Distributed Mission Ops shape USAF training projects.

• Author: Rietze, Susan

The Air Force's umbrella program for simulation-based training--called Distributed Mission Operations--emphasizes operational concepts and mission rehearsal. It will gradually incorporate simulation systems that previously were known as Distributed Mission Training.

But it's not yet clear whether the Air Force will have the funding for its ambitious DMO program, said Air Force Col. Curtis Papke.

The "Air Force has some large bills to pay," he said, but nonetheless training and simulation are receiving the attention they deserve, in part due to the visibility that DMO has received among top Air Force officials.

"Within the last four months, the terms DMO and DMT have blended," reflecting a desire to incorporate operational concepts into the training process, said Papke, chief of war fighter training research.

Both Gen. John Jumper, Air Force chief of staff, and Gen. Donald Cook, commander of the Air Education and Training Command, have pushed for additional training dollars, said Col. Michael Chapin, director of the Air Force Training Systems Product Group, at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

Jumper is a "strong supporter of the idea of an enhanced distributed mission training simulation," said Papke. Under the DMO concept, a network of aircraft simulates air operations in conjunction with command and control units.

However, rewriting these training requirements into what is expected in "true mission rehearsal" remains a big challenge, said Papke.

Currently, DMO capabilities include F-15, F-16 and AWACS trainers. Plans are also in the works to include the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, the B-1 bomber, the F-22 and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The challenge is in the networking of the simulators, according to Chapin. He commented on the difficulty of obtaining "multi-level security" and "moving critical data across a commercial network in near realtime."

TSPG is currently in the fifth year of a 15-year program to network all Air Force training systems. However, Chapin said that the project would never reach a hard-line completion date because of the changing nature of Air Force operational concepts and aircraft capabilities. The goal, he concluded, is "fidelity," so that simulators would mirror the aircraft as realistically as possible.

Training and simulation programs are becoming critical for rehearsing emergency and evacuation drills, according to Chapin. A pilot flying close air patrols in a no-fly zone, for example, "would not...