7 minute read
Building Bridges with Simulated Large Force Exercises
By LT Taylor “Stoli” Minor, USN
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Every aviator is well acquainted with "the sim." Since the start of flight school, aviators spend hours inside simulators to learn basic muscle movements, re-punch currencies, and practice tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) that would otherwise be difficult to accomplish in the aircraft. As technology develops, so do the capabilities of simulators. Better fidelity, ease of use, and interconnectivity on a local network and beyond have all expanded the ways in which we utilize simulators. With a shift in focus to Great Power Competition (GPC) comes expanded mission requirements and a multitude of weapons suite; the completion of quality readiness training thus becomes more and more expensive and man-hour intensive. In an effort to create a high-fidelity training environment without the cost of executing in the aircraft, the United States Navy has looked increasingly towards bolstering simulator infrastructure. Over the last decade, NAWDC has invested heavily in the Live Virtual Construct (LVC) model of training. With several dozen simulators for different assets in the Carrier Strike Group (CSG) package, from F/A-18s and E-2Ds to AEGIS cruisers, these players can work a battle problem without ever breaking deck or getting underway.
Additionally, the Air Force has leaned forward in developing architecture to combine virtual and constructive simulations across the service branches. The 705th Combat Training Squadron at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, NM hosts the Distributed Mission Operations Center (DMOC), a hub for integrating numerous warfighting communities to tackle realistic battle problems from within the compound itself and from networked simulators around the world. At the DMOC, the 705th hosts quarterly exercises, VIRTUAL FLAG, with representatives across all four branches from a large swath of communities: land, air, and sea. Over the course of a few weeks, these players have to overcome not only the challenges of the battle problem, but the barriers in communication and sheer misunderstandings between communities. The VIRTUAL FLAG events serve to highlight the fundamental communication problems with Large Force Exercises (LFEs) and give players a no-threat environment to practice how they want to play together with cohesive contract building and language standardization.
For a typical junior officer in a HSC squadron, the opportunity to work with other units is limited to, at most, a couple of Air Wing Fallon (AWF) events or COMPTUEX (C2X) before “doing it live” on a deployment. This lack of experience in the junior ranks requires squadrons and detachments to put only the most qualified pilots on events; this process exacerbates the void of understanding in how a large force exercise or operation is executed. A major obstacle in integrating communities together is the inherent lack of familiarity with the full capabilities each community has to offer, compounded by the minimal large force exercises to allow for opportunity to arrive at a common understanding. For example: many air controllers, whether air or surface based, see the MH-60S as a purely logistical aircraft with a Search and Rescue capability. This mentality and lack of understanding overlooks the utility of the aircraft and its aircrew who are required to train to and operationally provide capabilities such as Personnel Recovery, Special Operations Forces Support, and attack in both the maritime and overland environment.
Currently, the HSC Community underutilizes the available simulator architecture at its fingertips and relegates its TOFTs to simple emergency procedure machines for FRS students, or a way to gain instrument approaches before a check ride. Part of the community’s problem is purely scheduling. Many of these DMOC events or higher end simulator LFEs require Initial Planning Conferences (IPCs) and Final Planning Conferences (FPCs) to ensure the maximization of training objective completion, and to tailor the scenarios to the specific squadrons. Ultimately, if the squadrons don’t participate in the planning, they’re precluding themselves from shaping the training narrative. Additionally, to expand the ability of the simulators, the Navy needs to consider funding dedicated teams on the sea walls to run both the simulator architecture and the LFE scenarios. This would reduce the burden on individual squadron instructors by allowing them to focus more on learning objectives and less on fighting the sim.
The rewards for the HSC Community’s embrace of the LVC concept are numerous. Squadrons in the maintenance phase of the Fleet Readiness Training Plan (FRTP) are often at the mercy of limited aircraft availability. Simulator availability, however, is much more predictable across the FRTP and can field an LFE at a fraction of the cost of an exercise involving live aircraft. Additionally, in many cases, simulators can provide even higher fidelity training than can be presented in actual aircraft events, which require huge coordination efforts and sophisticated OPFOR/Red Air presentations. Because of HSC’s limited participation in LFEs, our community continuously struggles to advertise the versatility of the MH60S. No other platform has the flexibility to easily conduct a Maritime Strike and immediately re-roll into a self-escorted Personnel Recovery mission to pick up U.S. forces in the dirt or at sea in the dark of night. By bringing in other entities from air, land, and sea, both within the U.S. Navy and from other branches, the community advertises its multi-mission
capabilities and shows a reliable presence that can reach inland like no other platform can. Internal to the MH60S community, the ACTC progression would improve exponentially. Currently, higher end graded events are limited to Monday mornings in TOFT 7 and 8 on North Island. But dedicating a week to LVC events on a quarterly basis would open up ACTC advancement across each squadron on both coasts. Externally, the average Level II TACAIR pilot has a greater LFE experience than the average Level II HSC pilot due to their extensive participation in multi-section and division flights. By participating in simulated LFEs, junior HSC pilots could obtain a leg up on the “Admin and TacAdmin” process unique to large events.
Ultimately, the community needs to look at embracing the Air Force’s VIRTUAL FLAG Program or creating its own. VIRTUAL FLAG generally hosts LNOs from each community to travel to Albuquerque during the exercise; for the sea walls, the value gained is well worth this travel expense; participants obtain experience with a prebuilt battle problem, with all other players already integrated into the fight. By setting aside a recurring (quarterly) block of simulators, dedicated to the accomplishment of an overarching battle problem, the HSC Community could easily leverage existing technology to create its own Virtual Flag as a replacement for or supplement to the Air Force version. Coordination with other assets (F/A-18s in Lemoore and A-10s in Missouri) could be handled at the HSC Weapons School level. Individual crews from the operational squadrons would be tested in their ability to cohesively mission plan in a disaggregated environment. To reduce burden at the squadron level, the civilians at Navy Aviation Distributed Training Center (NADTC) in Point Loma could handle the OPFOR task in addition to playing the role of entities not able to represent themselves.
By embracing the assets already available and dedicating a concerted effort to exploiting their full potential, the HSC Community can grow by leaps and bounds. No longer will we be fighting for a seat at the table. With a fully integrated and respected platform, we’ll already be there.
Sources
https://news.usni.org/2015/07/21/manazir-navy-preparing-formassive-simulated-training-center-in-fallon-nas https://news.usni.org/2020/09/14/navy-harnessing-newtechnology-to-restructure-aviation-training
