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Air Education and Training Command marked a training first on Sept. 16, linking a live T-7A Red Hawk to two T-7A ground simulators in an inaugural live-virtual-constructive flight that officials say will reshape how the command prepares new aviators.
The sortie paired Red Hawk aircraft APT-4—flown by Lt. Col. Michael Trott, commander of the 99th Flying Training Squadron, and Lt. Col. Phillip Bourquin, the squadron’s operations officer—with two ground-based simulator cockpits operated by 12th Training Squadron civilian simulator instructors Robb Erickson and Ryan Sparkman. The live jet and the simulators shared a synchronized digital environment, allowing crews on the ground and in the air to operate with the same common operating picture.
“Accomplishing this capability for the first time inside AETC represents a paradigm shift in how we train and build combat-ready aircrews,” said Erickson, the 12th TRS T-7A civilian simulator instructor lead. “When APT-4 took flight, we weren’t just flying another training sortie. We established a live, bi-directional data link fusing an airborne aircraft directly into our simulators and synthetic battlespace.”
The secure, high-bandwidth data links enabled the aircraft and simulators to exchange flight parameters, sensor tracks and weapons employment in real time. Students in the simulators could act as virtual wingmen or adversaries to the live aircraft, while instructors injected “constructive” threats—such as surface-to-air missile rings, electronic warfare jamming and opposing aircraft—into both cockpits simultaneously.
“The power of LVC lies in its density, complexity and interconnectivity,” Erickson explained. “By tethering our simulators directly to the live aircraft out in the airspace, student pilots can experience the realistic, sensor-saturated operational environment they will face in front-line fighters and other combat aircraft.”
LVC integration allows units to rehearse advanced, high-end scenarios without the cost and logistics of generating large numbers of physical adversary aircraft or expanding airspace. “The synthetic injection we proved today challenges aircrews with threat presentations and sensor-management puzzles that were impossible to replicate on our legacy flying platforms,” Sparkman added.
Command officials said the demonstration validates the technical foundation needed to modernize the undergraduate pilot training syllabus. As the 12th Flying Training Wing readies for delivery of its production Red Hawk fleet, the event showed instructors, controllers and curriculum developers can leverage the aircraft’s open-architecture digital backbone from the outset.
“This initial flight confirms that our core digital architecture is sound,” Erickson said. “Proving that the T-7A and our simulators can communicate and fight together in the same virtual sky keeps us squarely on track to deliver cutting-edge training for tomorrow’s warfighter. I am immensely proud of our entire team of CSIs, IPs and Boeing support personnel. Quite literally, we are making history.”
