The Powerscene is closely linked with the emerging use of simulations for mission rehearsal. With the help of the Defense Mapping Agency and the Army Topographic Engineering Center, U.S. special operations forces hope to cut the time it takes to assemble a computer mock-up of any area in the world to just 48 hours. Advances in image generation and computer modeling also have improved the ability of simulators to replicate conditions that are too dangerous for pilots to confront during air training, such as flying at night during a sandstorm. It was just such an environment that helped doom the hostage rescue attempt in Iran in 1980. Today the MH-53J Pave Low trainer and mission rehearsal simulator gives Air Force special operations helicopter pilots the chance to practice in such conditions routinely.
Simulations really have enormous payoffs in training and developing tactics and doctrine.
You can try out lots of different ideas, and you can do it relatively cheaply, DoD s Gansler said in an interview with Government Executive. Indeed, it is the rising cost and capabilities of modern weapons systems coupled with more than a decade of declining Defense budgets that have driven the services to an ever-heavier reliance on simulations for training. The original Link Flight Simulator, for instance, was developed precisely because aircraft and flight time were so expensive. When constrained 1990s budgets forced the U.S. Army in Europe to slash the number of miles and live-fire exercises its tank crews logged annually, for example, the service compensated by using a simulator called the Conduct of Fire Trainer. Soldiers performance on tests of their tank gunnery skills actually improved.