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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 2526.PDF
WAVE OF ATTACK Networked simulators are blurring the boundary between training and operations as simulation threatens to replace live exercises GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC mm story Eventually, Boeing C-17 transport simulators will be added to the US Air Force's mission training network NATO pilots have been in action again over the Balkans. Last month, Canadian Boeing CF-18 Hornets joined Dutch Lockheed Martin F-16s, French Dassault Mirage 2000s, German and Italian Eurofighter Typhoons and UK Panavia Tornados on missions over disputed Bosnia. They were supported by UK Boeing E-3 Sentrys and faced opposition from Serbian MiG-29s. It was a replay of the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s - but this time the bombs dropped and missiles fired were virtual, and the pilots were flying simulators as geo graphically dispersed as Montreal, Canada and Turin, Italy. The landmark exercise, First Warfighter Alliance in a Virtual Environ ment (First WAVE), was intended to kick- start NATO's use of distributed, networked simulation for aircrew mission training. First WAVE illustrated the strengths of distributed mission training, with partici pating aircrews saying the virtual sorties compared in intensity with real Maple Flag and Red Flag exercises. But it also under lined the challenges, with the USA pulling out late in the planning phase because of security and other concerns. Prohibitive expense With large-scale live-flying exercises becom ing prohibitively expensive and increas ingly rare, military commanders are looking to distributed simulation to provide the realistic tactical training needed to ensure aircrew readiness. The USA is already run ning regular Virtual Flag exercises over its growing distributed mission operations (DMO) network, and First WAVE was designed to drive home to NATO the value of what it calls mission training via distrib uted simulation. "We have been doing distributed mission simulation for years with uniformly positive results, but we needed a way at NATO level to put across that this is the way forward," says Lt Col Rick Thompson, director of air requirements for modelling, simulation and training within the Canadian Department of National Defence. "We needed a point of departure - a mobilising, motivating event." The US Air Force needs little convincing of the value of distributed mission training, and the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps are rapidly following its lead in networking their simulators. Beginning with fielding the first Boeing F-15C mission training cen tre (MTC) in 2000, the USAF's combat air force DMO network has grown to include the E-3 AWACS and F-16C and by the end of the decade is expected to encompass the A-10, B-l, B-52, F-15E, F/A-22, F-117, E-8 JSTARS, EC-130 Compass Call and RC-135 Rivet Joint as well as the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned air vehicles. www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 30 NOVEMBER - 6 DECEM BER 2004 35
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