In times of Pentagon budget gloom, sunnier outlook for simulation industry.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Training & Simulation

Shrinking budgets for new weapons systems and live-fire training may boost demand for virtual simulations and gaming technologies, said industry and military officials.

"At a macro level, we are seeing, globally, pressure on budgets and new opportunities for increased use of simulation," said Chris Stellwag, spokesman for CAE USA, a supplier of modeling and simulation systems for civilian aviation and military forces.

Every time the Pentagon's budget heads for a downturn, the debate surfaces: Is it cheaper to train in simulators?

Rising fuel costs make simulations more attractive, said Michael E McGhee, acting deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for energy, environment, safety and occupational health.

In last year's Air Force research budget of $618 million, approximately $120 million is for advanced flight simulators, according to briefing charts presented by McGhee at an energy conference in Washington, D.C.

In the Air Force, increasingly more flight training is moving to simulators, said Gen. Stephen R. Lorenz, commander of the Air Education and Training Command, at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.

The Air Force currently is reviewing its undergraduate pilot training program. Part of the restructuring will include doing more of the training on simulators, Lorenz told reporters in Washington, D.C.

"At the basic level, simulation can do a lot," he said. "But it can't do everything. Eventually you have to fly the airplane."

The potential greater use of simulators also is a factor in the Air Force's analysis of how many new trainer aircraft it will buy to replace aging T-38s.

The service owns about 500 T-38s but does not expect to buy the same number of new trainers. How much of the training can be taken up by simulators is being studied, Lorenz said. A new "TO(" trainer could start replacing T-38s in 2020.

The Air Force has growing needs for both trainer aircraft and simulators for IFF, or "introduction to fighter fundamentals," said Col. Robert Otto, an F-15C pilot and also the Air Force deputy director of air, space and information operations.

The biggest training need right now is in IFF, Otto said earlier this year at an Institute for Defense and Government Advancement conference.

What exactly the Air Force will want in its new trainer is far from settled, he said. "Do we want an aircraft to take us all the way to the doorstep of a fifth-generation aircraft, or do we want one just for secondary training and another for IFF?"

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