Written by / Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Airborne Tactical Advantage Co. (ATAC) has received a new U.S. Navy contract to provide commercial air services for a wide variety of threat simulation work.

Training services will vary from basic air intercept control profiles, target banner towing and unit-level exercises, to support for large, complex multinational ship and fighter exercises. In addition to the Navy, customers include other Department of Defense and non-DoD agencies, NATO and foreign military sales customers.

Under the contract, ATAC’s fleet of 14 subsonic aircraft—including A-4 Skyhawks and Mk-58 Hawker Hunters—and six supersonic F-21 Kfir aircraft, will be involved in training and other work conducted at Newport News, Va., Point Mugu, Calif., Hawaii, Japan and various other domestic and international locations.

“We’re delighted that the Navy will continue to rely on ATAC for proven, high-quality and professional readiness training and testing as a way to cost-effectively prepare pilots and crews to meet current and future threats,” said Jeffrey Parker, president and CEO of ATAC, in a statement provided to MT2.

Scott Stacy, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Aechelon Tapped to Deliver Five IGs for MV-22 Trainers

Aechelon Technology Inc. was awarded a contract by Veraxx Engineering Corp. to provide five additional image generators and databases in support of U.S. Marines’ MV-22 Osprey containerized flight training devices (CFTD) numbers two through six at MCAS Miramar and MCAS New River.

“All five image generators will be delivered to Veraxx in June,” Javier Castellar, director of programs, Aechelon, told MT2.

Aechelon Technology will supply its pC-Nova v4.6 image generators, to be integrated with the host computer using the CIGI 3.2 interface. Each image generator will provide five channels of high resolution out-the-window and night vision goggle visuals and FLIR AN/ ANQ-22B sensor pod, sensor channels for the sensor turret. As part of the program award, Aechelon Technology will include additional U.S. airfields and foreign areas. The system supports NASM Portable Source Initiative formats.

Aechelon Technology also provided Veraxx Engineering with the image generator and databases for the MV-22 CFTD number one, which reached ready-for-training status in 2007.

Javier Castellar, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Teaming Agreement Between VT MÄK and DiSTI

VT MÄK (MÄK) signed an agreement with DiSTI to include GL Studio support and content in the upcoming release of VR-Vantage, MÄK’s new visualization solution.

GL Studio is a suite of object-oriented interface design tools for the development of reusable 2-D and 3-D graphical user interfaces. These interfaces include military/civil aircraft cockpit displays, automotive dashboards, process/flow controls, medical displays and communications equipment.

Along with out-of-the-box support for GL Studio, VR-Vantage will include a collection of generic GL Studio vehicle interfaces. With these, users can get started on their simulation without having to build their own airplane or helicopter cockpit, automobile, armored vehicle or military transport dashboard. Customers interested in developing new cockpits or dashboards for their vehicles or customizing the included interfaces can purchase a GL Studio license from DiSTI.

VR-Vantage is MÄK’s new 3-D visual solution. It consists of the next generation MÄK Stealth, MÄK’s 3-D information station; Vantage IG, a desktop image generator for viewing out-the-window scenes; and the VR-Vantage toolkit to extend, integrate and build visual applications. VR-Vantage is built on Open Scene Graph (OSG) to give users access to the innovations of the OSG community, but because it is backed by MÄK, it offers the reliability of a commercially supported visual application development toolkit.

“Some of the biggest challenges facing our DoD customers are the expense, time and expertise shortfall that accompany the task of integrating disparate COTS tools from different vendors,” Warren Katz, chief executive officer, MÄK, said. He continued, “The integration between VR-Vantage and GL Studio takes that cost, delay and learning curve off the shoulders of our customer and squarely onto ours. In addition, the GL Studio capabilities we’ve built into VR-Vantage provide users with some common user-interface capability, like an armored vehicle interface, at no additional cost. This will allow them to get their 3-D visualization up and running even faster. ‘Power users’ who need to develop custom vehicle interfaces can purchase the GL Studio developer’s toolkit from DiSTI while still taking advantage of the huge savings in integration expense that is included in VR-Vantage.”

Dan Brockway, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Upgrades for ARNG Virtual Small-Arms Trainers

Meggitt Training Systems was awarded a contract from the U.S. Army National Guard (ARNG) for enhancements to existing virtual small-arms trainers. Designed and manufactured by Meggitt, the simulators have been used successfully for over 12 years and continue to meet ARNG mandatory training requirements. System upgrades started in March and will be completed by December. Known as combat skills marksmanship trainers (CSMTs), the systems feature small-arms training courseware geared to the Guard’s homeland security missions. Fully immersive training scenarios significantly enhance readiness and deployability, helping soldiers improve weapons-handling, command skills and judgment in the face of contemporary and often complex tactical threats.

“Small unit leaders use the system to conduct mission planning and rehearsal. Indirect fire, close air support and combined arms training capability are included,” Kendra Hathway, marketing manager, Meggitt Training Systems, told MT2. She continued, “Additionally, the system’s embedded scenario authoring capability allows the user to quickly author a scenario reflecting emerging doctrinal and/or mission requirement changes. Weather effects, environmental conditions, protective clothing/ gear can all be factored in to the authored scenario.”

Quinton Miller, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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