From NewsandSentinal.com ("The online edition of the Parkersburg (West Virginia) News and the Parkersburg Sentinal")
(http://www.newsandsentinel.com/news/story/112202003_new02_simulator.asp)

Sunday, November 02, 2003

Airmen fly in virtual world

By DAVE PAYNE SR.

WILLIAMSTOWN - Nobody received even a scratch when a Blackhawk helicopter crashed at takeoff during a simulated combat-rescue mission at the West Virginia National Guard facility near the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport Saturday.

When an aircraft goes down in a computer simulator, no one is injured. The "crash" happened in a virtual world in which Army National Guard airmen in simulated helicopters hover over a computer-generated battlefield.

The Williamstown National Guard facility was the first stop for the Army's state-of-the-art Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer/Aviation Reconfigurable Manned Simulator, which is based in South Carolina.

"This is the first time it has been out of South Carolina. We are proud to have it here," said Lt. Col. Harold Campbell.

Dozens of airmen flew combat-rescue missions in Blackhawk helicopters Saturday in the simulator. It can accommodate six two-man crews and coordinate their efforts to let them fly in formation and execute missions together from the safety of two semi-trailers.

"You can fly in formation under enemy fire, look around and you see sagebrush and cactus," said Chief Warrant Officer 5 John Ray, a Parkersburg resident.

The simulator will remain at the facility today and train airmen at a National Guard facility in Wheeling next weekend, said Richard Macey, director of Army/Navy Training Support Programs for L3 Communications, the developer and manufacturer of the simulator.

The airmen wore virtual-reality helmets, which recreated the interior of the Blackhawk. Sensors in the helmet detect head movement so airmen can look at windows or even back inside the helicopters, Campbell said. They also can look at the virtual helicopters their fellow airmen are flying, he said.

"It's different at first, but after 10 minutes, you feel like you are actually in an aircraft flying along in formation," Ray said.

"It's unique, inside a room you can run combat missions in all weather. You could never do that in the real world, but the basic fact it's all the same, the aircraft reacts the same."

Some of the airmen who flew Blackhawk missions Saturday were not qualified to fly that helicopter, meaning the training scenario could never happen in real life, Ray said.

The simulator opens a world of combat training scenarios which would be difficult or impossible to create with actual vehicles, Macey said. They can fly missions in moonlight or navigate enemy defenses in total darkness with the assistance of night-vision goggles.

The trainer also can pull off mission scenarios in moments that would take hours to orchestrate with real military equipment. Soon after the simulated after-takeoff crash, the mission was aborted and the helicopters zipped back to their pre-flight positions within a second.

"In real life, it would take forever to get them back there," said John Flanagan, project director for TPIO-Virtual, as he watched the mission unfold on a computer screen from the Battle Master Control Room.

Just before a simulated mission began, a guardsman cracked open the control room door and said jokingly, "I was told to come in here and fire some artillery at them to make it interesting."

Actually, those watching the mission unfold in the control room actually could "fire" a few rounds, insert enemy troops, anti-aircraft defenses or even make it rain, Flanagan said.

If airmen don't take appropriate measures to overcome enemy air defenses, the outcome is simple - they get shot down, he said.

While in a simulated mission using actual vehicles, airmen might disagree over whether they should have been shot down. The simulator leaves little doubt, Flanagan said.

After the mission has been flown, the airmen watch as it is replayed on a large screen in the After-Action Review Theater, a 16-foot room located in the trailer.

While the airmen were flying missions in Blackhawks only, the simulator is capable of much more, Macey said. The cockpit console and controls for five different crafts are stored away in each cockpit room and within minutes of flying rescue missions in Blackhawk helicopters, other airmen can be decimating enemy armor in an Apache, Macey said.

It also can be linked with other simulators throughout the world, to coordinate their missions with other airmen or with ground units using tank simulators, he said.