Mixed Reality-Supported Training of First Responder Skills in International Crisis Situations: Evaluation of the SmartSkills Pilot Study

Military first responders and civilian experts in international peace missions must make rapid, safety-critical decisions while managing conflict escalation under acute stress. Live field exercises such as Native Challenge provide high realism but are costly, resource-intensive and difficult to repeat in a standardized way. The Austrian SmartSkills project addresses this gap by implementing Mixed Reality (MR) training that combines repeatable crisis scenarios with high-fidelity digital twins, instructorfacing decision support and human-factors monitoring. This paper presents the design and pilot evaluation of the Illegal Checkpoint scenario at the Johanniter Simulation Centre in Vienna, comparing MR-supported training with a conventional real simulated reference. The evaluation combines qualitative self-judgement, trainer and expert ratings of leadership and stress coping, standardized questionnaires on computer anxiety (Heinssen et al., 1987), technology acceptance (Venkatesh & Bala, 2008), immersion (Jennett et al., 2008), self-efficacy (Murphy et al., 1989; Compeau & Higgins, 1995) and learning preferences (Fleming & Mills, 1992; Kolb, 1984; Kolb & Kolb, 2013), system logs, and selected event-synchronized physiological examples. Results indicate that live training remains superior in embodied social intensity, but that MR training can approximate key stress reactions, provide high immersion when technically stable, and substantially reduce staffing and material requirements. The contribution is a structured evaluation framework for repeatable, evidence-informed crisis training without claiming that virtual simulation substitutes live exercises.