Virtual Flag: Flying digital missions

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Phillip Butterfield
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  With the high operations tempo of the United States military and shrinking budgets, it's good to find alternatives to advance training and save money in the process. 

Luke Air Force Base participated in its eleventh Virtual Flag exercise -- a joint operation between the Air Force and sister services played out in high-tech simulators here --Feb 16 to 20 in Building 617. 

"The exercise incorporates Air Force pilots from different bases and our sister services working together," said Robert McCutchen, Lockheed Martin flight simulation engineer. "In this computer environment, just as we would in the operational theater, we have F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-15 Eagles and a B-52 Stratofortress fighting alongside the Army and Navy to accomplish the objective." 

One advantage of conducting the exercise in a virtual environment is if the enemy shoots an aircraft down, the pilot is afforded an opportunity to learn from the situation and re-accomplish the task, Mr. McCutchen added.
Virtual Flag wouldn't be possible without the Network Training Center Luke simulator system. 

"The NTC-L was completely developed here," said Richard Roller, 56th Training Squadron NTC-L project officer. "We developed NTC-L from the ground up with the aid of a team of engineers who work on software and hardware components to ensure our simulators are up-to-date and ready for the mission. Luke is the only base were you will find F-16 NTC simulators. Our four simulators are linked with the Distributed Mission Operations Center at Kirtland Air Force Base, NM. DMOC has a hub and spoke design which makes it possible to connect many different simulators and allows them to fly in one mission." 

The simulators used for the exercise have 360 degree view and are setup to operate in single ship to four ship configurations, Mr. Roller said. 

The NTC-L saves the Air Force money by not requiring pilots to fly an F-16 to accomplish every training scenario, which mitigates fuel and maintenance costs.