Facing an aging fleet and budgetary pressures, the Air Force is embracing modern technology in its efforts to better train pilots.
The Air Mobility Fundamentals-Simulator virtual reality cockpit created by Redbird Flight Simulations will allow the Air Force to modernize its training methods without sacrificing quality, the Military Times reported Tuesday.
It also will allow the military to retire its fleet of T-1A Jayhawk advanced training jets, which have been in service for more than 30 years. And instead of student pilots needing five months of training in the T-1A, simulators can teach them advanced skills in 75 days.
"For the types of things that they do in the T-1, a sim is a great place to do that at a much lower operational cost," Josh Harnagel, marketing vice president at Redbird Flight Simulations, told the Military Times.
Redbird said its virtual reality cockpit uses flight modeling and avionics from Lockheed Martin, and software from the Science Applications International Corporation. Although the view outside the airplane is virtual, cameras on a headset allow students to see their hands while they manipulate buttons and knobs.
Using simulators for training is not new in the aviation industry, but Heather Penney, a retired Air National Guard fighter pilot who now researches defense policy at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, said nothing beats real-world experience.
"There's a lot of value to a simulator, but there's something fundamentally different when you're up in the thin air," Penney told the Military Times. "There's no do-overs; there's no resets."
The Air Force ordered 20 virtual reality devices from Redbird, the Military Times reported, at a cost of between $300,000 and $500,000 each.
Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma received its first Redbird simulators in September, the Military Times reported. Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi is scheduled to receive its by March, and Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas is set to get its in July.
Teaching would begin four to six months after systems are delivered. That means the redesigned course might not be fully implemented until early 2024.
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