Air Combat Trainer (ACT)
"The first time I experienced a large scale coordinated attack on a city was as a pilot in live combat. I was relatively experienced with simple CAS scenarios from our peace time training, but this was a complex scenario. It consisted of several UAV’s, F-16’s, forward air controllers, and many army vehicles and soldiers, prepared artillery and naturally a large number of mixed civilians and hostile forces. Such relatively complex scenarios were just not practical to setup when training at home. The mission was considered a success. Would we have been more effective and risks reduced, had we experienced realistic scenarios beforehand – No doubt. There were more than a few things I experienced for the first time during that combat sortie."
F-16 Pilot.
ACT is about justb that - ACT is the tool which enables our war fighters to prepare for the fog of war and get the experience of complex combat scenarios before they actually are in combat."
ACT offers a high fidelity joint tactical training environment. Army, Special Forces, Forward air controllers, Fighter controllers, Pilots, Tactical and strategic leadership are presented with and reacting to the same virtual combat scenario. The end result is reduced risks and increased effectiveness when they enter similar situations during live combat.
War fighters and support personnel operating under active combat conditions, especially those engaging the enemy with direct fire, must rely on a 'realistic combat presentation' training environment, recreating terrain, friendly forces, simulated weapons and systems, enabling trainees to practice their individual, team and collective skills in simulated combat.
In ACT the operators are immersed in a rich and dynamic synthetic war environment that is otherwise only practical to be exposed to during actual war.
The war fighters rehearse generic and specific missions over otherwise restricted territory, while learning, evaluating and optimizing tactical options in a safe environment, before successfully executing their mission in real life.
Following the simulated battle exercise, the war fighters review and analyze their mission performance through an After Action Review debriefing process.
ACT marks the milestone to the next generation of cost effective joint simulation training.