This awesome tech lets US soldiers learn to fire a heavy machine gun before they ever set foot on a range

"When you pull the trigger and actually fire this thing, it moves," the captain said. "It has the same recoil as a weapon system would. So it gives the gunner as real of an experience as you could have in a virtual environment."

There are, however, limitations to the system that prevent it from being a perfect one-for-one training platform for the real deal.

For example, this virtual-reality training platform does not factor things like jams or barrel changes in, despite both issues being important parts of operating a heavy machine gun.

"In this setup, you have a driver, you have a vehicle commander, and you have a gunner," Ruane told Insider. "You also have the ability to have a dismount, and all members of that crew are plugged into the same virtual system."

"They are all wearing the goggles," Ruane added. "They all have weapons systems attached to the [VR] system, including a dismount who would have an attached M4."

"They operate like a crew," he said, telling Insider that while the training, usually carried out over the course of a weekend, is focused on taking troops through the gunnery tables, the simulator can also be used to train forces for convoy protection missions and other more complex mission sets.

The training normally involves two vehicle crews, but it could be connected to other systems for training with a platoon-sized element.

"I've definitely seen a dramatic improvement over the last five years," the captain said.

"In the beginning, crews would have to go two or three times through gunnery," Ruane, who has been with his company for five years now, told Insider, explaining that soldiers would make "simple mistakes."

"Now," he said, "crews are able to get through their engagements and get qualified as a crew" with some of "the highest scores that we've seen in the scoring cycle over the last five years."

"A lot of people think, especially some old-school military people, think that the virtual-reality stuff takes away from the actual live-fire ranges, when in fact this is actually an enhancer," he explained, adding that "when you get out to the live-fire ranges, it is going to be muscle memory at that point, and it's going to go flawlessly."