Training for ocean patrol.

There can be few more tedious tasks than flying for hours over great expanses of the sea in an endeavour to locate a submarine operated by a potential foe. The end of the Cold War has reduced the major powers' need for such extended maritime reconnaissance patrols, but the burgoening number of developing nations with conventional submarines has actually increased the need for training.

If a reduced threat has resulted in revised maritime reconnaissance policies, with upgrades generally favoured over new platforms, training needs have hardly diminished. So while the US Navy ponders its Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft replacement programme, several other nations have pushed P-3 Orion modernisation to the fore.

Upgraded AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft delivered to the Royal Australian Air Force last year obliged a major revision to its training programme, as much of the equipment installed in the 1970s has been replaced with a new suite of electro-optical sensors. Training on these systems is carried out in a back end mission simulator in which high fidelity radar, infrared and acoustic simulation has been provided by L-3 Communications, as prime contractor. Along with these inputs are communications, datalinks and a representation of the electro-magnetic environment.

The use of simulators, together with three ex-US Navy P-3Bs used exclusively for training, will allow the upgraded Australian Orions to remain in service for another twelve years or so. Meanwhile, the US Navy is also upgrading its P-3C simulators for which the NLX Corporation is prime contractor with Diamond Visionics (DVC) contracted to develop a new visual system including a PC-based image generator.

The latter will provide the capability for automatic, on-the-fly generation of a database, including natural and cultural features. DVC is also providing off line generated geo-specific, photo-realistic, high interest area databases which will be automatically and seamlessly inserted into the worldwide database during runtime.

A number of smaller nations are acquiring medium-sized maritime reconnaissance aircraft fitted with onboard systems that will include a mission training capability, but with first deliveries not slated until 2006, the RAF is patiently awaiting the much-delayed Nimrod MRA4 to replace the venerable MR2. For this, new aircrew synthetic training simulators are in place to train both cockpit and back-end crews and feature the Evans & Sutherland Harmony 2 PC-based visual system said to mark a substantial improvement in price/ performance.