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505th Command and Control Wing News

Coalition Virtual Flag exercise spans four countries, 17 time zones

  • Published
  • By Noel Getlin
  • 505 CCW Public Affairs
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  When hostilities broke out between the Heartland and Eureka, warfighters from four allied countries went into combat alongside each other utilizing combined air assets. 

While the scenario was fictitious, coalition and U.S. forces working together in combat is realistic. This recent ground-breaking multinational exercise encompassed more than 400 warfighters from four countries across 17 time zones. 

Virtual Flag exercises have been conducted for years. However, Coalition Virtual Flag 09-4 was the first ever exercise to integrate four coalition forces and air assets, and U.S. joint forces in a virtual air battle spanning operational- and tactical-level warfare. 

It was also the first exercise utilizing simulators in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States in virtual theater air warfare. Although the four nations have been fighting alongside one another for years, often the first time they encountered allied warfighters was in combat. 

"The three nations that are here are strong allies," said. Lt. Col. Troy Molendyke, 705th Combat Training Squadron commander. "We're over in theater right now - they're flying with us, they're standing next to us, they're manning our air operations center together. We're just trying to train here like we're executing in the real world." 

The scenarios included combat tactics used today in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, including close-air-support, combat search and rescue, and time-sensitive targeting, where the target can only be engaged in a limited amount of time "making it necessary for commanders to have the right information at the right time," Colonel Molendyke said. 

The 705th CTS falls under the 505th Command and Control Wing headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Fla., and the U.S. Air Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The wing's mission is to improve warfighter capability through command and control testing, tactics development and training. The 705th CTS executes Numbered-Air Force-scale events, Air Expeditionary Forces spin-up, and coalition exercise testing, training and tactics development. The squadron oversees the development, planning and execution of four Virtual Flag exercises a year. 

The goal of Coalition Virtual Flag is seamless integration of air assets in combat. While the nations may have common assets like F-18s and AWACS, there are differences in capabilities. Some assets, like the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System that tracks dynamic targets on the ground, are still exclusive to the United States. An important factor in multilateral warfare is learning about the capabilities and limitations of coalition war assets. 

"For JSTARS, it's actually just letting people know what we can do ... so they know how to integrate us in the fight," said Capt. Betsy Scott, JSTARS air weapons officer. 

Cultural differences and idioms can cost warfighters crucial time in combat, so standardizing communications, and tactics, techniques and procedures among coalition warfighters is key. Understanding the cultural approach to military objectives is also important. While the coalition partners' goal is the same, the approaches and tactics can be different. 

"One of the briefs we got is how the U.S. Air Force operates," said U.S. Navy Lt. Seth Wilson, an AWACS crew member If it's not in the rule book, you can't do it," Lieutenant Wilson has served with the U.K. forces for more than two years on an exchange program, and he was here flying with the British E-3s during the exercise. "Whereas the U.S. Navy and the United Kingdom tend to look at it the other way - if it's not prohibited, you can do it. So if you see something in the rules, it's because somebody did it and they realized it was a bad idea." 

Undoubtedly, the single most outstanding accomplishment in CVF was the connectivity and integration of all the simulators. The squadron integrated 25 geographically separated sites, the most they've had in one exercise, systems from four nations, as well as separate simulators for each weapons system. Canada, who was participating in the exercise for the first time, has invested millions of dollars in building a more robust network and acquiring simulators so they could participate in virtual training. 

"This is a crucial exercise in the development of this future training capability in Canada," said Brig. Gen. Dwight Davies, Canadian Forces, director general of Air Force Development. Canadian Forces have trained with coalition partners in the past, but never in a virtual environment. They had CF-18 simulators and a Joint Terminal Attack Controller participating in Ottawa, Canada, and two JTACs at the Distributed Mission Operations Center. "All our training in the past has been done the old-fashioned way where aircraft actually flew. It was an exceedingly expensive way to gather that high-end capability." 

Air Marshal Iain McNicholl, deputy commander in chief operations, Royal Air Force, flew in to observe the exercise, and while he was taking a look-and-see attitude to gauge the acceptable balance of live and virtual assets, he agreed that the value of coalition training is vital. 

"Coalition Virtual Flag is just about as important as it gets," Air Marshal McNicholl said. He participated in U.S. flag exercises since Red Flag in 1980, and he said it was that experience "that was the foundation that we built the success of the first and second Gulf War, our involvement in Bosnia, and now what we're doing in Afghanistan together. So this sort of training that we do together is really, really important." 

Each day after the "vul," participants from all sites debrief via video teleconferencing, allowing same-day feedback on activities. The Operations Assessment cell monitored the exercise for learning points to present during the debrief. Specific events are identified and participants are asked pointed questions about their actions. 

Wg. Cdr. Brian Boyle, Royal Air Force exchange officer, and deputy commander of development, 505th Training Group, led the ops assess cell in this exercise. 

"It's important to not just bring out the negative points, people learn from positive points, too," Wing Commander Boyle said. "It's not about embarrassment factors, but learning from mistakes. And what's better than learning from your mistakes is learning from others." 

Boyle also pointed out the number of exchange officers involved throughout the exercise, including a U.S. Naval officer and an Australian flying with the British AWACS crew, and a New Zealander in the white force cell working constructive entities with an Australian crew. Some had high visibility positions in the exercise, like Wing Commander Boyle and Royal Air Force Flt. Lt. Calvin Bailey who led the 15th Special Operations Squadron's MC-130H Talon crew in the simulator from Hurlburt Field. 

"The involvement of the exchange officers across the board was great," Wing Commander Boyle said. "It comes across as a coalition effort and not just a U.S. exercise." 

Exercise director Maj. Michele Boyko said that the first Coalition Virtual Flag not only broke new ground but exceeded expectations. With the success of the exercise integration, she expects that all four nations will build upon the experience. 

"Breaking new ground takes a lot of extra effort," Major Boyko said. "What you leave behind is a wake for somebody else to follow ... Just because we did it first doesn't mean we did it best. Maybe in five years Australia will run the next best coalition virtual type large force exercise. I would be thoroughly thrilled to see them facilitate it and me taking notes. "
However, the 705th CTS and the DMOC won't be sitting idly by. There are always new mission enhancements to integrate. 

"Our Warfare Center commander has challenged us to integrate live assets with our virtuals and constructive entities so we would be able to feed our virtual and constructive assets into live cockpits, live tanks and live weapons systems," Lt. Col. Brynt "Woody" Query said. "That is up the road a way to bring that up to full speed, but we're seeing elements of that now."

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Coalition Virtual Flag exercise spans four countries, 17 time zones

  • Published
  • By Noel Getlin
  • 505 CCW Public Affairs
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  When hostilities broke out between the Heartland and Eureka, warfighters from four allied countries went into combat alongside each other utilizing combined air assets. 

While the scenario was fictitious, coalition and U.S. forces working together in combat is realistic. This recent ground-breaking multinational exercise encompassed more than 400 warfighters from four countries across 17 time zones. 

Virtual Flag exercises have been conducted for years. However, Coalition Virtual Flag 09-4 was the first ever exercise to integrate four coalition forces and air assets, and U.S. joint forces in a virtual air battle spanning operational- and tactical-level warfare. 

It was also the first exercise utilizing simulators in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States in virtual theater air warfare. Although the four nations have been fighting alongside one another for years, often the first time they encountered allied warfighters was in combat. 

"The three nations that are here are strong allies," said. Lt. Col. Troy Molendyke, 705th Combat Training Squadron commander. "We're over in theater right now - they're flying with us, they're standing next to us, they're manning our air operations center together. We're just trying to train here like we're executing in the real world." 

The scenarios included combat tactics used today in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, including close-air-support, combat search and rescue, and time-sensitive targeting, where the target can only be engaged in a limited amount of time "making it necessary for commanders to have the right information at the right time," Colonel Molendyke said. 

The 705th CTS falls under the 505th Command and Control Wing headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Fla., and the U.S. Air Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The wing's mission is to improve warfighter capability through command and control testing, tactics development and training. The 705th CTS executes Numbered-Air Force-scale events, Air Expeditionary Forces spin-up, and coalition exercise testing, training and tactics development. The squadron oversees the development, planning and execution of four Virtual Flag exercises a year. 

The goal of Coalition Virtual Flag is seamless integration of air assets in combat. While the nations may have common assets like F-18s and AWACS, there are differences in capabilities. Some assets, like the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System that tracks dynamic targets on the ground, are still exclusive to the United States. An important factor in multilateral warfare is learning about the capabilities and limitations of coalition war assets. 

"For JSTARS, it's actually just letting people know what we can do ... so they know how to integrate us in the fight," said Capt. Betsy Scott, JSTARS air weapons officer. 

Cultural differences and idioms can cost warfighters crucial time in combat, so standardizing communications, and tactics, techniques and procedures among coalition warfighters is key. Understanding the cultural approach to military objectives is also important. While the coalition partners' goal is the same, the approaches and tactics can be different. 

"One of the briefs we got is how the U.S. Air Force operates," said U.S. Navy Lt. Seth Wilson, an AWACS crew member If it's not in the rule book, you can't do it," Lieutenant Wilson has served with the U.K. forces for more than two years on an exchange program, and he was here flying with the British E-3s during the exercise. "Whereas the U.S. Navy and the United Kingdom tend to look at it the other way - if it's not prohibited, you can do it. So if you see something in the rules, it's because somebody did it and they realized it was a bad idea." 

Undoubtedly, the single most outstanding accomplishment in CVF was the connectivity and integration of all the simulators. The squadron integrated 25 geographically separated sites, the most they've had in one exercise, systems from four nations, as well as separate simulators for each weapons system. Canada, who was participating in the exercise for the first time, has invested millions of dollars in building a more robust network and acquiring simulators so they could participate in virtual training. 

"This is a crucial exercise in the development of this future training capability in Canada," said Brig. Gen. Dwight Davies, Canadian Forces, director general of Air Force Development. Canadian Forces have trained with coalition partners in the past, but never in a virtual environment. They had CF-18 simulators and a Joint Terminal Attack Controller participating in Ottawa, Canada, and two JTACs at the Distributed Mission Operations Center. "All our training in the past has been done the old-fashioned way where aircraft actually flew. It was an exceedingly expensive way to gather that high-end capability." 

Air Marshal Iain McNicholl, deputy commander in chief operations, Royal Air Force, flew in to observe the exercise, and while he was taking a look-and-see attitude to gauge the acceptable balance of live and virtual assets, he agreed that the value of coalition training is vital. 

"Coalition Virtual Flag is just about as important as it gets," Air Marshal McNicholl said. He participated in U.S. flag exercises since Red Flag in 1980, and he said it was that experience "that was the foundation that we built the success of the first and second Gulf War, our involvement in Bosnia, and now what we're doing in Afghanistan together. So this sort of training that we do together is really, really important." 

Each day after the "vul," participants from all sites debrief via video teleconferencing, allowing same-day feedback on activities. The Operations Assessment cell monitored the exercise for learning points to present during the debrief. Specific events are identified and participants are asked pointed questions about their actions. 

Wg. Cdr. Brian Boyle, Royal Air Force exchange officer, and deputy commander of development, 505th Training Group, led the ops assess cell in this exercise. 

"It's important to not just bring out the negative points, people learn from positive points, too," Wing Commander Boyle said. "It's not about embarrassment factors, but learning from mistakes. And what's better than learning from your mistakes is learning from others." 

Boyle also pointed out the number of exchange officers involved throughout the exercise, including a U.S. Naval officer and an Australian flying with the British AWACS crew, and a New Zealander in the white force cell working constructive entities with an Australian crew. Some had high visibility positions in the exercise, like Wing Commander Boyle and Royal Air Force Flt. Lt. Calvin Bailey who led the 15th Special Operations Squadron's MC-130H Talon crew in the simulator from Hurlburt Field. 

"The involvement of the exchange officers across the board was great," Wing Commander Boyle said. "It comes across as a coalition effort and not just a U.S. exercise." 

Exercise director Maj. Michele Boyko said that the first Coalition Virtual Flag not only broke new ground but exceeded expectations. With the success of the exercise integration, she expects that all four nations will build upon the experience. 

"Breaking new ground takes a lot of extra effort," Major Boyko said. "What you leave behind is a wake for somebody else to follow ... Just because we did it first doesn't mean we did it best. Maybe in five years Australia will run the next best coalition virtual type large force exercise. I would be thoroughly thrilled to see them facilitate it and me taking notes. "
However, the 705th CTS and the DMOC won't be sitting idly by. There are always new mission enhancements to integrate. 

"Our Warfare Center commander has challenged us to integrate live assets with our virtuals and constructive entities so we would be able to feed our virtual and constructive assets into live cockpits, live tanks and live weapons systems," Lt. Col. Brynt "Woody" Query said. "That is up the road a way to bring that up to full speed, but we're seeing elements of that now."