Longbow crews get top-of-the-line trainers: Army will deploy 23 AH-64D simulators to units around the world by 2007.

The Army recently shipped an advanced crew trainer to its Apache Longbow helicopter unit based in Germany. Aviation program officials boast that this simulator is more realistic than any other trainer used in the Army today.

The service, so far, has fielded 12 Longbow crew trainers to units around the world. The latest went to the 6th Squadron, 6th U.S. Cavalry, in the 11th Aviation Regiment at Storck Barracks in Illesheim, Germany. That unit operates 22 AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters.

Eleven more trainers are under contract and scheduled to be delivered by 2007.

The Longbow crew trainer is a full-mission, deployable simulator that replicates, with high fidelity, aircraft operations and the aircraft system functions.

The entire trainer can be packed in two ISO-type containers, making it deployable via rail, ground, ship or C-5 heavy-lift cargo aircraft. The system includes pilot and co-pilot compartments, an instructor station, two Pentium computers, three image generators and an external power generator.

Maj. Chuck Wittges, the Army's assistant product manager for Longbow training systems, said the LCT is the "most sophisticated trainer in the Army." Among the features that trainees really appreciate is the broad selection of geo-specific databases that simulate various types of terrain and mission scenarios. The databases can be modified to match the performance of allied and enemy vehicles specific to the unit's theater of operation, Wittges said.

"It's one of the few devices that has multiple databases," said Wittges. The training is more realistic than in other simulators, he added, because it runs off the operational flight software program that is used in the actual aircraft.

"When there is a change in the actual aircraft, with the manipulation of the software, it's transferred into the simulator," he said.

The LCT cockpit displays, Wittges noted, replicates the aircraft down to the exact color, tactile feedback, shape, location and function.

Despite its sophistication--or because of it--it took more than a decade for the Army to field this trainer.

Randy Nielson, project manager at the Apache attack helicopter program office, explained that the need for the LCT first came to light during Operation Desert Storm. Commanders in that conflict complained that their aircrews lacked deployable, transportable simulation devices to assist in maintaining critical mission skills and preparing for combat operations.

The older helicopter simulators require extensive support and facility infrastructure, said Nielson. A case in point is the 2B40 combat mission simulator for the AH-64A aircrews. It is considered moveable, he said, "in that it can be disassembled, shipped and reassembled within several months." The 2B40 cannot be set up with its motion base without a specially designed building to support the high-pressure hydraulic six-degree of motion system, its associated fire suppression hardware, and its extensive cooling and power requirements, said Nielson.

By comparison, the new Longbow crew trainer can be dissembled for transportation in seven days and set up and ready for operations at the new location within seven days of arrival. Some units, said Nielson, demonstrated that it can be prepared for shipment in less then five days and has been set up, ready for operations, in five days.

The transportable LCT comes in two trailers, 53 feet long, 8.5 feet wide and 13.8 feet high. The device trailer weighs approximately 59,000 pounds, the service trailer weighs about 38,000 pounds. When deployed, the LCT occupies an area 65 feet by. 95 feet.

The Longbow crew trainer has been in development since 1996. The current production contract was awarded to the Boeing Co. in September 2000. The Army requirement is to field a Longbow crew trainer with each AH-64D equipped unit and four devices at the U.S. Army training base at Fort Rucker, Ala.

Collective Training

The Army also operates a Longbow collective trainer, located in Fort Hood, Texas. It has 12 crew stations, representing six aircraft. All six aircraft fly together, as a team. The system also has dedicated stations for the tank commanders, artillery and intelligence officers. "They can run a battle in real time," Wittges said.

The collective flight simulator, he said, "leverages much of the state-of-the-art technology found in the Longbow crew trainer." It has the same high fidelity AH-64D aircraft flight model software originally developed for the LCT, he said.

Both the crew trainer and the collective trainer are compliant with Distributed Interactive Simulations (DIS) standards and will be upgraded, by 2004, to High Level Architecture (HLA) standards, so they can interact with simulators of other U.S. weapons systems.

Boeing delivered the Longbow collective trainer to the 21st Cavalry Brigade at Fort Hood, in April 2002. The 21st Cavalry executes the Army's unit fielding training program for the newly forming Longbow Apache units.

The 21st Cavalry Brigade receives, equips, fields, trains and evaluates all modernized attack and cavalry aviation units using a standard model. Upon certification of the units as combat ready, the brigade ensures the unit is deployed back to its parent organization.

Col. Doug Eller, commander of the 21st Cavalry Brigade, said that the new simulator will help train the newly formed Longbow battalions. "It allows us to train attack helicopter teams, platoons, companies and battalions, under realistic conditions, in a simulation environment, before we do so with the actual airframe," said Eller. The system also gives the brigade an "opportunity to conduct collective rehearsals, in simulation, before we conduct an actual mission in the aircraft."

Each of the six player stations consists of two cockpits (accommodating a crewmember at each station) with out-the-window visuals, staff and exercise control stations, multi-screen real-rime video monitor wall and video/audio recording capabilities for immediate feedback and after-action review.

Crews can perform company-level multi-echelon training under simulated day, night, marginal weather, and meteorological conditions 

The entire trainer can be shipped in six trailers. Two service trailers (8.5 feet wide x 53 feet long x 13.5 feet high) house two multi-fuel generators, four environmental control units and a storage area. Three equally sized device trailers house six pilot and six copilot crew stations.

Each crew station has a 108-by-27 degrees visual display. The heart of the trainer is the high-tech operations trailer that houses the instructor operator, after-action review and staff tactical stations.

Additionally, the system can be adapted for training in high proficiency skills--such as night flying with goggles or infrared sensors, instruments, blowing dust operations, tactical communication and weapons employment procedures.

Officials also touted the cost-saving benefits of the simulator. Use of the Longbow collective trainer costs roughly is one-tenth to one-fifteenth of the cost of operating the AH-64D aircraft.

The ordnance expended in a typical live-fire exercise, a combat load of 16 Longbow Hellfire missiles, costs approximately $2 million. In the simulator, it is normal for the six AH-64D crews to expend 30 to 50 missiles, hundreds of rockets and countless gun rounds in a single training session.

In the future, the Longbow trainer will be networked to the ground combined-arms simulator, called the close combat tactical trainer.

"As we link this device to the CCTT and other devices in the future, we will be able to work through air-ground operations in simulation before we begin a 'dirt' exercise or deployment," said Eller.

Army officials said that the Longbow trainer program will nor be affected or changed significantly by the service's effort to overhaul aviation training, called Flight School XXI.

The Army Aviation Center, at Fort Rucker, will be selecting a contractor team next year to begin modernizing the schoolhouses and to consolidate training activities, in an effort to improve the combat readiness of aviators, officials said. The program also will increase the use of simulators in the training process. (See related story)

Lt. Col. Christopher J. MacFarland, chief of the simulation division at the Department of Training, Doctrine and Simulation, at Fort Rucker, said that the Longbow crew trainer "is part of the solution for Flight School XXI." Therefore, he said, there is "no need to reinvent the wheel."