Mission Training Hits the Big Time
WITH DEMAND GROWING EXPONENTIALLY FOR USE THE AIR FORCE’S PREDATOR UAV IN IRAQ AND ELSEWHERE, TRAINING IS NOT ONLY EXPANDING BUT BEING MODERNIZED IN ONCE UNTHINKABLE WAYS.
Over the past several years the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle has become an integral part of the Air Force operations, proving itself in the Afghanistan and, especially, Iraq arenas. A resulting increase in demand for its use has led to a dramatic rise in the training of crews to operate the vehicle at the UAV Predator Schoolhouse at Creech Air Force Base using newly installed computer-based simulators that are providing not only more, but better training.
“To meet that demand you have to grow the predator training unit,” Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Matthew E. Bannon, Combat Command Branch Chief for Unmanned Aerial Systems at Langley,Va., told Military Training Technology. Bannon explained that the success of the Predator in Iraq is inextricably linked to the “insatiable” appetite for Predator’s expanded use and the need for an increase in training of flight teams of both a pilot and sensor operators at the Formal Training Unit (FTU) which lead to the expansion of training and the Air Force’s move to embrace better training technology.
Training to meet that demand is being implemented using seven new PMATS (Predator Aircrew Mission Training System) simulators purchased under a $7.3 million contract with L-3 Communications’ Link Simulation and Training division. Five of the new PMATS are already installed at Creech with the last two scheduled to be in place by the end of the second quarter. The contract also includes three briefing and debriefing systems. Replacing the antiquated Multi-Task Trainer (MTT), the system is leaps and bounds beyond the earlier system’s 1980s-era technology and its ability to only train crews in emergency and checklist procedures and without displays mimicking the actual Predator system.
Dan Kelly, program manager at Link, and Jeff Goldfinger, head of business development for the company’s UAV simulation product line, explained that the pilots and sensor operators trained on their system are operating on the same software that is used in the field. It works in conjunction with a Link-developed sensor software package that takes advantage of the company’s existing database of visuals and flight information.
“The initial response has always been almost ‘wow’ when they look at the training capabilities compared with (even) the first version of PMATS,” said Kelly about the systems now online at Creech. He said those using it invariably want to go right away into dealing with emergency procedures and training they can’t get in the real world because they cannot be replicated in using real Predators UAVs.
Bannon, a former Navy fighter pilot who qualified on the Predator in 2003, said that such training is important and needed. The ongoing expansion is part of an effort to reach the current target of 140 crews being trained annually from the around 40 trained annually from 2003 through 2006. But this initial training increase is just the beginning. “We estimate we need 167 to 170 crews just to sustain growth,” he said.
Bannon explained that in early 2006 in Iraq there was a need for 235 hours of full motion video from UAVs per day but that capacity of the 15th Reconnaissance Squadron stationed there overseeing Predator fielding—for which he is a former director of operations—was limited to producing 110 hours to 130 hours of video per day. He noted that they are now in need for 450 hours of video per day. “Some studies suggest if they had 100 Predators they would probably find a use for all of them,” said Bannon.
Each PMATS training suite has a pilot and sensor operation station precisely mimicking that used with the Predator in the field along with an instructor area for conducting training. With the systems networked together, pilots can interact, including handing off control. Goldfinger said that the system is designed for training real world combat scenarios with the feeling of a real mission. The system borrows and builds on technology the company had already developed for manned aircraft training systems.
The majority of the piloting students that come through the training program are experienced pilots with at least one tour in a manned aircraft. The purpose of the training in the basic course is to transition them to flying a UAV and the particulars of flight where feedback is limited to only controls and electronics readings. They are made familiar with flying and operation along with a host of emergency situations for the unmanned vehicle.
Since the program assumes experience in aircraft piloting, time is spent simulating flying situations that cannot be mimicked when using the actual vehicle, including various emergencies and weather situations. Basic predator training includes a 70-day course with completion of 11 flight and 22 hours of qualification time. In addition, a series of ancillary courses are taught, including executive level and higher proficiency training.
Bannon stressed that those brought into the Predator pilot training course are highly skilled and understand not only the threat that something like a Hellfire missile payload represents but the intricacies of working in a combat situation and deploying weapons effectively. “We want them because of military skills,” he said.
The majority of sensor operators receiving training are enlisted personnel with some officers. Most are airmen right out of training at the Air Force intelligence school at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas. The officer ranks tend to be culled from active duty senior enlisted and junior officers from the intelligence community and the Air National Guard. Along with Air Force personnel, many students also come from the U.S. National Guard, particularly part-time soldiers from California, Arizona and South Dakota, all states where Predator units are in development.
They receive training on the UAV’s Infrared and visual cameras and video equipment. This includes the use of simulated images from electro-optical, infrared and synthetic aperture radar sensors which includes varied terrain, weather conditions and lighting. This is considered an important step forward as prior to the PMATS adoption the opportunity to train sensor operators was limited to real-world use.
Goldfinger said the system takes advantage of the Link’s history of building training simulators for manned aircraft. The company developed both the hardware and flight modules, which are supported with software solutions that utilize both playback and the ability to record all training simulation. The software built is on a visual scene generator and also fully networkable.
This ability to network the system gives the Predator school, for the first time, the flexibility to do joint training of flight teams. Multiple teams can practice flying within a small airspace while monitoring each other’s maneuvers and practicing the realities of such a situation without the danger associated with having a number of UAVs in a specific area. In addition, it is designed to be expandable in order to deal not only with changes within the predator system, including modification for the coming upgrade to the MQ-9 Predator B, and payload capabilities but also with user demands.
“Whatever they can do with any of them can be networked,” said Goldfinger, noting the importance of design flexibility because UAV systems as a rule go through modifications and changes at a much more rapid pace than manned aircraft. “Our system was designed from the get go to accommodate not only the growth in 1’s and 0’s and technology, but also the mission uses of systems.”
Kelly said what the company is faced with on an almost daily basis is end users coming up with new challenges that the PMATS system designers didn’t think of by asking if they can do something not currently offered or if a specific scenario or capability is possible. “This is new territory in the UAV world,” he said. “They get into that mold very quickly and their mind starts to go on about what they can [now] do. It’s almost like giving them an erector set and they think about the millions of things they can do.”
In addition, the company was faced with simulating not only the inherent sensory limitations of the predator systems, whose visuals and sensors can be less than perfect and subject to a host of interference issues, as well as those of the Predator’s satellite control links, which can be subject to disruption as a result of maneuvering the aircraft. This typically results in pilot overcorrection while the signal reconnects between pilots and the vehicle until the pilot gets used to the performance particulars.
Goldfinger added that embrace of full immersion UAV simulator training by the Air Force is really a first in the United States with implications far beyond just the Predator community. “What this means to the community as a whole is the recognition that fully immersive simulation training for unmanned has the same value and merit as it always had for the [manned] aircraft community,” said Goldfinger. “This is really about recognizing the value of full immersive training for the unmanned community.”
That community is poised for expansion beyond traditional military uses. While rules exist limiting the Air Force use of the Predator for anything other than Defense operations and all are currently being used for military missions, Bannon said that after Hurricane Katrina, talk began to surface of its potential uses in disaster relief and how it could be used to save lives domestically.
A memorandum of understanding was drafted between concerned government entities—both military and the civilian, including the Federal Aviation Administration, to allow for its use in such scenarios. Bannon said now that this is in place, the capability for disaster relief can be taken advantage of. The prospects for this are particularly good if the National Guard units get into the action as had been talked about.
He added that there would be a two- to three-day Air Force response time currently as they figure out where a team could be deployed, set up safely and for communications to be established. “We’ve never done it,” said Bannon. “I would venture to guess it would not go perfectly the first time.”
For the manufacturer, the Air Force has provided not only a test of its systems, but when this is coupled with the potential for Predator uses in civilian areas, a potential growth market. “We look forward to the opportunity to expand this horizontally into other platforms,” said Goldfinger, noting that not only has the FAA given its nod to the Predator’s use in humanitarian assistance missions but that the U.S. Border Patrol is using them for homeland security missions. ♦