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(ARLINGTON,
Va.) – Air Force Lt. Col. Beverly
Smith and Chief Master Sgt. Stanley Milinski with Operations
and Strategy at U.S. Air Force Headquarters operate
an airborne tracking laser as the Air Forces experiments
with future directed energy weapons at the Pentagon
during USJFCOM's Urban Resolve 2015 (UR2015). The people
involved with UR2015’s series of
three “human-in-the-loop” sessions, are
the “live” portion of the “Live,
Virtual, and Constructed” experiment which uses
models and simulations to replicate real-world geography
and structures – in some cases down to the centimeter.(Click
on this photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Bryan D. Axtell to
get a high-resolution image)(RELEASED) |
Urban
warfare experiment draws many players
Air
Force personnel are flying virtual missions from a suite
of rooms in the Pentagon known as the Air Force C4ISR Visualization
Center which houses one of 19 nodes during Urban Resolve
2015 (UR2015), a major series of joint urban warfare experiments
involving all five U.S. military services and participants
from thirteen nations.
Story
and photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Bryan D. Axtell
USJFCOM Public Affairs
(ARLINGTON,
Va. - Oct. 24, 2006) -- Targeting crosshairs float across
alleys and rooftops while one hand delicately nudges
the ergonomic control sporting weapons toggles, and the
other dances across the top of a box full of backlit
red buttons and more joystick controls. Another set of
hands is griping a spiral bound detailed map and pointing
out directions.
Air
Force Lt. Col. Beverly Smith and Chief Master Sgt. Stanley
Milinski, both with Operations and Strategy at U.S. Air
Force Headquarters, are operating an airborne tracking
laser as the Air Force experiments with the directed
energy weapons of the future.
While
different services have been operating unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAV) from remote locations for some time now,
those both are and yet aren't real rooftops that the crosshairs
are floating over. The rooftops that Smith and Milinski
are flying over exist in a computer; however, those same
rooftops exist in the real world too.
That's
because the simulator Smith is flying is inside the "world" of
U.S. Joint Forces Command's Urban
Resolve 2015 (UR2015).
It's a world that exists simultaneously in 18 other places
across the country. So when Smith pilots her aircraft
to the left, UR2015's joint task force commander in Suffolk,
Va., can see her do it.
This
all occurs as part of UR2015's series of three "human-in-the-loop" or
HITL sessions. The two-week long HITL sessions are the "live" portion
of this "live, virtual, and constructive" experiment
which uses models and simulations to replicate real-world
geography, structures and culturally relevant population
behaviors.
So
is this a video game? A video game maker might program
in rubber-neckers if something blew up in that artificial
world. A video game might have the traffic jams as part
of their "plot."
In
this computer world though, there is no pre-recorded
footage of actors following a "plot." Real
people like Smith and Milinski make real decisions. The
buildings they are flying over are exactly where they
would be in real life - in some cases down to the centimeter.
1st Lt. Joseph Friel with the Air Force Research Laboratory's
Directed Energy Directorate talked about what value he
saw in having people like Smith and Milinski participate
in UR2015's realistic environment.
"We are experimenting with future systems before
'bending metal' to reduce costs to taxpayers and provide
a greater combat capability to the armed forces quickly," said
Friel.
Friel
said that UR2015's joint experimentation environment
allows him to "play" with a real-world command
and control network that he can't get in a physics-based-only
simulation.
As such he and his team can find and fix problems to future
platforms before they are even built. Friel said that changing
an existing piece of equipment can cost millions of dollars,
whereas rewriting some software to fix a problem costs
next to nothing.
Similarly
the Army is experimenting with different aspects of their
Future Combat System in Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., while
the members of the Marine Corps "look over their
shoulder."
All of the services either have or will participate in
UR2015, which involves 19 different sites and over 1000
people across the country, to explore ways that the military
can improve operating in an urban environment as well as
its role in stability and reconstruction operations.
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