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New innovations improve B-52 simulation

By Senior Airman Stephanie Morris, Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs / Published December 10, 2014

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MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- In a dusty control room, refrigerator-sized mainframe computers whir and beep. Hard drives the size of washing machines constantly breakdown, short circuit and crash due to the overwhelming amount of data they have to process and transmit. Several contractors work tirelessly to keep the digital giants functioning to support the mission.

This was once the daily scene at the B-52H Stratofortress weapons system trainer on Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. The WST is used for simulated flights and missions as a training tool for aircrew. In recent years, not only have the huge mainframes been replaced by compact desktop units, but the simulator and operating systems have undergone vast improvements and have been turned into machines capable of global connectivity.

"We now have the capability to work with other bases all around the world," said Capt. Chris Ray, 5th Operations Support Squadron aircrew training device flight commander. "We are able to plan large scale missions and simulate combat in any air space in the world, which saves the cost of a deployment and $22,000 per hour in maintenance and fuel cost by participating in distributive mission operations."

In addition to the money saved on fuel costs, Ray explained that the training missions have experienced massive increases in complexity and are more realistic.

"In a real-world scenario, you can never predict what the enemy is going to do next," Ray said. "By linking up with other players and conducting large force exercises, we are now able to train for war with events and results that differ from crew to crew, based on the actions each crew take."

The ability to conduct large-scale digital exercises with real people from other places participating as enemy planes and ground threats is an improvement over the days of scripted exercises and repetitive scenarios.

New capabilities for conducting missions in the weapons system trainer, are now complemented by the ability to record every action taken or word said during a scenario. This has allowed the group to pinpoint areas in need of improvement based on hard data rather than notes or memory of events, Ray said. Increased integration has taken the WST program from training to the closest thing to real-life combat for flight crew members.

The $5 million upgrade to the software and video and defense systems occurred in 2013 and was the largest overhaul to the trainer.

"The new system is easier to handle, takes up less room and requires fewer maintenance personnel to keep it running," said Bill Brunnenmeyer, WST electronic technician. "The big computers failed almost daily, and they took a long time to start up at the beginning of the day. The new systems only require maintenance a couple times a week, and it's mostly on their software instead of actual working parts."

The WST now conducts two large force exercises per week in addition to virtual flag exercises that last nine days and consist of five missions. They also partner with Airborne Warning and Control Squadrons, RC-135 Rivet Joint Aircraft that identify ground threats and radars, and tactical air control parties.

"Ultimately these upgrades have made it so that we can plan and conduct large-scale training at Minot," Ray said. "This is going to have us better prepared for exercises and, in the event of war, be better prepared to work with joint and coalition partners to complete our mission and defeat our enemies."
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