat performance.
Defense XR is developing around specialist systems matched to particular jobs. The XR Beat has also covered full-body mission rehearsal from Virtuix and different hardware approaches across Varjo, Virtuix, Operator XR and the US Navy.
Flight Qualification and the Future of Defense XR
The interview also covers pilot training that counts inside regulated programmes. Varjo currently lists REISER’s H145 D3 mixed reality simulator as EASA FTD Level 3 pre-qualified and TRU Simulation’s VERIS system as FAA FTD Level 7 qualified.
Storz argues that smaller footprints and lower costs per training hour can expand access without immediately replacing full-flight simulators. The full interview also covers mission rehearsal built from satellite, drone or other intelligence data, secure headset production in Finland, civil-security training and Varjo’s three-year defense outlook.
