913th AG launches VR partnership, saves $18.5M

The 913th Airlift Group has built a full-scale maintenance training pipeline without a single airplane on its books, converting a decommissioned storage space into a virtual reality center that leaders say is cutting costs and accelerating readiness.

Unit officials estimate the program has avoided roughly $18.5 million in training and maintenance expenses over the past 18 months by replacing scarce flight-line time with high-fidelity, zero-risk simulations. The approach is aimed at producing crew chiefs, hydraulics technicians and avionics specialists who arrive at their units already fluent in complex procedures.

“Effectively, we went from zero aircraft to five virtual platforms,” said Tech. Sgt. Austin Malanowski, the 913th Airlift Group Virtual Reality Training Center program coordinator.

“With this new system, I can load any aircraft that exist across the Department of War’s mass virtual system into this VR program. This places us in a position where we don’t need to have physical aircraft to train on.”

The initiative draws heavily on expertise from the Little Rock Air Force Base Virtual Reality Center in Building 350, where Tech. Sgt. Joshua Hale and his team have spent years refining a larger, base-level capability. Their playbook helped the 913th Maintenance Squadron stand up a scaled-down version while sidestepping early missteps.

“Our VR dodged all the bullets that their VR hit on the way up because they gave me that information,” Malanowski said, crediting the partnership for the program’s success. “They served as our baseline and the model for how we wanted to build out the VRTC at the 913th, and they helped me avoid certain pitfalls.”

Hale said the effect goes beyond logistics and budgets, reshaping how Airmen learn. The ability to rehearse difficult tasks repeatedly in a controlled, damage-free environment builds confidence without waiting for aircraft availability or risking costly errors on the ramp.

“I believe it’s invaluable,” Hale said. “They are excited to learn. Through repetition, they’re able to become more confident in what they’re doing. When they get down to the units, they’re ready to go.”

Malanowski, who spent a decade on the flight line as a hydraulics technician, said that matters for Airmen stepping into high-stakes jobs.

“The high stakes of maintenance makes performing maintenance when you’re still very green a very daunting task,” Malanowski explained. “If they get it wrong in the VR it’s not no cost but if they get it wrong on the flight line it’s a big sum game.”

Instructors say virtual reps shorten the learning curve that used to be dominated by flipping through technical orders and waiting on a jet. By the time trainees encounter a real aircraft, they’ve already built muscle memory by navigating virtual ones in precise, repeatable scenarios.

The indoor setup also strips weather from the training equation, a persistent constraint for maintainers who traditionally contend with blazing summers, freezing winters and sudden storms.

“Airmen can now complete training tasks regardless of extreme summer heat or freezing winter temperatures,” Malanowski said. “It’s been a really valuable tool… day or night, bad weather, not having to worry about aircraft availability or breaking an aircraft.”

The 913th’s effort tracks with a broader Air Force push to expand immersive training beyond maintenance. Hale said work is underway on modules for aircrew, security forces and medical personnel. Locally, the 913th Airlift Group is drafting requirements to bring loadmaster training into its virtual environment as well.

Ultimately, leaders involved in the project hope the cross-unit model—leveraging an established base facility to seed smaller, mission-tailored versions—can be replicated across the Air Force Reserve Command.

“This is a legacy for me, certainly, at least within the 913th,” Malanowski said. “I wish the Airman Malanowski of 2014 had this sort of training, because it would have saved me a lot of time and sleepless nights over worrying that I had done something wrong. People don’t come out of here with that feeling.”