Photo By Lance Cpl. Glen Santy | Maj. Gen. Jon M. Davis the command general, 2nd Marine Air Wing listens to the...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. - Breakthroughs in video game technology have given the Marine Corps aviation community new ideas for training their pilots and air crews. Their newest plan includes a mixture of online gaming and virtual reality simulations much like the ones found in many arcades today.
Maj. Gen. Jon M. Davis, the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing commanding general, pitched in his comments and concerns at the aviation distributed virtual training environment brief and demonstration Aug. 24. The meeting included topics of the acquiring of more aviation simulators and the nationwide networking potential that come with the devices.
“It’s the future, plain and simple,” explained Maj. Toby Buchan, Cherry Point Marine Aviation Training Systems Squadron officer in charge. “These simulators cost less than flying the aircraft. They are safer and a reliable way to train.”
Networking capabilities for the flight simulator allows simulators nationwide to run at the same time on the same network. Marines from MCAS Cherry Point can train with Marines from MCAS New River and even service members at Camp Pendleton or MCAS Miramar in California. One simulator can connect to multiple other simulators and have aviation personnel working together uniting any aviation base from the east to the west coast.
The simulators are not a replacement to flying. The simulators are used as additional practice to flying actual aircraft. The benefit to using the simulator is different scenarios can be thrown at the pilots while they’re in the simulator training. Some different scenarios include emergency landings, aircraft failure, enemy attacks and even weather changes.
“Nothing will beat getting real hands-on flight time,” said Buchan. “This system is about an 85 percent supplement to the big picture and can give supervisors a glance at a pilot’s habits and patterns while operating the aircraft.”
Linking the pilots together nationwide also has an advantage for training the Marines. For example, a Marine would not have to be sent to California to learn the difference between flying on the east or west coast environments.
“There are so many pros to using this system,” said Buchan. “Say it cost 10,000 dollars to put a Harrier up in the air for an hour. This would cost around 1,000 dollars to run for an hour.”
Enlisted personnel also train on the simulators just like the pilots. Everything runs just like in an actual mission. However, flight crews have not been integrated well into the simulators yet.
“We understand the vital need to have high-fidelity networked training devices so the air crew can be a full active part of training in the virtual environment,” said Fetzer.
Marine Corps Air Station New River has already started training enlisted personnel on virtual simulators.
“In New River there is a device called the MCAT,” said Fetzer. “It is the Marine Common Aircrew trainer; which is designed specifically for enlisted air crew. So those Marines are able to practice risky training scenarios while being safely bolted to the deck.”
The purpose of the brief was to show Davis that his command has the ability to network training assets which have not been able to be networked before now.
That can add to his readiness to go to war, explained Fetzer. Second MAW is leading the way, just as it has led the way in this concept of a worldwide network of Marine training systems.
Davis said he will never be satisfied because there is always room for improvement, but he is happy with the potential of future simulators.
“I would like to make a case to get more of the simulators,” said Davis. “Let’s step on the gas.”
| Date Taken: | 08.24.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 09.02.2011 14:05 |
| Story ID: | 76356 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 909 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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