Air Force joins virtual, real combat situations

Jace Radke

Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2002 | 8:24 a.m.

A mixture of virtual and live combatants will be part of an Air Force simulation of World War III when Nellis Air Force Base hosts a Red Flag exercise in January.

Using new technology, tested in a military simulation for the first time during last week's Red Flag, pilots in the air will fight a battle with each other and with pilots on the ground in simulators as battle commanders coordinate the chaos in a command center.

The new seamless training event allows the Air Force to use the virtual technology of simulators to increase the scope of air warfare exercises, Nellis Air Warfare spokesman Master Sgt. Rich Covington said.

"In past exercises pilots can walk outside and know the weather and see how many planes are going to be in the air during the training mission," Covington said. "Now we can throw simulated threats and aircraft at them, while at the same time pilots in simulators in other parts of the country can participate in the exercise."

Two hundred experts from the United States and Europe who run air operation centers during combat missions will be at Nellis in January for the exercise. They will work out of a command center using both virtual and real aircraft to simulate a battle.

"The information flows both ways," Covington said. "The virtual aircraft register on the real aircraft's computers, and all the information will come into the operation center, where the experts will choose targets and fight the war."

Over the weekend 60 aircraft were in the air over the Nevada Test and Training Range linked to more than 1,000 aircraft operating in a virtual world. During the exercise the entire West Coast became a theater for war.

The virtual participants flew simulators in training facilities throughout the country and linked to the Red Flag exercise through Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.

The use of the virtual technology allows for added variables to be put into the scenarios, Mark Correll, director of support for the Combined Air and Space Operations Center, said.

"If someone makes a mistake in a virtual war, we can let the error run its course to see an outcome that we may not allow to happen during live peacetime training," Correll said. "It's real-time training in a virtual world."

Weather and broken aircraft can impair training in a live exercise, but simulators can make up for those problems.

"Some aircraft we don't want to use in live exercises because of the cost associated with them, and some are not always available," Covington said. "Now we can simulate them and have them involved."