Let's say you're piloting one of the United States Air Force's shiny new F-35 fighters. Suddenly, below you, hostile tanks and rockets start firing. Not necessarily at you, just at something nearby.
Almost instantly—and this footage was captured from a live test, so it works—the F-35's Distributed Aperture System (DAS) picks up the fire, determines the vehicles are hostile and marks them not just on the radar, but on the display inside the pilot's giant helmet.
Silly real world. That's what video games do.
I mean, I know this isn't 100% guaranteed to work 100% of the time—the tech's got "F-35 Under Fire For Friendly Fire" headlines written all over it—but even seeing it working in testing is insane.
All they need now is a checkpoint system and autosaves, and the USA are set.
F-35 JSF Distributed Aperture System (DAS) Sensors [YouTube, via Gizmodo]