Excalibur Nov_Dec 2011 Issue Part 1 - RFCA
Excalibur Nov_Dec 2011 Issue Part 1 - RFCA
Excalibur Nov_Dec 2011 Issue Part 1 - RFCA
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A student puts<br />
down covering<br />
fire as the JTAC<br />
manoeuvres to get<br />
“eyes-on” the tgt<br />
in the “simulated environment” where<br />
any faults in their plan or their procedures<br />
quickly come to light. Not satisfied with<br />
testing them on “our own turf”, the<br />
students then move to the ABTC at RAF<br />
Waddington – one of the most challenging<br />
Joint Fires computer simulation facilities in<br />
the world. Here they are put through their<br />
paces by independent staff in a state-ofthe-art<br />
simulator as they learn to work in<br />
the Jt Fires and ISTAR cell they’ll have on<br />
operations. The new TACP course really<br />
does give the students a fighting chance<br />
to keep their head above water on return<br />
to their Brigades. Many TACP personnel<br />
deploy straight onto Mission Specific<br />
Training in advance of deployment<br />
or on operations on completion of<br />
the course; the room for error is small<br />
indeed<br />
Synthetics …New Toys<br />
From 2008 to <strong>2011</strong> JFACTSU has changed<br />
the way forward air controlling is taught<br />
through computer based simulation. Pre<br />
2008, students started by standing around<br />
a table top sand model with a hawk on a<br />
stick and then progressed to a television<br />
displaying a picture from a camera being<br />
“flown” across a sand model.<br />
We still use the hawk on a stick, but<br />
JFACTSU now has two computer based<br />
simulators: the Forward Air Controller<br />
Trainer (FACT) and the Virtual Battlespace<br />
2 (VBS2) Suite. Students practice their<br />
techniques in the simulator and then<br />
conduct close air support (CAS) for real<br />
with live aircraft. This saves many flying<br />
hours as the students have made their<br />
basic errors in the simulators before talking<br />
to the real aircraft.<br />
The FACT was introduced to JFACTSU in<br />
2008. It is a computer based sim where<br />
the student is immersed in the virtual<br />
world by means of head mounted display.<br />
This display tracks the head movements<br />
and allows the student a 360° view of<br />
the environment. This affords<br />
us the ability to conduct<br />
Type 1 controls where the<br />
FAC needs to track the<br />
aircraft into the weapon<br />
release point. The aircraft<br />
drop weapons that create<br />
realistic<br />
effects<br />
o n<br />
the<br />
The DS monitor and<br />
control the input to<br />
student TACPs<br />
targets, so the FAC<br />
can give a good assessment of the damage<br />
to the pilot. The FACT is a simple system<br />
that allows single aircraft to be flown<br />
either by a real pilot on a laptop or simple<br />
entities created by the computers that fly<br />
but cannot react dynamically like a real<br />
pilot can.<br />
The new VBS2 sim is used for battlespace<br />
management and operational<br />
scenarios training. It is what is known as a<br />
“serious game”. The FACs uses this facility<br />
for their advanced training including:<br />
full motion video controlling, airspace<br />
management, precision weapons training,<br />
rotary-wing CAS and convoy support and<br />
urban CAS.<br />
The sim has a huge, accurate, database<br />
of current operational environments<br />
including maps of Afghanistan and Iraq. It<br />
enables any number of ‘intelligent’ entities<br />
A moving JTAC quickly learns<br />
it’s harder to control a jet onthe-go<br />
than on the hill!<br />
including<br />
multiple<br />
people, vehicles and aircraft to be<br />
present in any one scenario. It is<br />
all run on normal computers and<br />
is therefore very cheap compared to<br />
training with live aircraft. It allows us to<br />
train skills that cannot usually be trained<br />
in peacetime.<br />
JFACTSU can train a team of FACs and<br />
Tactical Air Control <strong>Part</strong>y simultaneously.<br />
The TACP sit in an ops room with multiple<br />
monitors capable of receiving downlinks<br />
from aircraft targeting pods and<br />
displaying airspace management tools.<br />
They chat using the text chat system to<br />
other organisations in theatre (simulated<br />
by the JFACTSU instructors) and VOIP radio<br />
comms to all players.<br />
The FAC on the ground sits in front of an<br />
86” projected display of the operational<br />
area and is treated to immersive surround<br />
sound. The sim allows the instructors to<br />
emulate all patterns of life from angry<br />
crowds and barking dogs to call to prayers.<br />
Instructors may insert and control any<br />
entity in the scenario allowing them to<br />
torment trainees with torrents of incoming<br />
fire and other inputs. Most FAC students<br />
report the step up from the FACT to VBS2<br />
as very realistic and immersive experience<br />
indeed.<br />
UNIT ARTICLES<br />
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