AFMC Command News

Modeling and simulation conference shaping future warfighting

  • Published
  • By Derek Kaufman
  • 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
ORLANDO, Fla. --  The new commander of Air Education and Training Command challenged developers of modeling and simulation technologies to work together to develop new and improved training systems to meet the full spectrum of threats joint and coalition warfighters may face in the future during a conference here Nov. 30, 2010.

Gen. Edward A. Rice Jr. was the service keynote speaker at the annual Interservice/Industry Training Simulation and Education Conference. The I/ITSEC is the world's largest modeling and simulation event, attracting thousands of government, industry and academic leaders from the United States. and dozens of countries across the globe.

"History has shown us all to be poor judges of what future conflict might look like and where it will occur," General Rice said. "We need your support in industry, and your ideas, in our efforts to produce better training and better training tools."

Today's "digital generation" servicemembers are "more technologically literate and computer savvy" than ever before, General Rice said.

The general added that future training, education and simulation systems must take advantage of their cognitive abilities as well as exploit new computing power to make graphical presentations more immersive and psycho-motor sensation more realistic.

"While we tend to focus on simulators associated with our flying mission such as aircrew training, air traffic control and aircraft maintenance ... the fact is simulators permeate every aspect of qualification training in the United States Air Force, as well as the other military services," General Rice said.

An array of simulation systems supporting all of the military services, first responders, the Department of Homeland Security and the health care industry were on display across some 220,000 square feet of floor space. The environments featured technologies to enhance capabilities ranging from irregular warfare to casualty care and serious games.

The Air Force was the lead service for this year's I/ITSEC, with responsibilities that included setting the event theme.

A team led by Col. John Franz, the commander of the Training Systems Product Group at Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, selected "training centric, readiness focused" as the conference theme for 2010.

"We can't develop innovative, immersive training solutions alone," Colonel Franz said. "We owe it to the nation to strengthen the collaborative partnership between government, industry and academic researchers to deliver these needed capabilities."

General Rice said investment in simulation is incredibly valuable both to mission success and as a cost effective alternative to flying actual sorties.

Highlighting the importance of flight simulation to Airmen, General Rice noted that the new C-17 Globamaster III pilots undergoing initial-qualification training at Altus AFB, Okla., fly 26 missions in the simulator and just three in the actual aircraft.

He also lauded the Boom Operator Weapon System Trainer, which can depict every type of receiver aircraft the KC-135 Stratotanker can refuel.

The system provides control stick sensations and boom feedback nearly identical to actual flight conditions associated with each receiver. This allows boom operators to accurately simulate multiple refueling hookups, passing thousands of gallons of jet fuel without ever having to consume a drop of the real thing.

General Rice also noted how a B-2 Spirit aircrew at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., successfully flew a 50-hour global strike mission in the B-2 simulator months before six B-2s actually departed the base to make the longest-duration, longest-distance combat strike sorties ever flown.

After successfully destroying their targets, six aerial refuelings and 44 hours of flight, "they returned home unseen and unscathed," he said.

"The capability for mission rehearsal dramatically increases the probability of success when the mission is actually flown in hostile skies," General Rice said.

Simulators reduce training costs associated with flying, ease the burden of flightline operations, extend the life of aging aircraft and permit training in high risk scenarios without putting lives and expensive weapons systems at risk, he said.

The general added that enhancing quality, relevant online distance learning tools is another effort where he would like to see investment.

"Our training programs will continue to provide us with an asymmetric advantage over many of our adversaries," he said. "New technologies, hand in hand with training, enhance our ability to respond quickly and decisively to the growing spectrum of threats that we face.

"One of the best ways to leverage the talent of our force, certainly, is through simulation," he said.