PLEXSYS SYNTHETIC TRAINING ACHIEVES ACCOLADES AT RAF WADDINGTON

The PLEXSYS E-3D AWACS Mission Training System (MTS) was used daily for Distributed Synthetic Air Land Training (DSALT) Exercise PANOPTICAN WARRIOR from 28 May–28 Jun 2013. This Exercise is in direct support of the Qualified Weapons Instructor – Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance – QWI (ISR) Course (‘Patch Wearers’). The PLEXSYS MTS was primarily used for creating and executing Computer Generated Force (CGF) entities into the DSALT facility.

The ISR function is becoming crucial to the current and future battle spaces. Political and media fallout from inaccurate targeting will have a strategic effect on the combined efforts and the saturation of the Electro Magnetic (EM) spectrum is forcing a ‘cleverer’ approach to tasking of EM assets. In response to the demand for better use of ISR, various RAF posts have been established at all levels of command and the re-emergence of the ISR commander concept. This QWI (ISR) course is aimed at addressing these issues and part of the ISR course training is conducted at the Air Battle Training Center (ABTC) at RAF Waddington.

The QWl (ISR) course is aimed at personnel within the ISR J2, J3 and J5 community who have been selected by their chain of command (CoC) as the lead Officer/SNCO for training to fulfill the role of ISR Commander. In addition, a potential student requires the following before selection to the course: have a minimum of 2 years ISR career field experience; have a solid ISR knowledge, threat knowledge and platform/collection knowledge; be qualified as an Airborne Instructor or equivalent and possess the appropriate Security Clearances.

Using the ABTC to execute a very important part of the QWI ISR course has been invaluable to delivering the correct level of training for the QWI ISR students. Conducting this type of training in a synthetic environment readily provides the students with the exposure and synthetic assets that is hard to replicate in ‘real world’ training environments. The use of the PLEXSYS E-3D MTS and ASCOT Environment Generator proved invaluable in creating and ‘driving’ that synthetic training.