Sustainment training on the operation and maintenance of high availability systems is difficult since the system cannot be taken out of service for training purposes. However, the operators and maintainers must be well trained to react quickly to events that could jeopardize system availability. Web-delivered simulations are a good way of providing such training because they won't affect system availability and are widely available.
High availability systems require sophisticated system control software to support fault tolerance and online maintenance. These systems and their Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETM) are becoming much more tightly integrated, and use of the system control software is an essential part of operation and maintenance training. The best way to train interactions with this software is to incorporate as much of the actual software as practical into the simulation, so that the operator/maintainer "trains as he fights."
This paper describes a simulation that was developed to train 31S MOS soldiers how to operate and maintain the AN/GSC-52A ground strategic satellite communication station. This simulation required integration with the strategic software for system Control, Monitoring, and Alarms and with the system IETM. This simulation was developed to support conversion of 31S to assignment oriented training. The simulation includes a "system control and indicators" lesson that shares its content with the corresponding section of the IETM. A signal flow lesson is used to help the student visualize the content of the "concept of operations" section of the IETM. Operational lessons include pre-operational checks and restoring communications links. Troubleshooting lessons include the use of test equipment such as spectrum analyzer.
Web-based delivery of these simulations presents challenges for balancing training requirements and delivery systems and capabilities. This paper describes some of the tradeoffs made in the development of this simulation.