Integrated Live, Virtual, Constructive (ILVC) training for tactical aircraft has the ability to greatly enhance range training and increase warfighter readiness while overcoming live range limitations. However, it remains an elusive capability, yet to be implemented on current tactical fighter and command and control aircraft. The issue remains as to how to implement this capability given the multiplicity of technologies to implement ILVC. This paper discusses several approaches to implementing ILVC on-board these platforms.
In 2007, The Boeing Company began an independent Research and Development project entitled ‘Project Alpine.’ This project, aimed at reducing the risk of providing airborne aircraft with a realistic view of a Live, Virtual, Constructive environment injected into platform sensors, has completed three spiral development phases to date. Project Alpine Spiral 1, based on an air-air combat scenario, was discussed in the 2008 I/ITSEC Best Paper nominee "Integrated Live Virtual Constructive Technologies Applied to Tactical Aviation Training." Our intent was to leverage the largely successful virtual, constructive environments and networks utilized by the Distributed Mission Operations (DMO) training solutions to provide a realistic training context for live training.
This paper presents the follow-on work completed in Spirals 2 & 3 of Project Alpine. We will compare and contrast the different architectures utilized in each spiral and discuss the advancements achieved in Spiral 3. We discuss such topics as architecture implementation, avionics processing, operational flight program and mux bus implications, simulation network data links, information assurance aspects, and lessons learned.