Virtual Reality

To that end, the USAF has this year staged one of its quarterly Coalition Virtual Flags, an exercise that introduces distributed or networked simulators flying as ‘Blue’ forces along with livemultinational assets operating over the vast exercise range at Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, as part of a ‘regular’ Red Flag.

In the last week of August, Australia committed two virtual assets to exercise Coalition Virtual Flag 15 – a 42WG E-7A Wedgetail desktop simulator out of RAAF Williamtown, and, for the first time, the C-130J full‑flight simulator, in this case flown by 84WG’s C-130J training squadron, 285SQN from RAAF Richmond.

GPCAPT Carl Newman, Officer Commanding 84WG, explained how the CAE‑operated simulator in Australia connected with the airborne heavy metal over Nellis: “Defence, be it the US or Australia, can set up a live virtual constructive exercise where it takes feeds, position information and radios from live aircraft in a network, then feeds the same dataand information from simulated aircraft, into the network. It then builds some computer‑based player elements all into a network, then that data showing where assets are – whether a simulated, live aircraft or a computer‑generated element – is then transmitted to the live aircraft picture and simulator picture or to an exercise controller. The guys in the simulator are making radio calls and that’s going out to that broad network, being heard by either live aircraft or other simulators. ” Participants in CVF 15 were spread over 28 different locations and 15 time zones, and were managed by the 705th Combat Training Squadron from the USAF’s Distributed Mission Operations Center at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico.

Pre-mission briefings took place in New Mexico’s Mountain Daylight Time, meaning plenty of ‘back of the clock’ flying for 285SQN crewsparticipating from RAAF Richmond. GPCAPT Newman explained how crews manning simulators prepared for a given day’s flying. “We set up operationally secure conference calls. This particular exercise was managed out of Kirtland AFB, and they tied in some Red Flag elements in Las Vegas, Australia and simulators all around CONUS, the UK and Canada. Everyone dialled in to that conference call. They hosted a number of planned products on a secure web-based set‑up and the crews would listen to their taskings on those conference and web‑based systems, conduct their planning and a series of briefs via video conference through the lead‑up to launch for their mission. We were operating on US time, so our crew were coming in at 11pm, conducing their planning to start flying at 6am and flying to 9am. ” Flying at such hours disrupts the body’s circadian rhythms, with crews in a simulator at 2am fighting not only Red Forces, but the urge to sleep. “We have to be prepared to fly 24/7 anyway,” GPCAPT Newman explained. “We have pretty strict crew rest regulations; crews have a mandated period of rest before they started those ops and the more days you do, the more your body clock adjusts. The beauty of doing this in the simulator is that even if they weren’t sharp in the first couple of days and making associated errors, at least they were doing that in a simulator. ” In Coalition Virtual Flag 15, the ADF’s simulated C-130J and E-7A were joined online by between 25 to 30 simulators that ranged from USAF C-130Js, F-22s, A-10s and F-15s, to CAF CF-188s and CC-130s.

“It’s exactly like flying in Red Flag. It’s exposing a crew to that high end environment, and they’re doing it in the safety of a simulator. When we fly crews all the way across to the US for a live exercise, I incur the expense of sending an aircraft to Las Vegas or Alaska. They still haveto operate in accordance with peacetime safety restrictions. In a simulator, we can test a whole bunch of things… we can fly the aircraft at lower altitudes, increase risk and test things out so they can fly more like they would during an operation as well as reducing the expense of having an aircraft, crew and maintainers away to conduct exercises. ”

Catch up

GPCAPT Newman concedes that the ADF has ‘a way to go’ to some extent with its uptake of LVC training, but points out that a job of work has gone into rectifying this situation. Coalition Virtual Flag 15 has seen that effort rewarded, thanks to the input of key stakeholders.

“A big driver has been 285SQN under the command of WGCDR Nicholas Hogan. He’s put together a great program to bring his assets on board. For the LVC exercise, CAE has been a major partner in building our simulator capability and getting it linked in. I can’t praise them highly enough. DSTO has done considerable work on exercises in the past, and has helped us to learn the lessons on linking in on this style of endeavour. We also have a number of organisations within Defence such as CIOG (Chief Information Officer Group) assisting with all of the communications effort required to link sims through to Kirtland AFB and be able to tap into signals from the UK and Canada. A number of organisations have come together to make sure the system has been accredited to fly in CVF 15. ” Virtual exercises such as CVF 15 involve dizzying amounts of data streaming from all players, with the challenge being for the host nation

It’s exposing a crew to that high end environment, and they’re doing it in the safety of a simulator. GPCAPT CARL NEWMAN

to supply efficient routers and servers that can generate enough simulated scenarios while maintaining network connections. And, as GPCAPT Newman observes, this must be done securely. “The hardware involved needs to be accredited and adjusted to keep it at the right security classification level. The type of data that we’re transmitting is in the order of tetrabytes per second”.

Logging on

As flight hours in networked, high fidelity simulators will assume a growing importance in the maintenance of aircrews’ flying skills, the RAAF ensures that pilots’ sim hours are as assiduously recorded as their live flight hours.

“We have pilots log sim time. Their simulator time is their training environment and they have a number of sessions that they need to push through to reach the required level and throughout the year have a number of cyclic sim events that must be entered in their logbooks to show they’re proficient and current. As we roll out higher end training events in the sim, we’ll be tracking what crews have to do to ensure they’re progressing through their development. ”

The virtues Of virtual

As the lessons from the 84WG’s (and ADF’s) first participation in a simulated Red Flag exercise using a full-flight mission simulator, GPCAPT Newman foresees an even more immersive training experience that will involve more than just the J model’s 37SQN flightcrew. While CVF 15 saw 285SQN aircrew conducting air drops and airland missions on the simulated Nellis range, future synthetic missions willinvolve the C-130J’s loadmaster too.

“There is a virtual cargo compartment at RAAF Richmond, where the ‘loady’ puts on a helmet and is immersed in the ‘back’ of a C-130J that’s linked to the full‑flight simulator. In the next Coalition Virtual Flag, it’s our intent to have that loady simulator linked into our cockpit simulator and linked into the virtual exercise environment. The loadies will be able to see other aircraft through the windows of the virtual cargo compartment, and will see when weapons are fired at the aircraft. ” Obviously, the only flaw in an exercise that mixes simulated aircraft with live is that while virtual players can see live aircraft, live cannot see them. It would be perfectly reasonable to assume, given the computing power’s exponential growth, that this hurdle will be overcome in the not too distant future. For now, GPCAPT Newman sees the inherent potential of LVC training being realised across the three services of the ADF.

“I would love Army, Navy and Air Force elements, three to five years from now, coming together regularly on a Friday afternoon to have a freeplay virtual exercise where a number of elements can get together – ground, air and sea-based – and really test and practice that joint aspect. We’re very good at training in our own specialty sphere and we come together to do joint and collective training to achieve joint force effects. I think live virtual constructive‑style training will only expand our ability to improve integration of various elements in the ADF. ”