CUBIC’S AIR COMBAT TRAINING HERITAGE40 YEARS AS THE INDUSTRY LEADER IN LIVE AIRCRAFT TRAINING INSTRUMENTATIONCubic’s Air Ranges Product Line has a heritage dating back to the end of the Vietnam War, and continues making prominent advancements in Air Combat Training Systems (ACTS). One of the keys to success has been a clear focus on fulfilling one fundamental need very well—accurate instrumentation of live aircraft in training. Without distractions and competing resources for other defense applications, Cubic’s Air Ranges has amassed an unmatched depth of knowledge and experience in air combat training, making it the unmatched leader in ACTS Integration.

Implementing a reliably accurate ACTS is hard, which is why very few companies have had success in doing so. Figure 1 is an excerpt from a U.S. Air Force (USAF) Air Combat Command (ACC) briefing showing the lineage of ACMI systems. Note Cubic’s role from top to bottom as the clear leader throughout. Cubic supplies all ACTS fielded today for training US fighter pilots.

Also in Figure 1 note failed attempts by some defense giants to develop an ACMI system. Underestimating the complexity of such an undertaking is risky. When fighter pilots are watching a mission on an ACMI display and push the pause button, they expect relative fighter nose position and other aircraft data to be accurate to fractions of a degree or second. They don’t care how it works; only that it works. Obtaining this accuracy on a large scale for 100 live aircraft requires a thorough understanding of latencies throughout

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Figure 1: U.S. ACMI Lineage

Live, Virtual, and Constructive (L-V-C) Training

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the system of systems. Cubic’s System Engineering Team has led industry in this integrator role since 1973, and maintains an impressive ACTS body of knowledge.

There have been a few major technological advances that have driven requirements, namely, the advent of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and digital aircraft bus interfaces. The former allowed Cubic to create the first “rangeless” system for U.S. forces that could operate anywhere in the world, untethered to towers and fixed range sites. The latter advancement allowed for implementation of real-time weapons simulation in ACTS, providing real-time feedback to pilots on the success or failure of their weapons engagements.

As the system evolved to produce such accurate representations of true combat tactics and results, the USAF and the U.S. Navy (USN) determined they could no longer afford to have ACMI data unencrypted and accessible for potential enemies to exploit. This realization drove policies to restrict the use of enhanced features in recently fielded ACMI systems until an encryption solution is implemented. Although a few encryptors have been available, none proved suitable, or affordable for a widely deployed airborne training system.

Cubic has taken the lead to solve this new training challenge by investing in a miniature encryptor design specifically for ACTS. Cubic’s Miniature Encryptor (CME), shown in Figure 2, will be the first available to process data at multiple levels of security for ACTS integration. The CME is significantly more affordable and smaller than other encryptors, making it suitable for retrofit into 100% of fielded pods. Cubic is ensuring backwards and forwards compatibility with unencrypted fielded systems and with the encrypted ACTS for 5th Generation aircraft.

Another major technological advancement is the blending of Live, Virtual, and Constructive training, or L-V-C, into a single integrated training scenario. While most stakeholders participating in this area are developing applications for the virtual portion, meaning simulators, Cubic is focused on the fundamental objective of enhancing live training. Blending virtual and constructive training in support of live training is the hardest to accomplish, yet yields the greatest rewards. The need for full spectrum live training will never go away, since pilots learn the most from training with their systems from end-to-end.

To train pilots at the full-capability levels of their advanced fighter aircraft weapon systems, we must increase the threat density and engagement distances in training missions. Further, training in joint and coalition force engagements requires bringing together a large networked force on a regular basis. This is unaffordable for training on a regular basis using live assets alone. LVC technology will radically lower the recurring costs of full spectrum training, allowing warfighters to rehearse daily; not just during annual exercises.

Also, to prepare for Effective Warfighting in Contested Environments (EWICE), the Navy and Air Force must be engaged by realistic adversary radio frequency (RF) signals, and generate their own RF signals in response. The resulting observable electronic warfare (EW) tactics would be exploited by our enemies during times of war. By instead replicating these effects in a secure LVC environment, warfighters can regularly practice with their EW systems with little risk of exploitation.

Cubic was selected by the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) to be the Lead Systems Architect and Systems Integrator for the LVC-Pilot Project, illustrated in Figure 3. The project will prove the efficacy of LVC for 5th Gen Aircraft training. With an ACTS network as the obvious choice for the backbone of an LVC environment, Cubic has invested in making this enabling technology secure and interoperable for both 4th and 5th Gen Aircraft. Cubic’s System Engineering Team integrates all major and minor subsystems of the LVC environment. This includes developing the open standards for the aircraft mission computer to pod interface, managing the data path among airborne nodes, and merging the ground nodes and control systems to create one seamless LVC environment.

Figure 2: Cubic Miniature Encryptor

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