Photo By Senior Airman Timothy Tweet | Master Sgt. Justin Murner of the 194th Air Support Operations Group, Washington Air...... read more read more
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CAMP MURRAY—More than 100 soldiers and airmen from three states participated in a training exercise here in November to demonstrate the value of new joint terminal attack control simulators. Airmen from the Washington Air National Guard’s 194th Air Support Operations Group, based at Camp Murray, were joined by soldiers from the California Army National Guard’s 40th Infantry Division, the Oregon Army National Guard’s 41st Brigade Combat Team, and the Washington Army National Guard’s 81st Brigade Combat Team for exercise “Cascade Warrior.”
“This is the realization of a seven-year dream to figure out how to do joint virtual and constructive training that accurately emulates what airmen and soldiers need to prosecute the joint fight,” said Col. Jeremy Horn, commander of the 194th Wing that includes the 194th ASOG. “Active duty leaders were there looking at this as a model for the total force.”
The exercise incorporated various integrated systems and simulators including the Air National Guard Advanced Joint Terminal Attack Controller Training System (AAJTS) which is a high-fidelity, fully immersive domed simulator designed to support Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) and Combat Controller squadron-level rehearsal training.
“This system provides capabilities and simulator training that you could otherwise only get at a major field training event,” said Senior Master Sgt. Greg Kassa, simulations noncommissioned officer for the 194th Air Support Operations Group. “We’ve just touched the surface of the capabilities of this system. This exercise integrated capabilities of Army staff, joint fires observers, and the ASOG. The simulation capabilities are instrumental in bridging any gaps between Army and Air during missions.”
The simulation builds on lessons learned dating back over a decade. “We deployed in 2004 and we weren’t as good as we thought we were,” said Senior Master Sgt. Greg Kassa, simulations noncommissioned officer for the 194th ASOG. “When we came back the commander tasked us to come up with a way to train on what we learned on deployment. So a guy from 168th ASOS, Illinois Air National Guard [and I] started working on an integrated simulator training system, and have been continually developing and improving it since.”
Horn praised Kassa for his ongoing work to perfect this system. “Nowhere else but in the Guard can someone basically have the same job for ten years, developing relationships with all of the players that bring this technology together,” said Horn.
When Horn first knew Kassa, “he was already taking the Air Force system that industry provided and figuring out how to take yesterday’s air tasking orders and use them to train for today,” said Horn. “He cut the Close Air Support response time to two minutes. He’s taken that same innovation and expanded to Army fire systems.”
One airman who trained in the AAJTS simulator was Master Sgt. Justin Murner, JTAC for the 194th ASOG. “Our JTAC’s can train in this simulator as much as they want, and as much as time permits,” said Murner. “I’ve been in it a few times since we opened it around September. I love it compared to what we used to have. The simulator used to be a simple white screen with a laptop, but now it’s this. This simulator has 270 degree coverage so a JTAC can have planes coming in from behind, over their shoulder,” said Murner.
When asked about the most significant benefits of the simulator Murner explained, “If we have JTAC trainees bomb their own position while in here, it’s a bad thing, but we can debrief it and learn from it, [and] nobody gets hurt. The likeness of the downloaded maps is one of the coolest things. Additionally the number of aircraft assets on injects you can use are limitless. This system is very flexible,” said Murner.
| Date Taken: | 12.04.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 12.04.2016 13:43 |
| Story ID: | 216358 |
| Location: | CAMP MURRAY, WA, US |
| Web Views: | 566 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
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