LM to design F-35 simulation and training at Lemoore NAS

[spazsinbad]

Seems to me perhaps this is something more than just another FMS Full Mission Simulator or could be just an upgrade?

Lockheed Martin to design F-35 simulation and training at Lemoore NAS
14 Sep 2016 Military Aerospace & Electronics

“U.S. Navy air combat experts are expanding simulation and training activities for the F-35C carrier-based joint strike fighter to help give F-35 pilots and flight crews a realistic training experience at the most economical cost possible. Over the next three years, Navy Pacific Fleet F-35C pilots will gain access to a state-of-the-art flight simulation facility at Lemoore Naval Air Station in Central California that will involve training tasks ranging from basic flight skills to team-based mission rehearsal that will mimic challenging combat conditions. Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., announced a $20.8 million order to the Lockheed Martin Corp. Aeronautics segment in Fort Worth, Texas, to build a sophisticated F-35C simulation and training facility at Lemoore. Through early 2019, Lockheed Martin engineers will deliver, install, configure, and stand up an F-35C Training Infrastructure System (TIS) and Pilot Fitting Facility [for HMDS III] at Lemoore.”

Source: http://www.militaryaerospace.com/articl ... e-nas.html

[spazsinbad]

Lockheed Prepares to Launch Global F-35 Training Facilities
Dec 2016 Yasmin Tadjdeh

"The F-35 joint strike fighter has been pegged as one of the most advanced aircraft to ever fly. To train pilots and maintainers, students go through rigorous coursework and then use advanced simulators. Manufacturer Lockheed Martin is now preparing to expand the aircraft’s training centers abroad.

Over the next two years, Lockheed will stand up nine international training sites and centers, said Mike Luntz, F-35 training director at the company.

That will “extend and expand the reach of the training” the company can provide, he told National Defense in an interview.

The sites will include: Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan; Amendola Air Base, Italy; Royal Australian Air Force Base Williamtown, Australia; Cheongju Air Base, South Korea; Misawa Air Base, Japan; Ørland Air Base, Norway; Marham, United Kingdom; Grottaglie Air Base, Italy; and Nevatim, Israel.

It aims to stand up all of the facilities by the end of 2018, he said.

Not only will the sites provide each respective country with on-demand training, but eventually the simulators could connect with those in the United States for coalition exercises, Luntz said.

“We are in the process of developing the capability to link the simulators over the wide area network,” he said. Lockheed will first start with the Air Force, then the Navy, Marine Corps and the United Kingdom, in that order, he said.

The ability for other countries to access this network would be subject to approval from the United States, he said.

In the case of the Air Force, the network is called the distributed mission operations network, or DMON. Each service and the United Kingdom will have their own network with their own protocols. They will be released in a phased timeline, he said.

Creating such a network for other countries should be relatively easy depending on how much their requirements differ from that of the U.S. services’ networks, Luntz said.

“If they come up with a different network protocol than, for example, the protocol with the United States …. then that would require us to modify the software based on their requirements,” he said. “So from that perspective, we have not received all the requirements from all the different countries.”...

...The simulator offers pilots the ability to practice maneuvers that they cannot do in live training.

“For example, we don’t regularly shoot missiles against other airplanes. We don’t see the effects of those missiles hitting other airplanes,” he said. “There are complex environments … [that are] very difficult to recreate on a training range but we can easily create those virtually. So we’re able to get much … higher fidelity training, I would say, in the simulator at times from a threat standpoint.”...

...Fifty-seven pilots in fiscal year 2016 trained at the base [LUKE], Hierlmeier said. For pilots who have previous experience flying a fighter jet, they use the trainer for 30 missions, which comes out to about 45 hours, he said. For an inexperienced pilot, they would perform 45 missions over 70 hours.

Luke will receive its first pilot right out of flight school this December, he said. It “is a pretty big milestone” and shows that “the training system is mature enough and we’re competent in the simulator to take a pilot that hasn’t flown a fighter before and put him in a single-seat airplane.”

Overall, Lockheed has trained 345 pilots and 3,368 maintainers at its training centers at Eglin, Beaufort and Luke, Luntz said.

Lockheed plans to install two simulators at Iwakuni in December, he said. It will be equipped with an advanced version of the airplane’s software known as 3i. It “is kind of our latest and greatest pilot training device software load,” he said.

The company will soon begin rolling out the 3i software to other simulators, he said. The entire upgrade process will take less than a year, he added.

This December will mark the delivery of Lockheed’s 50th simulator, he noted. The event is a milestone for the company and shows that “the F-35 training system is really kind of expanding its reach and expanding the capability that we’re delivering,” he said.

The system would be a full-mission simulator for pilots, he said. The company also offers a maintenance simulator and a weapons load trainer." [LONG POST BEST READ AT SOURCE]

Source: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/ ... ities.aspx