AN F-16 fighter jet hurtles through the skies above the Dutch countryside, banking and turning, diving and climbing as if in battle with enemy planes and missiles. But apart from the F-16, the sky is empty. That鈥檚 because its pilot is playing what is arguably the world鈥檚 most exciting and expensive computer game: flying a multimillion-dollar plane against computer-generated opponents.
Cuts in defence spending, lack of airspace and noise complaints from the public have combined to make traditional plane-on-plane training a logistical and economic nightmare for many air forces. So instead of engaging in mock dogfights against colleagues flying other aircraft, the Royal Netherlands Air Force pilots are honing their skills by chasing virtual planes and dodging simulated surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles conjured up on their own plane鈥檚 radar by a battle simulation computer installed in the cockpit.
鈥淲e are being squeezed environmentally and airspace-wise,鈥� a spokesman for the UK鈥檚 Royal Air Force told New 杏吧原创. 鈥淭he noise is one concern and there are very, very few places in the world where pilots have enough airspace to train in the use of today鈥檚 longer-range missiles.鈥�
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In a paper to be published in the journal Aerospace Science and Technology, avionics engineer Gosse Wedzinga of the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory in Amsterdam outlines his solution. Because so much of modern air combat takes place beyond visual range, it often doesn鈥檛 matter that the pilot can only see the threat on the plane鈥檚 instruments, he says. So he has developed a system that feeds simulated threat data 鈥� such as incoming surface-to-air missiles or fast-approaching aircraft 鈥� into the cockpit radar systems of an F-16 trainer.
In tests at the Dutch air force鈥檚 Leeuwarden air base, volunteer pilots proved that the idea does indeed allow them to train cheaply and realistically in limited airspace. The system also has a security benefit, Wedzinga says, as it makes it harder for spies watching from the ground to work out the pilot鈥檚 tactics. He is now refining the system to introduce more threats into the software.
The RAF is taking a slightly different tack. It is linking Tornado GR4 and Typhoon simulators to a hub called the Air Battlespace Training Centre at Waddington in Lincolnshire. Initially, pilots will fly simulators against each other. But the plan is to eventually feed simulator data into real aircraft, and real-time radar readings into the simulator, to give a similar effect to the Dutch system.
