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2 octobre 2019 | International, Aérospatial

Virtual reality training — for pilots, maintainers and more — expands in 2020

By: Stephen Losey

One of the top priorities of Lt. Gen. Brad Webb, the newly minted head of Air Education and Training Command, will be expanding the Air Force's experiment with virtual reality training.

So far, the Air Force has had success with Pilot Training Next, which uses VR, biometrics and artificial intelligence to better teach aspiring pilots how to fly.

Webb is eyeing similar technologies, under the name Learning Next, to improve other forms of technical training. This could include teaching airmen how to maintain aircraft, fly remotely piloted aircraft or perform other technical tasks.

These programs allow students' education to proceed more at their own pace, since they are based on competency and are not tied to a timetable, Wright said. A student who already has the fundamentals down can skip the basics and go right to what he or she needs to learn.

AETC is now in the process of broadening Pilot Training Next, which has been a demonstration, to the next phase of wider experimentation, Webb said. He and Maj. Gen. Craig Wills, commander of the 19th Air Force, are working on plans to expand Pilot Training Next.

By next summer, Webb wants to have set up Pilot Training Next elements at several squadrons, though it wouldn't be across all undergraduate pilot training bases. A few classes after that, Webb expects, Pilot Training Next will be expanded to all UPT bases.

The Pilot Training Next expansion will likely be done methodically, at one base first, Webb said, though he would not say which base AETC is looking at. “What has happened in our last couple of years with Pilot Training Next has been an explosion, out of the box, of innovation,” Webb said.

“Make no mistake, the Air Force wants this inculcated as fast as we can go,” he said.

AETC is already in the “nascent stages” of testing VR and other technology-enhanced training for maintenance and other technical training as part of Learning Next, Webb said. Maintenance Next is a particular priority and is happening on an experimental basis at Kelly Field at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas, he said, and using VR for RPA training is also proceeding.

As the VR pilot training shows, such programs can accelerate in a hurry, he said.

Ethics

Webb also wants to cultivate an “environment of excellence, professionalism, ethics and character development” during his time at AETC.

Webb, who was previously commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, pointed to the ethical clouds that have fallen over parts of the special operations community in recent years. For example, the Navy relieved the entire senior leadership team of SEAL Team 7 earlier this month over what it described as leadership failures that resulted in a breakdown of good order and discipline while deployed.

AFSOC took a hard look at itself, Webb said, to make sure it doesn't allow similar lapses to fester.

“For a leader, you can never ... talk about core values enough,” Webb said. “If I had to look myself in the mirror from my last command, I can tell you my team knew our mission and vision of priorities backwards and forwards.”

But while airmen at AFSOC understood Air Force core values, he acknowledged he didn't always articulate those values in his everyday “walk-around, talk-around” encounters. That can create problems if leaders assume airmen already know about the core values, he said.

When a unit starts to feel the pressure from high operations tempos and a lack of resources, Webb said, that “get-'er-done” mentality can lead to bad decisions if airmen don't have a firm foundation of the Air Force core values.

“If you don't have a firm foundation, you can go to a dark place with that ... ‘find a way to yes' mentality,” Webb said. “We've got to always talk about professionalism and ethics, and also always talk about our core values. That will be a capstone” of his time at AETC.

Webb said he plans to continue with AETC's recent improvements in how special warfare airmen are recruited and trained, which included standing up the new Special Warfare Training Wing and the special warfare-focused 330th Recruiting Squadron. More work needs to be done to “normalize” and fine-tune those units, and more firmly fold them into AETC's everyday culture, he said.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/09/16/virtual-reality-training-for-pilots-maintainers-and-more-expands-in-2020

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  • Turkey Is Deploying Lots Of Air Defense Systems In Syria And Libya

    8 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial

    Turkey Is Deploying Lots Of Air Defense Systems In Syria And Libya

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This claim is unverified and also highly unlikely. The Turkish military is also becoming more deeply involved in the civil war in Libya where it's supporting the U.N.-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), based in the capital Tripoli that controls the west, against General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), based in Benghazi that controls the east. In Libya, Turkey has deployed a formidable array of air defense missiles in the country's west and has also made significant headway in establishing an “air defense bubble” around Tripoli. As The Washington Institute for Near East Policy observed: “The combination of medium-range U.S.-made MIM-23 Hawk missile systems, Hisar short-range SAMs, and Korkut antiaircraft guns created a layered defense over critical infrastructure and reduced the threat to GNA drone ground stations and launch operations.” “This protection, combined with an increase in Turkish operators and equipment, allowed Libyan government forces to increase the number and effectiveness of their drone operations,” the report added. While formidable, Turkish air defenses in western Libya have their limitations. Turkish military analyst Metin Gurcan, recently pointed out that “medium- and high-altitude air defense is vital for air dominance in the Sirte-al-Jufra axis, but this remains a problem for Turkey, though low-altitude air defense has been secured through the deployment of the Hisar air defense systems in Libya.” Gurcan went on to note that Turkey's far more advanced high-altitude S-400s haven't been activated and the prospect of transferring those sophisticated missiles – which could establish a game-changing Anti Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) zone over wherever they are deployed – to Libya “is out of question.” Turkey also deployed two MIM-23 Hawk batteries at al-Watiya airbase. They did not seem to have hindered an airstrike on July 3 carried out by unidentified warplanes, although they may not yet have been fully set up when that strike occurred. The jets that attacked al-Watiya – which was captured from the LNA by a Turkish-backed GNA offensive in May that broke the LNA siege on Tripoli and enabled the GNA to go on the offensive – likely belonged to a foreign air force supporting the LNA. One Turkish official said the jets were Dassault Mirage fighters. If true, then they were most likely Mirage 2000 jets belonging to the United Arab Emirates, a key backer of Haftar. The Arab Weekly, on the other hand, cited informed sources who claim the aircraft were Dassault Rafale jets, not Mirages. This would limit the attackers to either Egypt or France, both of which possess those multirole fighter jets and both of which support the LNA. The LNA wants to prevent Turkey from establishing a base in al-Watiya and further solidify its growing presence in the country by creating more air defense bubbles across the west. Turkey wants to help the GNA push on its offensive and capture the strategically-important city of Sirte and the al-Jufra region, including the eponymous airbase where Russia delivered MiG-29 and Su-24 warplanes in May. What happens next in Libya is anyone's guess. Turkey is likely to retain its presence and increase the number of its air defense missiles in Libya, especially if the GNA advances further eastward in the coming weeks. https://www.forbes.com/sites/pauliddon/2020/07/07/turkey-is-deploying-lots-of-air-defense-systems-in-syria-and-libya/#727c5aae5555

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  • To prepare for the future battlefield, the Army has opened its AI Task Force at CMU

    4 février 2019 | International, Terrestre, C4ISR

    To prepare for the future battlefield, the Army has opened its AI Task Force at CMU

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