{"id":5763,"date":"2021-04-03T07:10:26","date_gmt":"2021-04-03T07:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/03\/a-high-tech-fix-for-the-air-forces-training-crisis\/"},"modified":"2021-04-03T07:10:26","modified_gmt":"2021-04-03T07:10:26","slug":"a-high-tech-fix-for-the-air-forces-training-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/03\/a-high-tech-fix-for-the-air-forces-training-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"A High-Tech Fix for the Air Force’s Training Crisis?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A High-Tech Fix for the Air Force’s Training Crisis?<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Air Force has long faced a silent crisis: It can\u2019t train and retain enough pilots. And now, challenged to confront peer adversaries, rather than the insurgents it\u2019s been engaging for the last 20 years, even the pilots the service can train aren\u2019t getting the quantity or quality of hours in mock combat they need to hone their skills, according to former USAF leaders.<\/p>\n

A transformative new technology, which combines live training with virtual simulation, can help address that problem, its proponents say. Augmented reality training is \u201ca game changer,\u201d promised Will Roper, who previously served as the Air Force\u2019s assistant secretary for acquisition, technology, and logistics.<\/p>\n

The pilot shortfall<\/a> has been a persistent problem for the Air Force, despite a $1.7 billion annual training budget. But it\u2019s been highlighted anew as the U.S. military has pivoted from the \u201cendless wars\u201d of counter insurgency to confront peer adversaries, especially China, which has its own fifth generation fighters to match the U.S. F-22 and F-35.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gap between how we train our combat aviators, and how they\u2019ll need to fight against modern adversaries has continued to grow wider,\u201d said retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of AFA\u2019s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. \u201cWe\u2019re essentially still training our pilots the same way we did 60 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Combat training for fighter pilots, with a red team playing the role of adversaries like China\u2019s fifth generation J-20, is expensive and time consuming. Above all, it\u2019s \u201climited by the availability of air and ground training assets that accurately replicate those peer threat systems,\u201d explained retired Gen. James M. Holmes, former head of Air Combat Command who now serves as Chairman of the Red 6 board. He added that the red teams at major Air Force exercises like Red Flag \u201cresemble 1980s Warsaw Pact threats more than they resemble the capabilities of 2020\u2019s China and Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

40 years ago, Holmes said, as a young lieutenant, he flew more than 225 training sorties a year, about 350 hours a year. Now, his son Capt. Wade Holmes, who flies F-16s in the Air National Guard, is \u201clucky to fly 120 of those [training sorties] a year and almost half of those are flown as red air, providing training support for someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Air Force has used simulation technology to try to close that gap, and is investing heavily in its new approach to training: Live, virtual, and constructive. \u201cLVC is widely recognized as the only way, the only cost effective way, for us to train against fifth generation adversaries,\u201d said long-time Senate Armed Services Committee staffer and USAF veteran Robert \u201cOtis\u201d Winkler, \u201cWe spent a ton of money and a ton of time developing the virtual and constructive portion of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He spoke alongside Holmes and Deptula at a Mitchell Institute virtual seminar March 16.<\/p>\n

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