TACTS-like Training for Surface Warriors

This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected.  Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies.  Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue.  The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection. 

k

"lind

°%i

fy “technology” once brought to guys in white coats working in lab-

_r 'ties in the desert or maybe in some •• °^te comer of the waterfront. They ^to combine the hard work of science

with tk

^ine artistry of invention to produce ^es of machinery or electronic compo­

sed

(l_t ^ls that were better than the ones the _r,_;t| ^Was then using. Sometimes the tech- g_e ^ans were successful and their new ^^reventually found its way to the fleet, °^Ur sailors figured out how to use ciir_s^SOrnet'^mes admiring it, sometimes to it, but in either case, applying it „ ^e task at hand.

f_0r ^c°urse, we have still another word “traj ⁶ spring and applying part— tf_aj_nⁿⁱⁿg ” And we really know how to _er : Put some shells in the gun and let tfy P’ ^send a couple of fighters into the tf_lc 5^nc* see which pilot comes back with hj_s ^West “pipper burns” on the back of :jij._|n ^ch. Shooting the guns got to be very ,_nre;^atwe, because the results could be

weapon systems, we also are clever enough to develop computer-aided train­ing systems. These training systems should enable us to use our actual weapon systems under realistic combat scenarios against credible threats. The aviation community embraced this concept more than 15 years ago. Now it’s time to bring the surface warriors on board.

In the eyes of many observers, the cre­ation of Top Gun and Strike University has revolutionized naval aviation’s com­bat training. Those specialized institu­tions are indeed uncommon contributors

^ters

^ⁿ§ the dogfight was not as easy.

H_ent ^,echnology gave us better equip- Sopjj-’ ^hich generally equated to more siv_e '^st'^cated, complicated, and expen­se ^ecluipment, the training problem i«j, ^e more complicated and the train- irin ,^r<)Cedures became less exact. Leam- 5^ to use a system was still fairly and^’forward. We could turn on a radar Piclt ^ClP’^ler the hieroglyphics in order to thr_0(J⁰’’’ the target of interest, then step of _vv'='¹ the firing procedure to the point _H^aPou release. But the operational Pep_sj ’ ”^lc end game, was often too ex- the ,^{c to} observe regularly. The cost of s

ie ij . ”‘^j

•rain: .’ted assets that are available for

tv.-           ^

^•ssiies

^shon

was (and is) so high that rou-

]j ⁰°t^s proved too expensive. And

S2

Uarj_0s® ^are most often used in rigid sce- ^shot ' goal is to ensure a successful f₀ ,ⁿ°’ to develop tactical proficiency. ^vel(_)p the target needed most for de- «tn_pi₀ ^ent of true adversarial weapon ^ca| _ai^’^11ent capability is a manned tacti- or a calculating, threat-in-

a'rcraft

'^tSe|fsurf ----------------- =’ -------

^CrUi_Sef ^ace platform. A guided-missile

yok_e thg^Uel'ⁿ8 W't’^{1 a} drone does not in

v;';^{c Sam}e tactical and psychological ^sPee₍)^{atlVe as} one trying to kill a high- to„_r ^amiradiation missile (HARM)- ^c9n ()q ^rcfi A-7 Corsair before the Corsair P’ohlg ”^s job- The answer to this training ’^cch_tl()^,]^ri *'^es >n the source of the problem: 'eve^gy. If we are clever enough to

d,

sophisticated, computer-aided

For 15 years, naval aviators have benefited from training on instru­mented ranges. It’s time for the sur­face warriors to start catching up.

to the war-fighting skills of our fighter and attack aircrews. However, a salient but often unnoticed point is that in each case maturity of the institution coincided with initial operational capability of an instrumented training range. These ranges, the air combat maneuvering range (ACMR) at Yuma, Arizona, and the 36-aircraft tactical air combat training system (TACTS) at Fallon, Nevada, eliminated the earlier calibrated-eyeball and best-guess methodologies. This was necessary to avoid firing expensive mis­siles in unrealistic launch scenarios (and because even then the aviators liked to use each other for targets and were natu­rally loath to find themselves on the pointy end of real weapons). Calibrated eyeballs are still essential, because they still will mean the difference between success or failure in actual combat. But now the ranges provide an absolute refer­

ence for that calibration.

The ranges operate functionally by col­lecting real-time data: aircraft position, attitude, sensor information, and weapon fire pulses. The data are fed into comput­ers that simulate weapons flying out on cue and calculate kill probabilities. In processing the data, the ACMR and TACTS (a higher capacity, more capable version of the ACMR that it is currently replacing) allow monitoring of an event in progress and give instant feedback to the aircrews. Correct actions are immedi­ately reinforced, and less-than-correct responses can be critiqued and the ma­neuver reattempted while the previous action is still fresh in memory. Validation of specific tactics is an invaluable by­product of the TACTS capabilities. Fur­thermore, immediate monitoring and dis­play reproduction eliminates the uncer­tainty and interminable delay of many current data collection efforts for tactical exercises.

This instrumented system for air-to-air warfare had its growing pains. All of us are somewhat suspicious of any machine that impugns our judgment, or says maybe our eyeball calibration could ben­efit from some tweaking. But the tech­nology is now proven and mature. As the reliability and fidelity of TACTS in­creased, aviators grew to respect its abil­ity to hone their tactical skills. From air- to-air weapons applications, it was a logi­cal step to incorporate air-to-ground and ground-to-air missile simulations: this gives the attack aviators the ability to train for radar-suppression missions by simulating Strike and HARM deliveries, and all aircraft can fly their particular missions against targets and airspace that are defended by the electronic warfare suite in the target complex. The next step was to include air-delivered conventional ordnance in the simulations, so that at­tack pilots could “destroy” realistic mock-up ground targets. The culmination of the aircraft range instrumentation ef­fort to date is the Fallon TACTS range, which integrates all air warfare mission areas and enables realistic multiaircraft strikes in tactical scenarios against realis­tic (visual or radar) defended targets. With this system, as with the ACMR at Yuma primarily used by the fighter com­munity (often under Top Gun’s watchful eye), Strike University is able to evaluate both performance and tactics for each air wing during its training periods prior to deployment.

This type of instrumented system has

^llnSs / October 1988

165

American Heat* Association

WE'RE FIGHTING FOR

VOUR LIFE                               ^

PRESIDIO*

_______  HISTORY OF THE ROYAL NAVY IN THE

TWENTIETH CENTURY.by Antony Preston 224 pages, 9x12 hardcover $25.00

OPERATION DRAGOON-.The Allied Irrva- _ Sion of the South of France ,by William B. Breuer

280 pages, hardcover                                               $17.95

THREE WAR MARINE: The Pacific. Korea,

____  Vietnam ,by Col. Francis Fox Parry

336 pages, hardcover                                               $22.95

----------------- GUARDIANS.Strategic Reconnaissance

Satellites ,by Curtis Peebles

380 pages, hardcover                                               $28.95

HEADHUNTERS.Stories from thetst

—          Squadron, 9th Cavalry, in Vietnam, 1965­1971, edited by Matthew Brennan

320 pages, hardcover                                               $18.95

DEFEATOFTHE WOLFPACK}by Geoffrey _ Jones

236 pages, hardcover                                               $16.95

----------------- ST. NAZAIRE COMMANDO,by Stuart

Chant-Sempill

236 pages, hardcover,                                              $17.95

CV.Carrier Aviation (second revised edi-

—          lion), by Peter Garrison, photography by George Hall

110 pages, paper, Airpower Book #1001

$1295

UNE DOGGIE,Foot Soldier mVietnam ,by

—               Charles Gadd

208 pages, hardcover                                               $15.95

AIRBORNEAssault from the Sky. by Hans Haberstadt

________ 144 pates, paper. Landpower Book #3001

$1295

MILITARY UNIFORMS IN AMERICA,

—          VOLUME IV, The Modem Era, edited by Col. John R. Elting and Michael J. McAfee 145 pages, hardcover, 8 3/4 x11 1/4 $40.00

WELCOME TO VIETNAM MACHO MAN:

Reflections ct a Khe Sanh Vet. by Ernest Spencer

180 pages, hardcover                                               $15.95

ORDER TODAYI from Presidio Press Box I764PK , Novato, CA 94948 Phone (415) 883-1373

Name

Address

City_____________________ St______ Zip_

SIGNATURE (For Credit Card Orders):

no prejudices. If the computer can re­ceive the appropriate information from a participant, it cares not whether the player is an F/A-18 “shooting” a HARM at a ground radar, or a surface-to-air mis­sile site firing at an EA-6B. A ship, prop­erly instrumented to provide the position/ attitude/sensor information, could “de­fend” herself against aircraft, other ships, or any other participant in the in­strumented range system and have the same verifiable, validated feedback. This capability has already been demon­strated, using the Oceana ACMR near Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The surface navy must be provided with the same level of technology to solve its training problems. Existing sys­tems, while perhaps not the ultimate an­swer, can be configured and located to enable the surface fleet to train effec­tively in a full range of warfare-mission areas: war at sea, both defensive and of­fensive; antiair warfare; and various am­phibious tactical-mission areas, such as over-the-horizon assaults. Once the ship becomes a participant, the training op­portunity is limited only by range size, ship-range interfaces, and the tactical imagination of the players.

Establishing an instrumented range that provides coverage of fleet training sea space is a significant task. But the maturity of TACTS-type technology makes that task achievable in the near term. Developing specific software (to include ships’ characteristics, missile simulations for the current U. S. Navy inventory of weapons, ship weapon sys­tems, and sensor interfaces) requires only time and the type of talent that was avail­able for TACTS development. In fact, several significant efforts are currently in progress to establish instrumented ranges that include ships as primary players.

An essential, invaluable piece of the surface navy’s training puzzle is at our fingertips and needs the operating forces’ unequivocal support. To train for combat, we need to shoot to kill at every opportu­nity. With an instrumented range, this is a tactical training reality. Using flashing lights to simulate guns against a fast low-flier tells nothing of the probable outcome of the engagement and is no longer acceptable in light of the instru­mented capabilities that are technically feasible now for aircraft or surface ships.

Commander Wallace is a senior research engineer with SRI International in Menlo Park, California. While in the Navy, he served as chief staff officer. Commander Tactical Air Control Group One, and was chairman of the Fleet Project Team for the Fallon TACTS while on staff duty with Commander Light Attack Wing. Pacific. A 1968 U. S. Naval Academy graduate, he received his master’s degree in aeronau­tical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School.

There’s only one way to come out aheafl of the pack.

YOU'RE