Fighter Jet News
F-16 Fighting Falcon News
AF puts flight simulator in night-vision goggles
February 7, 2004 (by
Lieven Dewitte) -
The Air Force is building a prototype flight simulation system into Night Vision Goggles (NVG) to help F-16 pilots navigate more safely.
Air Force officials said they saw the need for the simulator, which will be delivered in September, because training fatalities have occurred in recent combat operations. Some pilots even learned how to use night-vision goggles while they were flying.
As the conflicts in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom have validated, new productive war tactics require air operations to be effectively conducted on a 24/7 schedule.
The simulated NVG implementation will provide high-fidelity training for fast speeds and low altitudes where pilots must often fly. The imagery accurately replicates what the pilot would see through actual night-vision goggles.
The Air Force awarded a contract worth more than $30 million to Lockheed Martin Corp. as prime integrator. Lockheed issued $5.2 million in subcontracts to SGI to build the prototype goggle system and install the technology at 14 Mission Training Centers (MTC).
The system uses SGI® Onyx® 3900 graphics supercomputers that function as image generators that realistically and precisely simulate, in a 360-degree environment, the same multi-role functions that F-16s perform in combat missions.
The software is from MultiGen-Paradigm Inc. of San Jose, Calif., and the Air Force Research Laboratory in Mesa, Ariz.
As the conflicts in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom have validated, new productive war tactics require air operations to be effectively conducted on a 24/7 schedule.
The simulated NVG implementation will provide high-fidelity training for fast speeds and low altitudes where pilots must often fly. The imagery accurately replicates what the pilot would see through actual night-vision goggles.
The Air Force awarded a contract worth more than $30 million to Lockheed Martin Corp. as prime integrator. Lockheed issued $5.2 million in subcontracts to SGI to build the prototype goggle system and install the technology at 14 Mission Training Centers (MTC).
The system uses SGI® Onyx® 3900 graphics supercomputers that function as image generators that realistically and precisely simulate, in a 360-degree environment, the same multi-role functions that F-16s perform in combat missions.
The software is from MultiGen-Paradigm Inc. of San Jose, Calif., and the Air Force Research Laboratory in Mesa, Ariz.
Related articles:
Tags
Tags