The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), 711th Human Performance Wing (HPW), Human Effectiveness Directorate, has helped make possible a new Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) training concept. This concept integrates into a single training event: live elements (i.e., real people using real equipment), virtual elements (i.e., real people using simulated equipment), and constructive elements (i.e., computer-generated people or things). The FLC Midwest Region has recognized the 711th HPW's contribution to this revolutionary model with a 2009 regional Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer. Fifth-generation fighters (i.e., F-22A Raptors and F-35A Joint Strike Fighters) are so advanced that it has become difficult to provide training that challenges the pilot's skill and the aircraft's capabilities. These limitations include the space required, the cost of operations, and the level of effort needed to train them under more traditional models. The LVC concept eliminates many of these difficulties by connecting live jets on the range to virtual simulators and computer-generated entities from a threat system. "We can maximize our airspace on our ranges and not have to put a lot of infrastructure on the ground," said Kristen Barrera, LVC Program Manager at the 711th HPW. In addition to providing a more realistic and interactive simulation, the concept helps trainers identify the need for specialized instruction by providing more accurate performance assessments. The AFRL team contributed two pieces of software that became critical components of this emerging concept, which has revolutionized U.S. military training policy. These contributions included a "translator" that allows in-flight aircraft and ground-based simulators to communicate seamlessly in their native languages; and the Performance Effectiveness Tracking System (PETS), which collects data from networked LVC simulation environments and organizes it into statistically friendly formats. The translator "takes simulator language, wraps it up in a wrapper the jet can understand…and allows communication between guys on the ground with the sims and the jet," said Barrera. The use of PETS improves the trustworthiness of readiness and performance assessments of personnel by capturing data that helps training managers evaluate trends in pilot performance and specify individualized training. AFRL conceptualized, developed, and prototyped the software at its research facilities in Mesa, Arizona, and during a live demonstration. The technical work, accomplished under a series of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), includes improved data standards; industry specifications; and the critical ability to pass information back and forth between disparate systems, including simulators, operational aircraft and instrumented range systems. AFRL's first-ever technology demonstration placed them squarely in the lead of the U.S. Joint Forces Command's initiative to develop worldwide LVC training capability at the joint and coalition levels. The complexity of the LVC concept required a number of people with different specialties to work on the project. In addition to Ms. Barrera, the team included Dr. Winston Bennett, III; Lt. Col. Joel Boswell; Kenneth Kleinlein; Lance Call; Scott Swigert; David Greschke; Tim Esplin; Mitchell Zamba; Robert Rickard; Stephen Masters; Don Grantham, Jr.; Brian Schreiber; Eric Watz; Rod Powers; Rob Lechner; Maj. Jon Giulietti; Glen House; Ken Collier; Capt. Benjamin Harrison; Stephen Riemer; Robert Gomez; and Larry Clemons. With such a large team, Barrera said, "It was kind of eerie how smoothly things came together." Despite coming from different companies and backgrounds, a "family-type atmosphere" emerged. The common goal of providing the best training possible brought the team together for the good of the warfighter, and the team's diversity fostered a long-term view of the project. Barrera said that the award-winning technologies are only "the first step of many to realize our goal of further developing fifth-generation fighter training." Forthcoming updates build on the components her team provided, and Barrera expects the next steps will further revolutionize the training process. Over the next three years, she said, the LVC pilot project will conduct "a series of demonstrations with increasing complexity from 2010 and running through 2012," and in 2013 will begin to further combine testing and training. The greatest challenge, said Barrera, was convincing people outside the project of the training and operational potential uses and benefits, and changing the traditional paradigms about how training is conducted. Now people are beginning to see the LVC concept as the future of warfighter training—-and not only within the Air Force. The team is in communication with the Office of the Secretary of Defense to expand the program, possibly combining their work with similar initiatives in other service branches. In addition, other countries have already begun to participate in adopting the LVC concept.
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