This week, Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan has seriously upset the Chinese Communist Party. The PLA is currently conducting a four day long military exercise surrounding Taiwan with live ammunition. Now, much has been said and analysed about the ongoing military drills, with some of the leading think-tanks producing geo-tagged reports and a summary of the military drills. You can know more about the military and tactical analysis of the ongoing drills here and here. Since the coverage has been so widespread, I feel no need to write about the use of air-power by PLAAF in these military drills as I believe more qualified and experienced people have already written on it.
Instead, I will be turning the focus on the quiet and hush-hush deal of USD 70 million between the US Air Force and an Augmented Reality firm, Red 6. Red 6 is based in Orlando, Florida and has created the world’s first Augmented Reality (AR) fighter pilot training system. Red 6 has developed a helmet mounted virtual reality system which provides the pilot with an augmented view of synthetic air targets and scenarios while flying in a propeller trainer aircraft. The AR systems then recreate scenarios of operating fighter aircraft and are able to take the pilot through various modes such as BVR fights, dogfights, air-to-air refuelling all while creating a high-speed, high-risk environment, similar to a real sortie. Red 6 has developed the Augmented Tactical Reality System (ATARS) which includes training modules in augmented reality for ground operators as well by blending virtual reality, artificial intelligence, cockpits and the outdoor space, creating an interactive system that holds the key to future pilot and pilot controller training.
Analysis
Technology has penetrated into the world of aviation faster than any other sector. The role of advanced tech in aircraft, particularly military aircraft from World War I to now has seen an exponential leap which has also raised the costs of maintaining and operating advanced air forces. However, the case of using augmented reality to training provides an alternative to rising costs. Today, the cost of training a fighter pilot roughly stands at USD 10 million and is slightly higher when training a pilot for 5th gen stealth fighters and bombers. The use of augmented reality will bring down the costs of simulations and training. According to the estimates of Parallax (a VR simulator firm), the costs of initial fighter training can be brought down by two-thirds the current cost. This will be possible as augmented reality headsets will have buddy and enemy aircraft displayed as synthetic pixels instead of using actual aircraft and pilots. This will also decrease costs by elongating the lifespan of the aircraft that would have been used for the exercises, and by saving valuable pilot life by putting them less frequently in the air.
Augmented reality systems also allow air forces to use data and metrics of adversary air forces and install packages on their systems that replicate fighter planes and military aircraft that their pilots would be up against. This enables the pilot to get familiarised with the capabilities of other aircraft and makes the tactical and strategic planning of air campaigns easier as the AR system can recreate large scale air campaigns & battles, featuring almost 80 synthetic hologram combatants in the headset. The large-scale visualisation that the AR system provides makes training for BVR operations and large-scale air campaigns & battles extremely cost effective and reliable, while also ensuring the pilots are kept safe and frontline fighter aircraft are not exhausted by such exercises. Currently only the US Air Force is using AR to train its pilots, however the Italian Air Force and the Indian Air Force are also conducting trials to induct domestic AR systems for training. With the world slowly adopting virtual reality, metaverse and augmented reality, the aviation sector has already begun normalisation of the usage of AR and will be the driving force for the adoption of AR globally.
Short Take-Offs
More than 100 PLAAF aircraft including J-20, J-11, J-10, J-16, and Y-8s crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait prompting Taiwanese Air Defence to scramble aircraft and activate anti-aircraft systems.
Japan scrambled its Mitsubishi F-2s as Chinese aircraft conducting the military exercise over Taiwan strait temporarily invaded Japanese airspace.
On August 3, Azerbaijan again stoked tensions with Armenia when it used the Turkish Bayraktar TB-2 drone to strike an Armenian troop patrol in Karabagh, escalating tensions to almost another conflict.
China officially unveiled the YU-20 air-to-air refueller for the PLAAF which is based on the Y-20 platform. The YU-20 will replace China’s H-6 refuelers which had limited fuel carrying capacity and range. It will also replace the Russian Il-78 refuelers that China had been operating previously.
A chopper of the Pakistan Army Aviation Corps was shot down by Baloch rebels in the Balochistan province. All 6 officials including the 12 Corps Commander on board along with 2 pilots were killed in the incident.
Still of the Week
Bird of the Week
Lockheed Martin’s C-5 Galaxy is the US Air Force’s largest and airlifter and has the payload carrying capacity of up to 6 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (AMRAPS) or 4 helicopters. The aircraft was first inducted into operations in 1970 and is only used by the US Air Force. More than 130 aircraft were produced with 52 in active service. The aircraft has also set 43 aviation world records.
Good one Rohan. VR/AR was introduced into aviation in 1990-92, at AFRL- WP AFB. Subsequently , research and computing power has multiplied manifolds. This provides very high resolution and fidelity. From simple Head-up- Display to Helmet mounted display and now to have displays with large FOV 3D high density displays, the field has shown large advantages in cost cutting in Training, design, CAD/CAM solutions, education, medical world etc. As more countries adapt/ innovate, this Tech can be gainfully utilized. Gaming world is the first one to exploit the Tech. Well written piece 👍👍👍
Well written article. AR is the way ahead .