The 58th Special Operations Wing's Training Support Squadron, Mission Training Support Systems (MTSS) at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico provides initial/mission qualification and refresher training for Combat Search and Rescue and Special Operations Air Crew members. Training is conducted using several different media, including networked Weapon System Trainers. To provide visual realism in training, mission scenarios are fabricated in concert with a 3D visual environment, or visual database. In order to perform effective mission scenarios, however, extensive effort has been required to successfully integrate the dissimilar Visual Databases (VDBs) of these flight and mission simulators.

Because the initial fabrication of the VDBs required significant investment, the VDBs are an important training resource. The need for an ongoing VDB maintenance program has emerged as a result of technological advances, concurrency modifications, and changes in simulator training requirements. The MTSS team has learned that unless proactive processes for VDB maintenance is embedded in normal operational procedures, hardware and software upgrades, as well as networking compliance requirements tend to render a VDB less effective over time.

This paper discusses the reasons that VDB maintenance becomes necessary, and the lessons learned in dealing with VDB maintenance issues. The MTSS has taken its lessons over nine years of experience supporting VDBs on nine simulators, and specific examples of problems and associated resolution techniques are discussed.