US Air Force F-35 pilots at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, will now be able to step into a simulator and train alongside virtual F-16s, F-15s and other aircraft, a Lockheed Martin executive said. US Air Combat Command formally accepted Lockheed’s Distributed Mission Training system after a final test done before. During that test, four F-35 simulators at Nellis carried out a virtual mission with pilots in F-22, F-16 and E-3 AWACs simulators at other bases, said Chauncey McIntosh, Lockheed’s vice president for F-35 training and logistics. The air force seeks 2020 contract to integrate the F-35 with a cutting-edge training tool. To emulate complex Russian or Chinese threats, the U.S. Air Force and Navy are hoping to use virtual and simulated elements in live training.
Although F-35 pilots in a simulator could previously train with up to three other F-35 sims at the same site, the DTS system allows for those pilots to fly digitally with a large number of varying types of aircraft, as long as the simulators can operate on the same network.