USJFCOMLive

During a lull in the Bold Quest action Tuesday afternoon, I noticed a group of folks off to the side of the joint terminal attack controllers working at a static target site. They were part of a team sent here from USJFCOM’s Joint Training Directorate with the JTAC Virtual Trainer, a system of training applications and simulators designed to allow JTACs to hone their aircraft control abilities with pilots in aircraft simulators anywhere in the world.

The simulator was brought to Bold Quest 09 to give JTACs from the U.S. and its allies a chance to see it in action and give the team feedback on the development system, which is under development. Beginning Friday and going into next week, JTACs here will have the opportunity to work with a retired F-15 pilot “flying” a simulator in Germany.

Phil Shevis, a member of the J7, talked about what the JTAC Virtual Trainer does and how it will be demonstrated here. He said JTACs on the battlefield – both the real one and in training – use a variety of systems and data when they are guiding in close-air support: video feeds on the ground and overhead, visual information on target locations, and voice communications with the pilots overhead. The simulator allows JTACs to have this data without the time and expense associated with getting actual aircraft off the ground.

We’re using simulations connected over a network to feed that information. In this particular instance, what we’re doing is connecting through the Joint Training Experimentation Network to the Warrior Preparation Center in Germany. They’re running two simulators: an F-16 simulator … and a Predator simulator. Those two systems are going to generate sim-generated video which we’re going to transmit to the JTACs on their issued equipment.

The other thing we’re doing is over the network, we have a system where the pilot flying the simulated aircraft … to talk on a simulated radio to a JTAC here using his real radio, so to the JTAC, it’s transparent in both the cases of the video and the voice. They’re going to receive it on real-world, issued equipment.

Shevis told me that since this is only a demonstration, the technology could go a lot further. The system has a lot of upside when it comes to training JTACs in multiple allied nations.

What we’re trying to address is it costs a lot of money to get an aircraft up in the air with real bombs. It’s a lot of fuel and a lot of time. This allows the JTACs to get the training without using all those assets. In simulations you can do a lot of things you can’t do in the real world, one of which is work with aircraft that aren’t available. You can work with coalition forces. You can have terrain [that you don’t have available].

Check back later in the week for further coverage and information about this simulator.