The United States Air Force (USAF) long ago retired the F-100s to the boneyard to make way for today’s complex fighter aircraft like the F-16. Recently, rapid increases in computing power corresponding to Moore’s Law translated into an almost over night exponential leap in the F-16’s hardware and software complexity. 2 While most see the benefit to these rapid advances as enhanced combat power, the underlying challenge is to keep pace training the “man in the machine.” Multiple current day constraints prevent meeting this challenge through a simple increase of flying hours. Rather, today’s fighter community must leverage emerging simulation technology into combined flight training to counter mission employment complexity created by technology itself. General Hawley’s remarks were a precursor to championing one such leveraged solution—utilizing high-tech simulators called distributed mission trainers (DMTs). The USAF is currently proliferating hi-tech simulators in the F-16, F-15, E-3, and E-8 communities. Interconnectivity or networking of two or more of these stand-alone simulators creates a mission training center (MTC), which when further networked create distributed mission operations (DMO). Ultimately, the grand operational vision of DMO is to interconnect non-collocated users creating a “virtual” joint training environment across multiple platforms and disciplines. However, while the fully implemented long-term vision is years away, the near-term benefit of leveraging these high-tech simulators to close the growing gaps in flying training is real. Justification for DMO funding in some regard stems from continuing research that postulates “simulation, when properly applied and combined with flying training, can reduce the distance between the continuation training (CT) ramp and the proficiencies required in combat” (see Figure 1). 3 Continuation training is merely how we train for combat during peacetime and safety constraints create gaps in CT. The fighter aviation community has also encountered other training gaps in the past decade. These have stemmed from a systematic reduction in the average pilot’s flying hours coincident with massive increases in aviation technology.

» Free PDF eBooks Download
» Military Aircrafts