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505th Command and Control Wing News

Coalition sims challenge Virtual Flag technicians

  • Published
  • By Noel Getlin
  • 505th Command and Control Wing Public Affairs
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  The time it takes to execute an exercise the magnitude of Coalition Virtual Flag can only be measured in years.

The virtual exercise entails connecting networks and simulators from 25 sites spanning the globe and four countries.

"This is a culmination of 10 years worth of effort," said Lt. Col. Brynt "Woody" Query, senior exercise director for the 705th Combat Training Squadron, on loan from the 505th Distributed Warfare Group. "Once we got the 'go' order and a year's worth of effort, we made incredible leaps and strides in coalition training by being able to do this."

The 705th CTS, part of the 505th Command and Control Wing headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Fla., hosts four Virtual Flag exercises a year here at the Distributed Mission Operations Center. For years, the squadron has integrated joint U.S. assets in a synthetic virtual environment spanning operational and tactical-level warfare. The squadron drew from years of joint integration experience to build this ground-breaking exercise.

Coalition Virtual Flag 09-4 was the first time the United States integrated United Kingdom, Canadian and Australian warfighters from simulators in their home countries, and connecting all the networks didn't happen without challenges.

"Because these simulators come from various parts of the world, they have different programming," Colonel Query said. "Making all the ones and zeros work together is a daunting challenge. If you don't do that integration ahead of time, the game does not go well."

Coalition Virtual Flag, a 7-day exercise that ended Sept. 25, was the first time all four countries trained together using all the assets in the theater air control system, from the Joint Force Air Component Commander - a three-star general who leads the air campaign - to the fighters, bombers, and command and control and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, to Army Patriot missile crews, to intelligence analysts and to joint terminal attack controllers, who call in air strikes from the ground.

But before the exercise began, several weeks were dedicated to testing. First Lt. Christopher Costello, technical director for Virtual Flag, 705th CTS, was responsible for coordinating the internal and external resources for testing.

"Once connectivity has been established and tested, we moved on to the environment generators and virtual simulators," Lieutenant Costello said. "We brought them up in a controlled environment and verified that the systems would interact the way they should and would enable operators to successfully conduct their training."

"The security hurdle was probably the biggest," Colonel Query said. "Each country took painstaking measures to ensure the security of this event was not compromised, and it was a herculean 15-month effort by the U.S. Air Force DMOC to make that happen for U.S. assets."

During the exercise, technicians in the "Maytag" cell provided a central location for all participants to call.

"When people in the exercise have a problem, they call on us," said 1st Lt. Jonathan Loehr, 705th CTS. "Maytag provided real-time analysis and troubleshooting to keep all distributed sites connected and functioning during the exercise."

Lieutenant Loehr worked with the multiple network issues, but said that the majority of what the cell dealt with was on-the-spot communication problems such as internet relay chat and radios.

"Not only do we look at the technical, but also the operational aspects of this exercise," Lieutenant Loehr said. "If someone on the radio is too far away in the simulation, it could be an operational rather than technical problem. Just like in the real world, our radios will look at the (simulator) to see how far apart the two aircraft are and decide whether the radios are within range. Sometimes, the participants just aren't on the same frequency, and sometimes there's a legitimate technical problem."

Colonel Query said the most amazing thing about his job is seeing all the new technology and integrating it.

"We're constantly deploying people to see what's new," he said. "We're out at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference every year to see the latest state-of-the-art technology. We acquired the Predator/Reaper simulator because of our members at the I/ITSEC conference."

Colonel Query said plans are under way to integrate a comparable simulator with Air Force Special Operations Command for the first time. AFSOC will be heavily involved in the next exercise working with joint and coalition JTACs on the ground. He said that kind of training is rare and it needs to be a part of our recurring training.

"So we see the future happening right now and we're keeping an eye on what's coming online," said Colonel Query. "Already, we're looking to next year and we just executed the first Coalition Virtual Flag."