A Significant Improvement in the Way They Train

As a result of lessons learned in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom, current and prospective joint terminal air controllers—the term that has evolved for forward air controllers during the two operations—will train with ever more capable training systems. As important, the versatile trainers will support other members of the combined arms team.
By Marty Kauchak

Of all the contemporary combat missions, joint close-air support (JCAS) is the most likely to injure or kill friendly forces and civilians. JCAS requires weapons to be aimed at an enemy that is in contact with friendly forces. The mission has been made more challenging by the conduct of more operations in an urban environment, and the requirement to place precision munitions on targets, whose aimpoints are ever more “danger close” to friendly forces or civilians. At the end of the day, it is so often the human-in-the-loop that is vital to a JCAS mission’s success.

As a result of lessons learned in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom, current and prospective Joint Terminal Air Controllers (JTACs)—the term that has evolved for forward air controllers (FACs) during the two operations—will train with ever more capable training systems. These systems will be available in fixed sites at service school houses and in portable system configurations for deployment. As important, the versatile trainers will support other members of the combined arms team.
I-FACT Advances

One widely fielded system is FATS’ (Meggitt Training Systems) Indirect Fire-Forward Air Control Trainer (I-FACT). This system, and the evolving trainers described later, are not the exclusive domain of JTACs—they selectively support training for joint forward observers, FACs and other members of the combined arms team.

About 115 I-FACT systems have been supplied to U.S. Services and U.S. Special Operations Command, and international customers in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

I-FACTs are used in a classroom or individual learning settings, with a laptop serving as the instructional platform. In the system’s virtual mode, trainees can conduct fixed- and rotary wing, bomber and AC-130 gunship close air support (CAS) missions. The device allows the training audience to complete a variety of individual learning tasks, some of which are CAS support planning, coordination and de-confliction of aircraft, and procedural training. “You can also control artillery and mortar-type munitions,” noted Michael Weegar, military and technical sales director, Meggitt Training Systems.

The I-FACT’s pilot-in-the-loop mode permits an individual to pilot a fixed or rotary wing virtual aircraft. In this mode, a ground controller coordinates directly with the pilot and talks the pilot in to launching weapons at ground-based targets, as they would during an actual mission or live-training event.

Several recent I-FACT upgrades were put through their paces at the 2007 I/ITSEC. “We are showing our high level architecture [HLA] voice capability and our enumeration mapping, which helps support the U.S. Air Force’s distributed mission operations [DMO] exercises. We have included I-FACT in the last four virtual flag exercises in support of the DMO Center, Kirtland Air Force Base,” pointed out Weegar.

Other improvements are on I-FACT’s program horizon for 2008. “Several of our goals will improve some of the flight dynamics, increase the down-range effects of munitions, and add to our terrain database library. We will build a ‘real Baghdad’ and a ‘real Kandahar,’” he revealed. I-FACTs will supplement an expanding list of other services’ fixed-and mobile training systems.
Evolving DON Programs

The multi-purpose supporting arms trainer (MSAT) is a Department of the Navy (DON)-funded JTAC training system that has caught the attention of the Sea Services’ expeditionary warfare communities.

The Navy has two systems: one installed at Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Atlantic (EWTGLANT), NAB Little Creek, and another being fielded to EWTG Pacific (EWTGPAC), NAB Coronado in the second and third quarters, fiscal year (FY) 2008. The service is planning the fielding of a third system, which would be located at Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC), NAS Fallon.

The government was the prime contractor for the MSAT at EWTGLANT, with BARCO, RDR Inc. and TJ Inc. serving as its subcontractors. TJ Inc. is the prime contractor for the MSATs at EWTGPAC and NSAWC. VDC Display Systems, RDR Inc. and 3D Perception are the systems’ subcontractors.

The MSAT is a partial-dome display that provides a 240-degree (horizontal) and 60- degree (vertical) field-of-view (FOV), which can be electronically panned in all directions. The visual display enables trainees to assess aircraft nose position and attack profiles, and conduct numerous JCAS operations in accordance with the Joint Publication 3-09.3 “Joint Tactics, Techniques and Procedures for Joint Close Air Support.”

MSAT is a joint-certified, virtual training device for JTAC currency, through U.S. Joint Forces Command Joint Fires Division’s (J85) validation evaluation. The MSAT’s research and development (R&D) was based on joint mission essential tasks

lists for FACs and JTACs. “These include mission planning, threat assessment, collateral damage estimation, weapons-to-target match, aircraft deconfliction, type of CAS control, convoy operations, urban operations, equipment systems integration, unmanned aerial system integration and digital CAS,” said Jeffrey Hawley, EWTGLANT fires deputy and MSAT operator. Hawley, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel, added, “In the future, distributed operations and other emerging concepts and technologies could be included as well.”

The U.S. Marine Corps, in support of a I Marine Expeditionary Force’s urgent universal needs statement that included JTAC training, “will also procure existing Navy capabilities, contained in the MSAT, to meet 80-percent (plus) requirements and will rapidly spiral develop to meet final training needs,” stated First Lieutenant Geraldine Carey, spokesperson, Marine Corps Systems Command.

The Marines plan to acquire to six MSATs for fixed-site installation at Camp Pendleton; Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, 29 Palms; Camp Lejeune; Marine Corps Base Hawaii; Marine Corps facilities on Okinawa; and Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One.

The service is also in the early stages of fielding the Deployable Virtual Training Environment (DVTE) Combined Arms Network (CAN) for mobile and deployable JTAC training. “This is a government-owned system which is an already existing program of record,” said Carey. Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training & Support (STS) is the program’s prime contractor.

DVTE CAN is a laptop-based, mobile and deployable system, which will be a unit-level asset to allow JTACs and other warfighters to hone and refresh their skills in a combined arms environment, when live training is not available. The first generation of CAN suites is fielded at service battle simulation centers, and with several infantry regiments, and battalions and Marine expeditionary units.

The service completed final user testing for JTAC-specific upgrades to software and equipment in mid-December 2007 at EWTGPAC. “Fielding of the JTAC modules will begin in January 2008, starting with the Expeditionary Warfare Training Groups, Atlantic and Pacific (the service’s JTAC producing schools), Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One, I MEF and Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command units,” said Captain Josh Winfrey project officer, TECOM TechDiv, Marine Corps Base Quantico public affairs spokesperson.
Air Force-Led Solutions

For its part, the U.S. Air Force has two evolving trainer systems that have generated their own interest throughout the military-industry team.

The Air Force is the lead acquisition authority for the Joint Terminal Control (JTC) Training and Rehearsal System (TRS) project. The program is a mission simulation system that has joint applicability for terminal attack control personnel in all services.

The JTC TRS will provide a DMO-capable, high-fidelity JTAC, and combat control team (CCT) training and rehearsal system. “The JTC TRS will be able to connect to DMO networks to allow geographically separated high-fidelity CAS platforms and JTACs and CCT teams to train together. The JTC TRS will enable operators to conduct JCAS training and mission rehearsal using tailored, dynamic scenarios that are relevant to mission tasking,” read a project draft performance specification.

This could be a huge opportunity for industry. The Air Force’s Office of the Director, Training System Product Group, 677 Aeronautical System Group, noted in its briefing for a 2007 Training & Simulation Industry Symposium briefing, that the program may have “over 80 potential trainers.”

The Air Force’s Aeronautical Systems Center “expects the release of a request for proposal in the spring of 2008 for the development of the JTC TRS simulation capability,” said a command spokesperson.

An update of the draft performance specification was published on December 13, 2007 and is available at https://www.pixs.wpafb.af.mil/pixs_solicitation.asp?id=5180.

Since 2005, the JCAS Team at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Mesa, has been developing a science and technology proof-of-concept, known as JTAC TRS. This is a separate and distinct effort from the JTC TRS.

Lockheed Martin STS is the JTAC TRS prime contractor. The subcontracting team includes MetaVR and Mersive. Minerva Engineering is the prime contractor for integrating and developing C2 devices for the JTAC TRS.

The Mesa-developed TRS was designed to provide JTACs with a high-fidelity, fully-immersive, training and rehearsal capability environment with real-time sensor, simulator and database correlation. A fielded JTAC TRS’s advanced technology system would allow the training audience to complete individual and team mission-essential competency-based training with a built-in performance assessment and measurement capability.

The proof-of-concept’s R&D strategy includes two JTAC training approaches. The first prototype system, the JTAC virtual trainer (VT), was initially designed and demonstrated in Mesa in 2005, and will be continually upgraded at AFRL under further R&D efforts. To support the JTAC warfighters’ feedback, AFRL will stand up a second VT prototype at the Air Force JTAC schoolhouse, Nellis AFB, in second quarter FY08. These immersive-dome systems have a 360-degree (horizontal) FOV that utilizes actual or fully emulated JTAC command and control (C2) equipment.

The second R&D prototype system is the Five-Meter (5M) (16.4 feet) JTAC Transportable Trainer, developed by AFRL’s JCAS team in 2007. The 5M Dome was designed to meet deployment and other expeditionary force requirements. Most significantly, the JCAS team greatly enhanced the visual display fidelity by doubling the projectors-to-area-of-coverage ratio.

The 5M unit has a 220-degree (horizontal)-by-135-degree (vertical) FOV, and both fielded and emulated C2 equipment, from a JTAC’s toolkit. The 5M Dome also enables the JTAC trainee to select from a 360 degree FOV and continually observe aircraft directly overhead. MT2 viewed a prototype of this variant as its technology enhancements were demonstrated at the September 2007 Air Force Association conference and again at the November 2007 I/ITSEC.

Two major capabilities were incorporated between these exhibits: night operations capability and the capability to allow the JTAC trainee to control his own movement through the virtual battlefield (walking or by vehicle).

Like its cousin, the fixed-site VT, the JTAC 5M dome integrates the live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) environment and is DMO capable. Entities from the domains were used during both conference demonstrations.

“The JTAC TRS is high level architecture (HLA)- and distributed interactive simulation (DIS)-conformant,” pointed out Kenneth Kleinlein, head of the DMO test-bed team, AFRL Mesa, during I/ITSEC.

During a tour of the JTAC TRS 5M Dome during I/ITSEC with Russell Downing, outgoing program manager, JTAC TRS, several other system equipment capabilities were described.

One item of interest from the JTAC Transportable Trainer’s C2 suite is the integration of a JTAC-issued and fielded PV-14 series night vision device, that will allow the training audience to complete an expanding array of complex all weather and night missions. “Our whole purpose is to give them an immersive environment, which is either just like combat or on the training range. That’s the bottom line: to give the training audience a required environment because you don’t want them doing things in combat for the first time,” said Downing.

To better enable the JTACs to train as they will operate, the trainer is also equipped with other fielded C2 systems, two of which include the AN/PRC-117F manpack radio and the PRC-148 handheld radio.

The JTAC TRS visual system represents a concerted effort by the industry team to achieve 20/20 visual acuity in the dome’s display. “Among the technologies used to achieve this end state are MetaVR’s Visual Reality Scene Generator (VRSG) and Mersive Technologies’ camera-based auto-calibration software for warping and blending the multi-projector display,” said Garth Smith, co-founder, MetaVR. The system’s projectors are supplied by Electric Picture Display Systems.

Fifty-four VRSG licenses have been purchased to date to support the AFRL Mesa, Nellis AFB, and 5M Dome installations.
On Target

The prospective training audience has formed early opinions about the value of more capable training systems.

Technical Sergeant Stephen Blackman noted during a demonstration of the AFRL 5M Transportable Trainer at I/ITSEC, “I stepped in this trainer yesterday and we did a night mission—it’s just amazing what you can do with this.” Blackman, an Air Force JTAC who has completed operational missions in classified locations added, “You can have targets on the fly. As fast as you want a scenario you can create one quickly.”

“This will be a significant improvement in the way we train,” opined Master Sergeant Lloyd Alderton, a second service JTAC, during The Air Force Association conference.