Warfighters Practice for Live Combat, Virtually

Signal, Mar 2007 by Kenyon, Henry S

Networked equipment, sophisticated models facilitate cost-effective military exercises.

Advanced software tools and simulators are allowing hundreds of U.S. Air Force personnel to train together in cyberspace. The agency responsible for managing these electronic events also maintains interoperability standards for automated training applications and integrates the latest technologies into its models and simulations.

This organization, the U.S. Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation (AFAMS), Central Florida Research Park, Orlando, Florida, supports the Air Force's large-scale training needs. The group develops, manages and integrates applications ranging from acquisition, testing and evaluation models and standards to operations support software.

A major aspect of AFAMS' work is supporting the Air Force's Air Operations Center (AOC), the service's strategic-level organization responsible for command and control of air and space forces for combatant commanders, says the agency's commander, Col. Louis Olinto, USAF. The colonel explains that the AOC is similar to a weapons system with specific training requirements. However, unlike an individual aircraft such as an F-16 Falcon, the AOC is staffed by 200 personnel analyzing incoming data to help commanders make operational decisions.

To assist the AOC, the agency has developed a set of software tools called the Air and Space Constructive Environment (ASCE). The software operates via machine-to-machine communication to help simulate aircraft missions and data from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets. "It generates information, images, sorties and a lot of different things to allow the people in an AOC to train," the colonel says.

The ASCE also has applications for distributed mission operations, which combine the modeling software with simulators providing aircrew training. Col. Olinto notes that these tools also are used to train combatant commanders in joint exercises.

The colonel observes that similar to the other services, the Air Force is changing how it functions because of new technologies and operational pressure. To pay for modernization and recapitalization, the service is shifting its internal organization by downsizing some of its major commands while expanding others such as the AOC. Modeling and simulation may affect the Air Force's determination of whether it can continue to provide the same levels of service with fewer people. "Can the organization still do the same job and be as effective and efficient? What replaces seven [out of 10] people may be some type of model or simulation. How can the Air Force leverage modeling and simulations to augment the loss of some other capability?" he asks.

AFAMS is the executive agent for developing tools such as the ASCE, and it has oversight in the Air Force user community for simulation and modeling requirements, explains division chief Lillian Campbell. The agency is responsible for identifying and translating user needs to its developers, she says.

The ASCE provides several capabilities through the Air Force Modeling and Simulation Training Toolkit (AFMSTT) such as an air warfare simulator that connects to the theater battle management control system. This link to a larger operating environment allows the Air Force to fly virtual sorties during an exercise. The AFMSTT also enables logistics support simulation.

Col. Olinto explains that these tools support Air Force exercises simulating major combat operations. He says that the air tasking order during a war may call for thousands of sorties per day. "In the real word, we could not fly 3,000 sorties per day [for training]. It would be too costly to deploy that many aircraft and aircrews. So we accomplish the exercise through machine-generated sorties," he shares.

In addition, the ASCE has an information operations suite that provides the AOC with simulated sensor data and interacts with the Ah- Force Synthetic Environment for Reconnaissance and Surveillance, a joint program used by all the services. Campbell notes that these applications work together to simulate data from a variety of aircraft such as Global Hawks, Predators and U-2s.

The agency also directs the simulation aspect of large distributed training events. Individual Air Force bases procure and manage their own simulators for individual pilot proficiency training, but AFAMS is responsible when they are networked into a single mission environment. Though simulation equipment is purchased from different contractors, all simulators need to meet the same standards. "Part of my mission is to work through the issues so that all those simulators can talk to each other," Col. Olinto says.

In these distributed mission operations, AFAMS links the various assets at the operational theater level. The Air Force is moving toward live virtual training to connect from dozens to hundreds of simulators into one environment. The colonel observes that the U.S. Army has been conducting this type of virtual group training for many years. Until recently, the Air Force used its simulators only as individual pieces of tactical training equipment. "Now we're tying simulators in from different bases to work together in what we call mission rehearsal or large-force employment. It's the exact same way we go to war," he says.