Pacific Focus: LVC Integrated Rehearsal System Demonstrated During VS24

The US Defense Department continues to pull out the stops to enhance the training readiness of its military services’ staffs, units and personnel forward stationed and deployed in the Indo-Pacific region.

In yet another instance of strengthening the LVC domain during this summer’s Valiant Shield(VS) 24, CAE Defense and Security, in collaboration with Cubic Defense, demonstrated the LVC Integrated Rehearsal System.

For its part, Cubic’s SLATE (Secure Live Virtual and Constructive Advanced Training Environment) aircraft-mounted pod and technology, and MATTERS (Mobile Advanced Tactical Training Encrypted Range System) kit were among the company’s contributions to VS24. The training materiel allowed one training audience in airborne E/A-18Gs and other platforms to complete their live training objectives through the mission cycle, by, in short, streaming onboard data to a common VS24 ground facility for integration into the overarching training environment.

“And then we have to integrate the rest of the environment, which are the simulators and constructive entities we can bring in – which is unlimited,” Keith Taylor, Director, US Navy Business Development, at CAE Defense and Security noted. Taylor emphasized, “If you have a very high-end fight, there are going to be a lot of threats which are represented by entities in synthetic environments. We have to be able to replicate that environment and with the requisite high fidelity.”

To further accomplish the VS24 training objectives, CAE furnished and blended two simulators (each) for the F-16s and Marine E/A-18G Growlers, and its Joint Terminal Controller Training and Rehearsal System (JTC-TRS) and CAE VISTA (Virtual Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance Training Application) into training and operational mission networks.

Taylor summarized one outcome of integrating the above systems into the LVC domains during VS24. “With the two virtual F/A-18s feeding into that same environment, they are also literally, seeing with their out-the-window view, the E-A/18Gs just like they were there. And vice versa, the Growler gets the data from the virtual F/A-18. That is the beauty of the LVC. We’re bringing this environment together because to truly have a live and virtual environment, it must be a blended solution, transparent to the participants and that has not been accomplished to this fidelity before.”

JTC-TRS, an Air Force program of record, enabled VS24 participants to expand their air-ground training mission. Ships in the AOR were also able to participate in this bi-annual event, by gaining data with exercise entities and other content on operational links.

Paul Averna, Vice President and General Manager of Advanced Training Solutions at Cubic Defense, emphasized these scenario snapshots were representative of the success to expand the VS24 training audience beyond a single environment and single domain. “These were live, virtual and constructive environments. For the domains in air, ground, maritime, cyber and space – all of those participants are coming together in a common view in a very complex fight environment and they are able to do so securely and exchange data as if it were the real environment.” The Cubic executive also noted open standards and protocols used to develop the LVC environment used during VS24, provides a joint- and combined training and rehearsal capability for event participants, in essence, further allowing the US and its partners to train as they will fight and maintain proficiency for advanced threat scenarios.

Taylor added the CAE-Cubic team is positioned to scale this capability to larger, force exercises.

These LVC advancements support US Indo Pacific’s overarching Pacific Multi-Domain Training and Experimentation Capability. 

Advancing One Technical Foundation

Beyond CAE’s LVC contributions to the exercise was one reported technology underpinning advancement for a supplied flight training infrastructure, as utilized with the Simulator Common Architecture Requirements and Standards (SCARS). The functionality delivers common architectures, standards and models in a cyber-hardened environment. It achieves this through virtualization of aircraft, terrain and Image Generation (IG) data. “The hardware reduction for the IG alone is very significant. An IG on a full F-16 dome system that we deliver is six full racks. By virtualizing the IG we’re able to host the operational flight program and IG on the same rack. A six- rack reduction in hardware costs, HVAC, technical updates and other capabilities provides very significant life-cycle savings,” the CAE executive concluded.