Introducing the Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) training paradigm into live air combat training means introducing significant changes into a complex and established training system. To facilitate the transition, research was performed to identify possible new hazards that might emerge as a result of the changes and to assess the ability of the live training system to withstand them. Aircrew interviews were conducted and submitted to qualitative analysis, the results of which were further assessed by air combat experts, to identify both potential hazards and mechanisms the training system uses to withstand, or be resilient to, hazards. This paper focuses on those system resilience mechanisms and their adequacy for protecting system effectiveness and aircrew safety in the face of changes associated with the adoption of LVC training.

In the U.S. Navy’s proposed Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) air combat training system, live F/A-18 aircraft will fly alongside virtual aircraft flown by pilots in simulators and constructive aircraft generated by computers. The Navy is using a human-centered, gradual, iterative, and research-based strategy to transition to LVC training. Part of this strategy entails a multi-year effort to preemptively identify and mitigate potential safety concerns associated with LVC training. Two cycles of event-driven interviews with 31 Navy aircrew and training professionals, followed by extensive review by two naval air combat subject-matter experts and other stakeholders, produced a list of LVC-related safety concerns. Researchers assessed the safety risk level of each concern to prioritize mitigation efforts. The latest cycle of data collection and subject-matter expert review, reported herein, focused on developing mitigations for the safety concerns and identifying characteristics of the current naval air combat training system that protect against LVC-induced perturbations.

The Navy is investigating the use of Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) simulation to train F/A-18 pilots. LVC, which introduces computer-generated tracks into live training, will be embedded into Navy air combat training, an extremely complex and nuanced system. This paper describes research conducted to facilitate the integration of this new technology into the existing training system. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 air combat professionals to understand their training system and the ways LVC technology could affect its safety and effectiveness. Results reported here focus on ways LVC technology could be employed to benefit air combat training. Associated research required to determine the best LVC design requirements for enabling those employment strategies within Navy training were also identified. A case is made for the utility of this type of future-system exploration research; such research is invaluable to systems acquisition, which frequently involves making changes to existing complex systems.At present, the Navy faces a number of environmental and economic challenges to the creation and maintenance of combat readiness. These challenges include: the high cost of flight hours, a limited number of pilots available to fly as adversaries, environmental restrictions on the use of training ranges, and ranges of inadequate size for practicing with and against advanced technology.In an effort to mitigate these economic and environmental threats to air wing readiness, the Navy is investigating the use of a Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) training paradigm in F/A-18 air combat training. The LVC training paradigm combines live flight with simulated elements. Utilizing recent advances in high-speed datalink technology, virtual tracks (pilots "flying" simulators on the ground) and constructive tracks (computer-generated forces) are shown on the cockpit sensor system displays of live aircraft.LVC technology will be implemented in Navy air combat training, an extremely complex and nuanced system that has existed and evolved over decades. The Navy air combat training system consists of aircraft of many types playing complementary, coordinated roles in complex, choreographed events that, due to infinitely variable circumstances, rarely play out quite as planned. The system includes the training procedures, rules, and practices devised to keep the aircraft coordinated and separated regardless of the difficulty of the circumstances. It additionally includes training syllabi, manuals, objectives, exercises, and events; instructors and range safety or training officers; and a unique culture. Changes have been introduced into air combat training before, but the change represented by the LVC paradigm is particularly invasive, involving the piping of fictional information into pilots' cockpits even as they struggle to cope with the constant flow of rapidly changing information about their actual surroundings.Introducing change into a complex system is the basis of many an adage, including the law of unintended...