Live Virtual Constructive technology to revolutionize ACM

Good promo video.....did not realize Cubic made ACMI/TCTS/TACTS. Think that guy may have been an instructor when I went through VMFAT-101 as a student back when, but I can't remember for sure.

Best read at the jump because A LOT has been left out - CPFH and stuff like that - details.

Live, Virtual, Constructive: A New Paradigm For Training?
09 Jul 2015 Amy Butler | Aviation Week & Space Technology

"... with live virtual constructive (LVC) training, the simulator and constructive elements are combined with live flying. And the training can take place over vast distances because the pilots can take inputs from participants anywhere in the virtual realm.

Today’s “high-end” threat, operating in an anti-access/area-denied (A2/AD) environment where pilots must enter hostile airspace in order to engage targets, is also bolstering the case for LVC, industry and military sources say. “A2/AD is where you get the most bang for your buck with the fifth-gen platforms,” says Lou Olinto, business development senior manager for Lockheed Martin Mission and Training Systems.

“In the simulator environment, there will be certain issues, certain training tasks that you want to do on the ground because you just don’t want to put out certain missions or show certain capabilities in the aircraft . . . . Those are destined for the virtual constructive environment,” he says.

Live flying cannot fully replicate the threats in such a scenario, and war planners do not want to conduct such exercises in the open where tactics and procedures can be observed. “The capabilities of today’s advanced threats preclude even our best and largest ranges from providing the physical layout and density of a highly contested environment,” according to an Air Combat Command (ACC) official. “While we still need actual surface and airborne threat replicators to ensure the sensor apertures are viable, the end state of LVC will allow replication of an interaction with adversary capabilities without actually providing the ‘metal’ in the airspace.”...

...Maj. Gen. Jay Silveria, commander of the Air Force Warfare Center at Nellis AFB, Nevada—the service’s tactics schoolhouse—contends that using more LVC can reduce flying hour cost for mundane techniques. Airmanship will still require live cockpit time, as will tasks where pilots must experience the forces of extreme maneuvers. “Fighter sims cannot accurately replicate the physical forces encountered in flight and there’s no chance of ‘losing [an] air airplane’ or injuring someone,” the ACC official says. “Fighter pilots need to be able to make decisions and act under the stresses, or as close as we can get to them, encountered in combat.”...

...In the end, embracing LVC could fundamentally change the tenor of Red Flag, the prestigious exercises conducted throughout the year at Nellis to expose fighter pilots to the most stressing situations they will encounter outside of combat. Envision the best and brightest fighter pilots descending on Nellis, just outside Las Vegas, for what could be the most rigorous flying training of their careers.

The Red Flag of 2030, however, could consist of pilots flying at their home units and battling threats injected into their systems by virtual or constructive means. The flying could be harder—with injected futuristic threats—but the cachet of Vegas may be lost to history."

Source: http://aviationweek.com/defense/live-vi ... m-training

Another long post best read at source....

Manazir: Navy Preparing For Massive Simulated Training Center In Fallon NAS
21 Jul 2015 Megan Eckstein

"The Navy is laying the groundwork now to establish a massive training center by 2020 that will pull together 80 Navy personnel in simulators with additional Air Force simulators in a separate location and even more pilots in the sky, creating a training environment unlike anything the Navy can offer today.

Navy director of air warfare Rear Adm. Mike Manazir told USNI News on July 16 that the Navy is working towards opening an Air Defense Strike Group Facility at Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada in January 2016 and upgrading it to an Integrated Training Facility in 2020, which would represent a great leap forward in live, virtual and constructive (LVC) training.

Today, the Navy can conduct live-constructive training, in which a live pilot up in the air reacts to computer-generated scenarios, and virtual-constructive training, in which a person in a simulator reacts to computer-generated scenarios. But connecting a pilot in the air with a pilot in a simulator to operate in the same constructive environment – a full LVC event – is a real technical challenge.

At issue is management of classified information.... [BS and Briganti are going to just luv it]

...In January, the Navy will open the Air Defense Strike Group Facility in Fallon, which will include simulators for three Aegis cruisers, two E2-D Hawkeyes and eight F-18 aircraft, Manazir said.

“We can then constructively add a larger number of friendly forces – so you can simulate the aircraft carrier, you can simulate more cruisers,” he said. “You can simulate the bad guys. And you can build a scenario that would take the carrier strike group to whatever threat environment you want: South China Sea, maybe the Arabian Gulf, and it’s as if you were operating there.”

These simulators will all be connected and able to share classified data on the ground-based network, allowing about 35 personnel to operate the carrier strike group in a virtual-constructive training environment at the same time.

By 2020, the center will be expanded into an Integrated Training Facility, with 80 people in simulators for five cruisers, four E2-Ds, 12 F-18s, eight F-35C Joint Strike Fighters and two Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) vehicles, as well as integration to bring in F-35A and F-22 simulators from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada....

...“Then, once we get that waveform, that classified pipe from the live airplane down to the facility, then picture this in 2020: when I get that live piece, now I can have a section of F-35s on either the Fallon range or over on Nellis,” he continued. “Their information is being piped down to the facilities in Nellis and Fallon, and they see and hear everything as if all of those entities are flying with them in those two ranges.”

The very act of bringing this many people into the same LVC event introduces a new level of human error, which Manazir said is a good thing. With a single aviator flying against an enemy plane in a simulator, the enemy can only do pre-programmed behaviors. With an aviator flying against another aviator in connected simulators, there is an element of unpredictability. But with 80 people in simulators, plus more in the sky, any one of them could accidentally mess up, like in real life; any one of them playing an adversary could act “wily” in a way a computer would never be able to recreate; and the sum of their human behaviors creates a much more true-to-life environment, Manazir said.

Ultimately, Manazir said he hopes this LVC training environment will help the Navy prepare its aviators and sailors for any scenario they could face overseas in a way they cannot do today...." [GO READ IT ALL AT SOURCE]

Source: http://news.usni.org/2015/07/21/manazir ... fallon-nas

What a great tool for training and evaluating joint tactics. Smart investment. Surely they'll be able to plug F-35B into their scenarios when required.

Simulator on rails. Cool.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/08/the-c ... -the-f-35/

F-35 Pilot Desk & FMS Full Mission Simulator Training

F-35 Pilot Desk & FMS Full Mission Simulator Training

LoL at the look on those guys' faces @ the 1:21 mark realizing they have a 2-ship F-16 hostile closing for a merge...

F-35 Pilot Desk & FMS Full Mission Simulator Training

LoL at the look on those guys' faces @ the 1:21 mark realizing they have a 2-ship F-16 hostile closing for a merge...

You mean realizing there is a 2 flight of F-16's 100nmi away who have no idea they are there and are about to be running from amramms.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Securi ... 440101233/
More F-35 training systems ordered from Cubic Global Defense
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Cubic Global Defense is to produce and enhance the Air Combat Training System in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the company has announced.

Included in the work contracted by Lockheed Martin Aerospace is the addition of an internally mounted sub-system of the P5 Combat Training System, or P5CTS, that enables the F-35 to maintain its stealth characteristics while training
The P5CTS is designed to provide secure, real-time and post-mission training for air-to-air, air-to-ground and surface-to-air combat missions by displaying live-air picture, recording mission data, and relaying time, space and positioning information between participating aircraft during training flights....

F-35 Pilot Desk & FMS Full Mission Simulator Training

LoL at the look on those guys' faces @ the 1:21 mark realizing they have a 2-ship F-16 hostile closing for a merge...

You mean realizing there is a 2 flight of F-16's 100nmi away who have no idea they are there and are about to be running from amramms.

Shhhh. Don't burst his bubble.

LVC being conducted across continents in real time:

Better Training, Virtually
UNK Hank Hogan, Aviation Aftermarket Defense; ABDonline

LONG article best read at source & ALSO SLDinfo article - both URLs below.

Graphic: http://www.sldinfo.com/wp-content/uploa ... C-OV-1.png

Source: http://www.abdonline.com/news-analysis/ ... jJTjOm4YkK
&
http://www.sldinfo.com/plan-jericho-sha ... ng-system/

Cubic Successfully Demonstrates Live Flight of Encrypted P5 Combat Training System
29 Oct 2015 PR Web Laura Chon

"Cubic Global Defense (CGD), a business unit of Cubic Corporation (NYSE: CUB), today announced the completion of its first live flight demonstration of the Cubic Miniature Encryptor (CME) in Lakeland, Florida with partner Draken International, operator of the largest privately-owned fleet of ex-military aircraft. During the flight demonstration, Cubic successfully showcased airborne encryption of the P5 Combat Training System (P5CTS) on tactical fighter aircraft, matching the environment of an air combat training mission. The CME is a mature encryption solution readily available to the P5CTS which will accomplish increased security for advanced air combat training as well as P5CTS pod and ground station encryption compatibility with the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)’s P5 Internal Sub-system.

The P5CTS is designed to provide real-time and post-mission training for air-to-air, air-to-ground and surface-to-air combat missions by displaying the live-air picture, recording mission data, and relaying Time, Space and Positioning Information (TSPI) between participating aircraft during training sorties. Key components of the system include GPS-enabled, aircraft-mounted airborne instrumentation “pods” plus ground stations, which help aircrew conduct, monitor and control air combat training and post-flight debriefing.

During the demonstration, two Draken fighter aircraft carried the encrypted P5 pods. A P5CTS Live Monitor ground station was also upgraded with CME, allowing the engineers to track the aircraft for the full duration of the flight, including taxi, takeoff and landing. The TSPI data and uplinked manual kill notification were successfully passed across the P5CTS encrypted data link. In addition, Cubic was able to verify backwards interoperability of the CME through an unmodified P5CTS Live Monitor ground station and an unencrypted pod on a third aircraft. This allowed the encrypted system to ‘see’ and relay the unencrypted data from the P5 pod, while the unencrypted system could relay, but not ‘see’ the encrypted P5 pods.

“As I go around the world and visit many of our international P5 customers, they make it clear that the demand for encryption is immediate. In response to this urgent need, Cubic invested in the development of the CME in order to fulfill that demand,” said Bill Toti, president of Cubic Global Defense. “The CME will help maximize investments made by the Department of Defense and our allied nations for P5CTS products and infrastructure, while minimizing disruptions to training worldwide.”

“Cubic is a leader in the Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI) industry and we continue to make advancements with innovative, cost-effective and validated new offerings such as the CME,” said Michael Knowles, vice president and deputy general manager of Air Ranges, Cubic Global Defense. “The CME is a migration path for upgrades to air combat training system ranges, and encryption is one of the incremental upgrades needed to develop a true live, virtual and constructive (LVC) training capability.”

Cubic’s CME has the capability to encrypt sensitive information including increasingly complex fighter tactics, offering an immediate layer of security protection. Not only is CME a low-cost encryption solution for P5CTS pods, it is also designed to be interoperable with the JSF P5CTS, making it backwards and forwards compatible with P5CTS ranges. The CME has an additional advantage of serving as an inexpensive drop-in replacement of the Data Guard Processor (DGP) in P5CTS pods. This dual-purpose benefit allows combat training ranges to upgrade all or just some of their P5CTS pods as a DGP replacement, and choose when to use the encryption capability on training missions.

The successful flight demonstration of CME follows Cubic’s recent LVC demonstration at the Air Force Association’s annual Air & Space Conference and Technology Exposition in September. At the Air & Space Conference, Cubic teamed with industry partners to integrate a ‘live’ P5 ACMI pod with ‘virtual’ simulators and ‘constructive’ air and ground weapon systems in a virtual training environment. This particular demonstration was the first of its kind to show virtual and constructive entities through an architecture of Department of Defense’s fielded systems to the cockpit radar and radar warning receiver displays."

Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/10/prweb13050732.htm

Screenshot shows Ex-A4G 883 then Ex-A-4K Kahu NZ6212 now DRAKEN N142EM with the ACMI P5CTS pod underwing

IAI Offers AACMI for International F-35 Users
03 Dec 2015 Show Daily

"Israel Aerospace Industries is focusing on the future air combat training needs of international customers for the F-35 Lightning II fighter.

“Our core product here is the well known EHUD Autonomous Air Combat Manoeuvring Instrumentation (AACMI) system,” Philip Fisch, Business Development Director for Stark Aerospace, an IAI North America Company, told the Show Daily.

“Seventeen different countries around the world, many in Europe and Asia, use the EHUD,” said Fisch. It was announced in 2014 that IAI’s MLM division, along with Elbit Systems, which also produces the EHUD, have between them built more than 1,000 EHUD pods for use on at least 20 different fighters including the A-4, AMX, F-4, F-5, F-15, F-16, F/A-18, Harrier, Hawk, Mirage family, Tornado, Typhoon, and MiG family aircraft. The system has logged more than 200,000 flight hours.

“The F-35 has a built-in AACMI capability which is compatible only with US [Cubic] AACMI systems,” said Fisch. “More than half of the international customers for the F-35 - including Italy, Norway, Singapore, Turkey and the UK - have the EHUD system. As the F-35 is being built today there will be no ability for those aircraft - the F-35 and in service fighters - to train together even though there is a requirement to fight together.”

“So we have developed a concept for a solution that will allow the F-35, with some modest upgrades, to have interoperability with our EHUD systems,” said Fisch. “The international users are very interested because they have a training problem that they are just beginning to think about because it is may be five years before F-35 users outside the US will have operational aircraft.”

Asked about Israel Air Force training plans, Fisch noted “there are some unique aspects of the Israeli F-35 and I am not allowed to talk about that”.

The EHUD system is named after an Israeli fighter pilot killed in a mid-air collision. “One of the main differences between our product and the US AACMI is that we include a ground and air collision warning system built into the pod that predicts if there is going to be a collision and the pilot receives an advisory telling him to make a maneuver. That saves many pilots and many aircraft.”

The EHUD AACMI provides advanced air-to-air and air-to-ground training as well as debriefing with real-time weapon simulation and scoring. A tracking and positioning system enables real-time ground monitoring and control. The newest EHUD generation enables advanced LVC training.

EHUD technology is incorporated into IAI’s Helicopter Training & Safety system (HTS) and the Naval Combat Maneuvring Instrumentation System (NCMI). “Some of our customers, which I can’t name, have used our system to integrate ground, naval and air assets into the same training exercise,” said Fisch.

Source: http://www.iitsec.org/Documents/IITSEC_ ... y4_web.pdf (10.5Mb)

Air Force integrates 4th- and 5th-generation fighters
Michael Peck, C4ISRNET 11:18 a.m. EDT August 11, 2016

The Air Force has integrated fifth- and fourth-generation fighters using virtual simulations.

Virtual F-22s flown by pilots in simulators teamed up with real F-16s in the air, according to an announcement by Northrop Grumman, which provided the LVC Experimentation, Integration and Operations Suite (LEXIOS) system that enabled the collaboration.

"As part of Distant Frontier training at the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, Northrop Grumman integrated two virtual F-22 Raptor fifth-generation fighters to fly and train alongside four live fourth-generation F-16 Fighting Falcons," Northrop Grumman said.

The virtual F-22s were flown by pilots in simulators at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. The F-16s were flown by the 80th Fighter Squadron, which is normally based at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea.


http://www.c4isrnet.com/story/military/ ... rd%20Brief