Boeing and Red 6 are joining forces to integrate Augmented Reality (AR) training systems on Boeing’s T-7 and F-15EX jets.
Red 6 has been developing their Advanced Tactical Augmented Reality System (ATARS) and Augmented Reality Command and Analytic Data Environment (ARCADE) for some time now. The innovative tech allows combat pilots to see and interact with simulated aircraft, targets, and threats on the ground or in the air – WHILE flying and training in their actual aircraft.
It’s like a video game in the sky, but in a real environment, in the real world. A pilot can takeoff, look out the canopy and see other aircraft in wide-field of view, in full color and high resolution. The pilot can maneuver against them and they against the pilot.
It’s a highly accurate, high-fidelity simulation that allows pilots and ground operators to see synthetic threats in real-time, outdoors, and in high-speed environments, blending AR and artificial intelligence.
According to Red 6, ATARS “enables a multitude of tactical training scenarios delivered through augmented reality. These include air combat maneuvers, refueling, tactical formation and surface-to-air weapon engagements. ARCADE increases the efficiency of mission planning, briefing, and debriefing through real-time 3D visualizations to construct and re-construct sorties.”
“Red 6’s Augmented Reality system with the pathfinding T-7 and the F-15EX represents another transformational leap in capability” said Dan Gillian, VP and General Manager of U.S. Government Services for Boeing Global Services. “This agreement is the latest example of Boeing’s commitment to investing in technology and our drive to lead innovation in the aerospace and defense sectors.”
For decades, training combat pilots to fly, fight and win has been done with ground simulators and in the air flying (think of the movie Top Gun). But such flying is very expensive, and training against 20+ year old privately owned Red Air jets just doesn’t replicate modern day threats like China’s J-20 or Russia’s Su-57.
USAF leadership knows it too, as does Lockheed’s Skunk Works. Both have supported Red 6’s AR development with millions of dollars. Last year, the USAF signed a $70 million contract to install ATARS in a T-38 Talon trainer within the next year. They want to validate that it’s safe, and evaluate it in their own scenarios.
“For us to train against those threats, we need to be able to simulate them, and we just can’t do it. If we’re not scared of that, we should be,” says Red 6 CEO Daniel Robinson.
He knows a thing or three about the subject, being a former RAF Tornado pilot and the first foreign national ever to fly the F-22. He’s also a graduate of the UK Fighter Weapons School (their version of Top Gun).
“Everyone realizes the limitations to providing Red Air, there’s a chronic under-supply. Even with all the private contractors and billions of dollars allocated to it, there’s still a 75% demand gap,” says Robinson. “USAF is 2,000 pilots short, and spending over $1 billion per year for adversary air that can’t simulate modern near peer adversaries.”
RED 6 is developing ATARS with two experimental piston-powered Berkuts. Four different modules are integrated into the planes. One tracks the aircraft, while another tracks the head. Another creates the wide-view AR which draws the image for the pilot of whatever scenario is being flown. Another is the main brain of everything.
Earlier this year, RED 6 successfully flew the first multi-aircraft training flight against multiple AR assets. Never before had someone connected multiple live aircraft into one common AR environment, outdoors, in the sky.
“Readiness and lethality are critical if our warfighters are to prevail against peer adversaries,” says Robinson. “Boeing’s next-generation platforms will be the first aircraft in the world that are capable of entering our AR training environment. Together, we will deliver a paradigm shift in the quality, quantity, and cost of training future pilots.”
