TAKING UAS TRAINING TO NEW HEIGHTS
Technology Helps Support Transition From Training to Operate To Training to Employ Increasingly Popular Air Vehicles.
by Marty Kauchak, MT2 Editor
Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) training programs on both sides of the Atlantic are rapidly evolving to allow service operators to train to employ ever more capable air platforms. Innovative technology insertion is bolstering the fidelity of UAS training systems to a level that matches many manned aviation training devices. At the same time, operationally proficient instructors are putting aspiring ground-based crews through their paces with a rich mix of technology, ranging from laptop-based simulators to mission training centers.
INDUSTRY-DELIVERED TRAINING
Companies in the U.S. and overseas deliver a blend of learning solutions to UAS military training audiences.
AeroVironment dominates the U.S. backpack, or light, hand-launched, UAS market. The company’s business ledger provides one insight on the growing popularity of UASs with operators worldwide— the company has delivered more than 9,000 of its Dragon Eye, Raven, Puma and Wasp III families of vehicles, in various quantities, to its growing customer list. Users of AeroVironment vehicles include the U.S. services and U.S. Special Operations Command, and military forces in Italy, Denmark, Spain and the Netherlands. As a prime contractor, the company provides training as part of its “360-degree approach” to customers’ requirements through a mix of instructor- delivered instruction and technology. AeroVironment has trained more than 3,500 UAS operators and maintainers in the U.S. and overseas.
Service veterans with diverse operational backgrounds comprise the company’s instructor cadre. “We feel that it is very important for the trainers not only to understand how to use and operate our system, but to understand the operating environment in which our systems are used,” Geoff Hitchcock, director, UAS training, AeroVironment, told MT2. The instructors have proven experience in platform instruction, mission planning, navigation techniques, air space management and deconfliction, combat operations, small unit tactics, techniques and procedures, and other competencies.
A typical AeroVironment training program consists of 80 hours of instruction. In most cases, the trainees are able to operate an aircraft in one day. “Much of training program is involved with the other issues—how do you use it in different situations, what are different mission planning, navigation, airspace management and deconfliction issues, operator level maintenance and other tasks—so it is really a broad view of how to enable our customers to not only use the aircraft systems, but to use them most effectively for their unique mission requirements,” pointed out Hitchcock.
Trainees are furnished with a lap top-based simulator “for teaching what we call the basic ‘button knowledge’ before going to the field for actual flight operations,” said Hitchcock. The simulators are again enlisted at the training site for proficiency training for students not engaged in flying operations.
Eyeing even more technology enhancements, Aero- Vironment envisions a networking capability for its laptop simulators.
A second UAS provider, General Atomics-Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), supplies a variety of Predator series UASs to U.S. and overseas customers. Five of GAASI’s many in-service systems are the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper, RQ-1 Predator and the GNAT-750 and I-GNAT. “GA-ASI has provided complete system operations and maintenance training to Turkey, Italy, and another international customer, as well as the U.S. Army, Department of Homeland Security/U.S. Customs and Border Protection, NASA and the U.S. Government. Additionally, GA-ASI continuously trains its own personnel to be able to support multiple customer deployments,” Christopher Ames, director, business development, told MT2.
GA-ASI employs its own company-developed computerized flight simulator and is a sub-contractor for L-3 Communications’ Link Simulation and Training in providing the Predator simulator (Predator Mission Aircrew Training System [PMATS]) used by the U.S. Air Force.
Link Simulation and Training has installed six MQ-1 PMATS and two brief/debrief systems at Creech Air Force Base, Nev., The PMATS program is a quantum leap forward for UAS training. Whereas earlier efforts focused on training to operate a UAS, PMATS enables pilots to employ the Predator as it flies in the contemporary battlespace. “The biggest advantage that our system brought to the Air Force was the ability to train under adverse conditions. These include environmental or any kind of safety training—failure modes and conditions like that—things they could not train previously,” Dan Kelly, director, Navy Programs, L-3 Link Simulation and Training, told MT2. Kelly’s earlier company assignment was program manager, PMATS.
The system’s ground control station (GCS) evolved to support training beyond routine and non-routine operating tasks in the synthetic environment. “This not only talks about the synthetic environment capabilities, including the degraded functions, but also interoperability with other systems, including manned systems,” remarked Don Rodrigues, director, strategic initiatives, Link Simulation and Training. Indeed, one recent training requirement supports manned and unmanned system teaming and integration. This is in step with DoD’s rapidly evolving tactics, techniques and procedures, that include the Army’s efforts to integrate UAS’s into the AH-64A/D Apache’s networked environment, and similar strategies. Rodrigues pointed out the PMATS requirement was also “to interoperate with the Air Force’s distributed mission operation standard that covered a host of air vehicles.”
The service also recently certified PMATS to support Predator pilot take-off and landing qualification. Another UAS provider, AAI, delivers training for its Aerosonde and the Shadow family of vehicles to U.S. DoD and allied services. “We’ve developed a robust, flexible UAS training device architecture that can be configured to support both our Shadow and Aerosonde systems. Additionally, we offer a range of solutions to support customer training,” remarked Robert Peters, vice president, training systems, AAI. Customers can train at AAI by attending the company’s courses, which include classroom instruction supported by training devices. AAI’s customers may also receive new equipment training and unit level training concurrent with UAS delivery, or purchase the course curriculum and trainer outright and conduct their own instruction. “The training device itself can be easily shipped to accommodate onsite customer training,” said Peters, who provided additional insight on the technology application. It is designed to support domestic and international customers’ use of their own GCS equipment, with the simulator providing the aerodynamic modeling of the UAS, synthetic environment (terrain, computer-generated friendly and enemy forces and other attributes) and malfunctions. “This maximizes the physical and functional fidelity of the training event. For U.S. customers, we integrate multiple unified simulation environment (MUSE) technology into the Shadow UAS trainer as an alternate synthetic environment, aerodynamic model, and malfunctions insertion to the GCS,” he observed. International customers who may not have export authority for MUSE can simply plug the AAI simulator into their GCSs to inject the training environment.
AAI uses other technology strategies to enhance training delivery. “For example, we are skilled in the creation of interactive electronic training manuals [IETM], a delivery method that allows customers to conduct highorder, specific task training on demand—anywhere warfighters are stationed,” added Peters.
Across the Atlantic, Elbit Systems’ Hermes and Skylark (I and II) families of vehicles are in service in Israel and in an undisclosed number of other nations around the globe. The company’s training program supports operators and technicians and is tailored to its customers needs. Of particular note, Elbit Systems’ training technology strategies begin at the small simulator application and expand in size and complexity to unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) mission training centers.
An overarching, Elbit learning management system (LMS) allows administrators to manage and follow-up on their students’ progress during the courses of instruction. “Simulation and synthetic environment training is being used in different levels in training, which allows Elbit to train and guide the trainees using less actual flying hours and without being dependent on weather conditions or technical availability, or taking risk with yet unqualified trainees,” Itai Toren, director, UAV programs, Elbit Systems, told MT2.
Elbit Systems offers a family of trainers, from desktop trainers through embedded or appended trainers, which are used by operators inside their own operational environment— the operational GCS—and dedicated UAV Mission Training Centers. “Elbit Systems is also offering IETM Literature and Guide, and computer-based training [CBT] systems for the self learning process. CBT, simulators and actual flying sessions are accumulated into LMS Systems throughout the training program,” summarized Toren.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS
From Link Simulation and Training’s perspective, one common unmet requirement across the UAS training community is to better represent the synthetic world in the training system so that it approximates what operators see in theater. This places demands on databases and supporting systems. “Now that we are moving toward, ‘How do I employ this device?’ instead of, ‘How do I operate this device?’ we are seeing requirements with hundreds and even thousands of vehicles and people within an urban environment— because that’s where the service men and women are deploying today,” said Rodrigues.
This requirement has many implications for industry teams. UAS operators must operate in the synthetic environment with geotypical and geospecific imagery, and the numbers and types of entities a crew would normally see during an actual operation through whatever onboard sensor is used. This drives UAS training system providers to respond to the same database demands that challenge their counterparts supporting ground vehicle trainers, manned aviation devices and other systems. “The part that is not easy, and it’s not easy across the board in the training industry, is the ability to put in thousands of people and vehicles into those databases and scenarios, and have them move in a representative fashion so it’s not abnormal and drawing attention away from the fact you are supposed to be in an immersive training system,” said Rodrigues.
As the services’ current training network infrastructures were not designed to accommodate these higher fidelity training scenarios as viewed through even one sensor picture, Link is examining other delivery strategies including the use of technology that is fielded in the commercial off-the-shelf gaming world. These solutions would alleviate some of the bandwidth and latency artifacts of training networks.
One technology solution uses physics processing boards. “We are now approaching 1,000 entities that we can put into a scene just with that technology,” said Rodrigues. Link is also examining the use of massive multi-player on-line gaming. After several years of putting these technology applications through their paces in internal research and development programs, the company reports significant advances in representing the numbers and types of entities sought by the UAS community.
There are also huge opportunities to train operators for integrating a UAS into any civilian and military airspace it could be employed. The airspaces include those under civilian air traffic control and military command and control—as exercised through air operations centers, forward-air controllers, joint force air components and other organizations that can directly use sensor information from a UAS. “The training of how the UAS operator talks to the various controlling elements, and that could be joint elements, is now entirely role-played by instructors. There can be technology applied in this area,” said Rodriques.
WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT UAVS?
As wartime requirements are driving the rapid fielding of UAS systems and their training support, the U.S. Navy is taking a step back to ask some very basic questions that will help shape future training strategies, Captain Paul S. Morgan, U.S. Navy, program manager, Naval Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (PMA-263), told MT2. “One of the things the Navy, at least in my office, is pursuing is what is different about UAVs, and what are the capabilities required to task and skill the cognitive abilities to operate these systems.”
The PMA-263 office has approached unnamed universities that research creative learning, embedded training for the gaming industry and other learning topics to determine how DoD can take advantage of what aspiring pilots and operators know how to do from a technology perspective. “That’s important. We need to be able to take advantage of as much advanced technology and training as the gaming industry uses, and the military and DoD are evolving to—virtual reality, embedded training skills and other trends,” he added. The outcomes sought by the Navy will influence future UAS training include, “How do we best shorten the training cycle to make sure a certain amount of minimal amount of proficiency is in the initial training? Then as they need rehearsal and other training for the long term, what’s the best way to do that— with simulators, laptops or even free-play? A lot of this is new ground, because in the manned [aviation] training community we haven’t done much differing training in the traditional sense,” concluded Morgan.