Live Virtual Constructive technology to revolutionize ACM

USAF GROKS Virtual Training but some unGROK for whatever reason - SHIRLEY USAF knows what quality they produce.

Air Force cuts pilot training by 5 weeks
30 Jun 2018 Sig Christenson

"The Air Force has cut as much as five weeks from the time required to teach novice pilots to earn their wings, a move that will help it replace rapidly departing veteran aviators...."

Source: https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/ ... 040570.php

By the By only graphics can be reproduced - WhY? Becuz I ain't gonna subscribe being in the Great South Land and all y'all.

"T-38 instructor pilot Josh Thomson uses a computer flight simulator at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph. Thomson is assigned to the 560th Flying Training Squadron, the Chargin' Cheetahs" https://s.hdnux.com/photos/74/22/72/158 ... 20x920.jpg

"T-38 instructor pilot Josh Thomson flies on a computer flight simulator at Randolph Air Force Base on Thursday, June 28, 2018. Thomson is assigned to the 560th Flying Training Squadron, the Chargin' Cheetahs" https://s.hdnux.com/photos/74/22/72/158 ... 4x1024.jpg

USAF has slashed UTP to 49 weeks and some instructors are concern
02 Jun 2018 ALERT5

"It now takes the U.S. Air Force an average of 49.2 weeks to train a pilot under the undergraduate pilot training syllabus. Previously, it was 54.7 weeks.

The service was able to acheive this by making students fly simulators early in the syllabus and more flight time on the T-38 and T-1.

However, some instructors are worried that the new system is risky as the training syllabus has been altered radically.
Instructors pointed out that students who do well in simulators might not perform as well in the actual cockpit – which is loud, hot and sweaty...."

Source: http://alert5.com/2018/07/02/usaf-has-s ... e-concern/

I'm not getting this... Students are getting 'more flight time on the T-38 and T-1' so what's the problem?

Without access to all the text in the main article perhaps this quote - out of context - will make more sense - in context?

"...However, some instructors are worried that the new system is risky as the training syllabus has been altered radically. Instructors pointed out that students who do well in simulators might not perform as well in the actual cockpit – which is loud, hot and sweaty...."

Two great presentations on JSE at NDIA's 2018 Test.

https://ndiastorage.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/ndia/2018/test/Smith.pdf
https://ndiastorage.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/ndia/2018/test/Sibley.pdf

GOOD STUFF! Thanks for this...

Cubic begins equipping 500 more F-35s with integrated air combat training system
20 Nov 2018 Gareth Jennings

"Cubic has awarded the first contract related to equipping a second batch of 500 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft with its P5 Combat Training System (P5CTS).

Global Defense has contracted Leonardo to integrate the internal subsystems of its integrated air combat training system aboard 500 JSFs, bringing to 1,000 the number of aircraft fitted. Under the contract, announced on 19 November, the P5CTS internal subsystems will be delivered to Cubic over the next four years as part of Lockheed Martin's F-35 production lots 12-14.

The US military currently uses the P5CTS as its programme of record instructional aid, giving it a real-time breakdown of the scenarios being run and the missions being flown through the live monitoring and recorded mission data of air-to-air, air-to-ground, and surface-to-air training scenarios for real-time training and post-mission analysis.

While current fourth-generation aircraft carry an external pod, the airborne sub-system for the F-35 is internalised and integral to the aircraft to maintain the platform's stealth characteristics (all F-35 customers except Israel, which has its own system, will use this)…."

Source: https://www.janes.com/article/84704/cub ... ing-system

Services Declare Breakthrough in LVC Training
02 Jan 2019 Stew Magnuson

"ORLANDO, Fla. — Air Force and Navy officials are declaring success for a joint technology demonstration that tied jet fighters in the air with pilots operating simulators on the ground, who could all fly against computer-generated adversaries. A final report on the Secure LVC (live-virtual-constructive) Advanced Training Environment (SLATE) demonstration was due at the end of December, but organizers a month earlier said that the exercise went better than expected.

“We’re not supposed to say that it was a very successful technology demonstration — that’s supposed to come from our senior leaders — but it was a very successful technology demonstration,” said Wink Bennett, SLATE research lead at the Air Force Research Laboratory. “It was beyond our wildest hopes,” he added.

A team lead by the Air Force’s 711th Human Performance Wing of the Airman Systems Directorate, Warfighter Readiness Research Division took more than four years to set up the exercise. The demonstration then took place over an eight-month period at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. This was created out of “unobtanium.” It had never been done before, said David Noah, AFRL’s program lead for the demonstration.

To make live-virtual-constructive training a reality, the team had to develop several key technologies.

One was the fifth-generation advanced training waveform (5G-ATW) developed by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory to serve as the datalink. In addition to the new waveform, the training system was served by Link-16 and UHF/VHF voice communications.

The second hurdle was ensuring that all three links were cyber secure and encrypted. The aircraft also carried a SLATE pod that contained the necessary software and allowed for “untethered” operations.

“Tethered” training used the 5G-ATW to connect to a ground station, where pilots could operate simulators and take part in the exercise virtually. That also allowed for more robust scenarios with an almost unlimited number of enemy aircraft or surface-to-air missile sites. [BEST TO READ IT ALL because 'tethered' / 'untethered' (lost in space) explained]…

...“There is an incredible capability that we demonstrated in untethered ops during SLATE,” Noah said. A pilot could start out operating as an F-15 Eagle, then switch over to be part of the red team and fly as a member of an enemy formation: “You can change it literally on the fly: it was gorgeous.”

The exercise used F-15s, F-16s and Navy F/A-18s. Next will be creating links for fifth-generation fighters such as the F-22 and F-35. That will be challenging, but doable, the organizers said.

“That is yet to be solved, and it is a horse of a different color, but we have a plan to go fix that,” Bennett said.

The underlying technology is platform agnostic, Noah said. It could work on other types of aircraft, ships or space systems."

JPG: Photo: Air Force http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/ ... AAF7E005D7

Source: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/ ... c-training

More on JSE Joint Simulation Environment:

Joint Simulation Environment inches closer to reality
24 Jan 2018 Giancarlo Casem, 412th Test Wing Public Affairs

"EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFNS) -- The 412th Electronic Warfare Group is one step closer to bringing the Joint Simulation Environment to life at Edwards Air Force Base. The 412th EWG recently began work to pave the way for ultimately building a new facility to house the JSE. JSE is a scalable, expandable, high fidelity government-owned, non-proprietary modeling and simulation environment to conduct testing on fifth-plus generation aircraft and systems accreditable for test as a supplement to open-air testing.

The 72,139 square foot JSE facility planned for Edwards AFB is actually one of two, the other will be constructed at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. As part of the construction efforts, the 412th EWG is also looking to hire more than 100 new personnel between both facilities -- primarily engineers with software skillsets.

The Edwards AFB facility will focus on developmental testing while the 50,967 square foot Nellis AFB facility will focus on operational testing. However, both facilities will be built with similar hardware and software configurations so both buildings will be able to augment each other’s capabilities, said Humberto Blanco, JSE project manager. The JSE facility is also being designed with that flexibility in mind.

While construction for the JSE is still months away, the 412th EWG is already ensuring that when it comes online, “growing pains” will be as minimal as possible.

“One of the things we realized was that in order for our people to become trained and get familiar with the system, its capabilities and participate in the development; it required us to develop an in-house instantiation of what’s happening at Pax River (Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland) as well as at SIMAF (U.S. Air Force Simulation and Analysis Facility),” said Blanco. “Those two facilities have limited JSE capabilities, so we advocated for, and received funding to instantiate those capabilities here.”

Construction crews are reconfiguring simulator and computer systems inside building 1020 at Edwards AFB, to make room for a small-scale JSE system that 412th EWG engineers can utilize to ensure all systems are operational and internal issues are rectified before the actual JSE facility is finished. Having a small-scale instantiation of the larger facility also allows 412th EWG customers to concurrently utilize the facilities without service interruptions, Blanco said.

“It will allow us to bring JSE simulators online and begin to experiment and to learn,” Blanco said.

The reconfiguring inside building 1020 will afford software engineers the time to be familiar with the incoming systems, which will benefit customers, said Gerald Lockwood, Modeling and Simulation flight chief.

“The coders have to really touch and see how to integrate these systems. We’re building products for it so we can develop, compile, test and get feedback on issues,” Lockwood said. “There’s so many components. It’s going to be a large battlespace in an interactive environment.”

The overall goal of the JSE is to allow the testers and engineers the capability to test multiple platforms during the developmental and operational testing phases of a platform.

“We’ve been asked to develop a high-fidelity modeling and simulation environment for initially the F-35 (Lightning II) and F-22 (Raptor) that will allow us to test aircraft in ways that we’re currently unable to test,” Blanco said. “So the environment will encompass things like weather, terrain, multiple other platforms and air and ground threats.”

“The JSE is one of my favorite projects because in terms of initial pay off, it’s just a few short years down the road,” said Brig. Gen. Christopher Azzano, Air Force Test Center commander. “We’re going to use the F-35 as the threshold platform to help prove the concept, but the long term potential of JSE is huge when you consider you can integrate virtual and constructive elements with live and open-air capability in a way that creates an environment that we can no longer build or replicate strictly with open-air resources.” [LVC LIVE VIRTUAL CONSTRUCTIVE]

Azzano said that he foresees the JSE becoming a step in the testing and developing of Air Force platforms in the future and that, in just a short time, AFTC customers will see its value.

“It’s really exciting because we can replicate the environment that our systems and warfighters might see in a dense threat environment somewhere around the globe. And we can replicate that for verification and validation that goes along with test and evaluation, and we can do it for training too,” Azzano said. “I really think we’re just barely scratching the surface on the pay off and the potential of JSE, and with the right vision I think we’ll get there, it’s going to take some time and a lot of investment, but it is a hugely important program.”

While the groundbreaking for both facilities is not scheduled until May 2020, Blanco said that when the buildings do come online, his team will be ready.

“Instead of waiting until the buildings are finished, we are developing these lab integrations here, so when the buildings are finished, we can hit the ground running,” Blanco said. “It’s very exciting times for the Air Force and the modeling and simulations community. I tell people on the outside that this is going to be the best video game ever.”"

Graphic: "An artist's rendering showcases the planned 72,139 square foot Joint Simulation Environment facility. JSE is a scalable, expandable high-fidelity, government-owned, non-proprietary modeling and simulation environment to conduct testing on fifth generation aircraft and systems accreditable for test as supplement to open-air testing. (U.S. Air Force graphic illustration courtesy of 412th Electronic Warfare Group)" https://media.defense.gov/2019/Jan/15/2 ... 3-1002.JPG (150Kb)

Source: https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display ... o-reality/

Incredible achievement, Kudos to all involved. Should save a ton of gas and wear and tear in the process.

MORe ON SLATE. I'll assume the F-35 version will integrate inside the airframe and not have to use 'a pod' for gorsake.

Cubic seeks 2020 contract to integrate the F-35 with a cutting-edge training tool
04 Dec 2019 Valerie Insinna

"...The Air Force Research Laboratory aimed to create a technology suite that would allow the service to blend simulators and virtual elements with live training under the Secure Live, Virtual and Constructive Advanced Training Environment (SLATE) program.

In August and September 2018, the Air Force and Navy validated that it could take an F/A-18 Super Hornet and F-15E Strike Eagle outfitted with that gear and run complex flight training scenarios where, for instance, an F-15E pilot flying with a wingman in a simulator could face off against live and virtual adversaries that emit the threat information of Chinese fighter jets or integrated air defenses.

“Over the course of three weeks [in August and September 2018], we flew multiple days, multiple exercises. We flew almost 100 sorties in support of the demonstration,” said Mike Knowles, the head of Cubic Global Defense, AFRL’s industry partner on the program. Knowles spoke with Defense News during the at the Interservice/Industry, Training, Simulation and Education Conference.

Now that SLATE’s technology demonstration phase has ended, the services are identifying their next steps, and Cubic is hoping for more work.

“Air Combat Command and the F-35 Joint program office are working to fund our division’s proposed look at SLATE capabilities integration with the F-35,” Dave Noah, Maj. Thomas Adams and Maj. Jason Lingle, who work in AFRL’s Continuous Learning and Program Assessment division, wrote in the lab’s fall 2019 magazine.

The Navy, meanwhile, is interested in holding additional demonstrations with the SLATE technology at Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada, Knowles said. “We’ll see some experiments with the Navy take place this summer and into the fall," he said. "A fifth-gen study on the application of LVC for the F-35, I suspect we’ll see that start this [coming] year also.” [more about SLATE]…

...The SLATE’s 5GATW waveform and security architecture were formulated with fifth-generation aircraft in mind, so the F-35 can use the SLATE pod without needing additional data safeguards. The challenge is integrating the technology with the F-35’s more advanced sensor fusion system, Knowles said.

“On the F-15 and F/A-18 — fourth-generation [jets] — Boeing helped in working the integration between the SLATE pod and the sensor fusion in the aircraft,” he said. “The F-35, given its capabilities are significantly more than a fourth-generation aircraft, the sensor fusion is significantly more complex...."

Source: https://www.defensenews.com/digital-sho ... ning-tool/

Quirk...!? Is it difficult to reproduce the F-35's Sensor Fusion on Live, Virtual !?
https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/ ... l-out-usaf

F-35 Software Quirk Prevents LVC Training Roll-Out To USAF
August 14, 2020
The U.S. Air Force has deferred plans to implement live, virtual and constructed (LVC) training technology into the fighter fleet because of a quirk in the Lockheed Martin F-35As powerful sensor...

The F-35A’s onboard sensor fusion prevents the Air Force right now from widely implementing a live, virtual and constructed training format, a top US Air Force commander says.