Simulations - Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman Receives Contract Extension to Continue Advanced Virtual Training Mission

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 17:00:00 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. – June 30, 2020 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has been awarded a $64 million contract extension by the U.S. Air Force to continue as the Operations and Integration (O&I) prime contractor for Mobility Air Force (MAF) Distributed Mission Operations (DMO).

Under the contract, Northrop Grumman will continue providing an on-demand, cyber-secure, distributed training solution for training missions, including virtual air refueling, formation flight, airdrop and tactical training for Air Mobility Command (AMC) crews.

“The MAF DMO mission is to train AMC aircrews in a secure, realistic, networked environment, reducing risk and the operating costs of flight training,” said Sean Carey, AMC chief for MAF DMO. “Our capabilities enable live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) participation in a wide range of MAF, Air Force, joint service and combined exercises.”

Northrop Grumman was awarded the original contract in 2011, with the primary objective of demonstrating the feasibility of achieving virtual air refueling in high-fidelity training simulators – representing the tanker aircraft, boom operator pod and the receiver aircraft – all geographically dispersed yet connected across networks. The extension of the sole-source, single-award, firm-fixed-price, contract was awarded by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and extends through August 2022.

“The Air Force has built a successful and longstanding DMO capability with Northrop Grumman,” said Kenn Todorov, vice president and general manager, combat systems and mission readiness, Northrop Grumman. “Our experience, and the processes and innovative solutions developed across numerous programs, including MAF DMO, have resulted in a cost-effective, cyber-hardened and highly collaborative solution which has greatly expanded the level of fidelity attainable in distributed training environments.”

Northrop Grumman’s cyber-secure DMO solution has earned the first-ever continuous Authority to Operate (ATO) for a program in the Air Force Operational Training Infrastructure (OTI) simulator and training range portfolio.

“The award of the continuous ATO is a testament to the security Northrop Grumman has built into their DMO programs,” said Karl Wiers, OTI Security control assessor/authorizing official designated representative. “Cybersecurity is increasingly important as pilots and crews need to be able to connect wherever their missions take them around the world.”

Northrop Grumman solves the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defense and cyberspace to meet the ever evolving needs of our customers worldwide. Our 90,000 employees define possible every day using science, technology and engineering to create and deliver advanced systems, products and services.

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Misawa Air Force Base’s Draughon Range Fires Up on Northrop Grumman’s Distributed Mission Operations Network

Michelle Lund — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 17:00:00 GMT

Joining a scalable and cyber-secure network of over 300 simulator integrations in 85 sites around the world, the Draughon Range, with F-16C simulator, at Misawa U.S. Air Force Base in Japan, is the latest connection to Northrop Grumman’s Distributed Mission Operations Network (DMON).

A U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon taxis down the runway during exercise RED FLAG-Alaska 19-1, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Pilots at Misawa AFB in Japan join live Red Alaska from virtual cockpits. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Collette Brooks)

As the provider of DMON capabilities, Northrop Grumman delivers the virtual-constructive backbone for the U.S. Air Force’s Live, Virtual and Constructive (LVC) training technology. It’s a core enabler for the Air Force to achieve its LVC vision of worldwide training.

The new connectivity of the Draughon Range to the DMON enables Misawa Air Force Base to join on-demand training events with other DMON participants around the globe. These events include daily small team training missions, as well as large force exercises like Red Flag Alaska, Northern Edge and Distant Frontier. The connection of local simulators, threat generation systems, live range threats and live aircraft add significant training complexity to daily events.

DMON: Critical for LVC Success

DMON, a fully-functioning collective training solution, allows different aircraft simulator platforms located across the globe to seamlessly interoperate and train together in a realistic virtual environment via a secure network. DMON provides on-demand, inter-team training for the U.S. Air Force’s Combat and Mobility Air Forces on a daily basis.

Mobility Air Force Distributed Mission Operations (DMO) utilizes the Distributed Training Center Network (DTCN) to interconnect its training sites. The DMON and DTCN can connect on-demand to allow the platforms to train together.

LVC: Training for All

By joining on DMON, Misawa Air Force Base is a part of an expanding global LVC blended training network meant to mimic the growing complexities of real-world battlespaces. Along with the flying hour cost of live platforms, the training needs for the real-world battlespace is the driver behind bringing the “L” and the “VC” training domains together into a seamlessly integrated LVC training environment. Northrop Grumman is the only technology provider to achieve an on-demand, global LVC training solution, which connects the live environment to actual warfighter simulators.

Northrop Grumman’s LVC solution operates to ensure a repeatable training solution is always readily available to prepare warfighters for their missions across air, land, sea, space and cyberspace.

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US Marines Conduct Virtual Training for First Time at Northrop Grumman Distributed Training Center

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 13:00:00 GMT

BALTIMORE – March 12, 2019 – Northrop Grumman Corporation’s (NYSE: NOC) Distributed Training Center (DTC) recently hosted simulated training for the U.S. Marine Corps at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, Virginia.

An ANGLICO team operates from a rooftop during the Iraq War. Photo credit: USMC Cpl. Rocco DeFilippis Courtesy: United States Marine Corps

During two training events, eight F-15E aircrew based at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho trained with four Marines from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state via the DTC. The Marines, trained as Joint Tactical Air Controller/Joint Forward Observers (JTAC/JFO), are part of the 6th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO) tasked with calling-in air strikes and artillery fire in support of their attached formation. ANGLICO JTACs support Special Operations Forces and typically deploy to the battlefield in small teams.

Each mission scenario was designed, created and supported by Northrop Grumman DTC engineers based on mission demands. The multi-service close air support (CAS) training closely replicated scenarios in current battle zones where warfighters are deployed, while at the same time providing virtual and constructive training at a fraction of the cost of live training.

“The Marines were impressed with the high fidelity training and said the customized scenarios felt like real life,” said Martin Amen, director, secure network operations, Northrop Grumman.

The simulation training event met the following desired learning objectives provided by the participants:

(JTAC) Joint CAS environment – more than one service involved
(JTAC) Integrated air and surface fires
(JTAC) Deconflict multiple air assets – training included four virtual F-15Es and one constructive MQ-9 Reaper
(F-15E) 25 mph+ moving target – fighter tracks and engages a target going more than 25 mph
(F-15E) Hot gun to target artillery deconfliction – ensuring aircraft flight paths are not in conflict with the flight path of artillery rounds being fired at targets in the same vicinity
(F15E) Squirters from a strike – track and target enemy fighters who survive the initial strike
(F-15E) Bomb-on-coordinate targets utilizing different weapons – using varying classes of GPS-aided bombs to hit the right targets
(F15E) CAS stack deconfliction – airspace management with the added value of matching aircraft to targets

The DTC has provided live, virtual and constructive training for the U.S. Air Force for nine years, but this was the first time Marines used the DTC to train for their missions. Last year, the Army Rangers utilized the DTC for the first time to train for deployment.

Developed for Air Force simulation training in 1999, Northrop Grumman’s Distributed Mission Operations Network (DMON) provides the connectivity and network interoperability for the DTC, which became operational in 2010 to meet the need for real-world scenario development and advanced warfighter readiness training. Northrop Grumman wants to expand the use of the DMON and DTC beyond the Air Force to additional services such as the Marine Corps, the U.S. Army and international forces.

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, space, strike, and logistics and modernization to customers worldwide. Please visit news.northropgrumman.com and follow us on Twitter, @NGCNews, for more information.

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US Misawa Air Base Pilots in Japan Join Live RED FLAG Alaska Mission from Virtual Cockpits

Tue, 30 Oct 2018 16:00:00 GMT

BALTIMORE – Oct. 30, 2018 – For the first time, U.S. Air Force crew members from Misawa Air Force Base, Japan, participated in two live RED FLAG Alaska missions from virtual cockpits at the Misawa Mission Training Center. These training events demonstrate how Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is leading the advancement of Live, Virtual and Constructive (LVC) technologies with its LVC Experimentation, Integration, and Operations Suite (LEXIOS).

A U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon taxis down the runway during exercise RED FLAG-Alaska 19-1, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, Oct. 9, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Collette Brooks)

“Our LVC solution highlights the value of Northrop Grumman to our U.S. and international customers and is tremendous for military training transformation,” said Martin Amen, director, secure network operations, Northrop Grumman. “We are at the leading edge of combining tactical simulator training with a live tactical event. When we started, LVC was seen as an adjunct capability. However, today LVC is an integrated depended-upon training element.”

The Misawa pilots took part in the Aug. 11-24 and Oct. 8-19 RED FLAG Alaska exercises. Northrop Grumman provided its LVC expertise in all four RED FLAG Alaska military training exercises. This represented the most comprehensive LVC offering to date and the team has now delivered advanced LVC content in more than 15 different large-scale exercises.

In this published article, Eielson Air Force Base described Northrop Grumman LVC training that took place at the most recent Northern Edge military training exercise.

Since 2015, the Pacific Air Forces LVC program has been implementing on-demand, LVC training capability for aircrews. Using LEXIOS and additional Northrop Grumman solutions, virtual cockpits, constructive (computer-generated) aircraft and weapons and live training exercises are integrated on the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex (JPARC) range.

“It’s an amazing feat to fuse JPARC with the virtual world via our engineering systems integration expertise. It showcases the broad capabilities of Northrop Grumman and enables our customers to expand and improve the training experience,” said David Royal, operations program manager, LVC operations, Northrop Grumman. “Our LVC expertise enhances the end-to-end operational training experience for the warfighter.”

As the integration and operations lead, Northrop Grumman has defined, developed and implemented an on-demand training architecture which integrates the existing global virtual and constructive training solutions such as the Combat Air Forces Distributed Mission Operations Network (DMON) and Mobile Air Forces Distributed Training Center Network to enhance live and synthetic aircrew training. This integrated solution provides a battle space where LVC platforms can seamlessly communicate, interact and train with one another.

Northrop Grumman’s LVC operations team leads the scheduling, mission planning and execution of all virtual sites and computer-generated assets, while managing event security and augmenting the battle space with role-playing platforms such as the E-8C JSTARS, RC-135 RIVET JOINT, and F-16CM when neither live aircraft or virtual sites are available for a specific event. Some of the sites involved included Misawa Air Base and Robins, Langley, Ellsworth, Orlando, Eielson and Elmendorf Air Force Bases.

According to Royal, the exercise participants get a better training experience when the synthetic elements are added to their live training, giving them access to all the operational tools they would have in a combat situation. “Northrop Grumman’s LVC capabilities are specifically designed to fill gaps in live training by connecting simulators (via the DMON) that could not get to the live fly training events.”

Northrop Grumman provides a wide range of training and simulation capabilities for the Department of Defense and its allies. To learn more, visit www.northropgrumman.com/virtualreality.

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Northrop Grumman Awarded $128M Contract by US Army to Provide Operation and Sustainment of Live, Virtual and Constructive Training and Simulation Environments

Mon, 09 Jul 2018 17:00:00 GMT

HERNDON, Va. – July 9, 2018 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has been selected by the U.S. Army to continue providing support for its Mission Command Training Center (MCTC). The new program, Mission Training Complex Contractor Support (MTCCS - III Corps), provides mission command training for a range of unified land operations in a contemporary operating environment.

The $128 million contract will allow Northrop Grumman to continue providing live, virtual, constructive simulation-driven exercises, gaming-based training, mission staff training and technical support.

“We value the partnership we’ve built with the Army through MCTC over the years, and are excited to continue supporting them with innovative and transformative live, virtual and constructive solutions that help prepare our warfighters with immersive training,” said Cathie Gridley, vice president and general manager, advanced defense systems division, Northrop Grumman.

Northrop Grumman has supported this Army program for 16 years. The hub is located at Fort Hood, Texas, with four spoke sites at Fort Bliss, Texas; Fort Carson, Colorado; Fort Riley, Kansas and Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Across these four locations the company delivers mission command training to more than 70,000 service members annually.

More information about the company's live, virtual and constructive training capabilities is available at Northrop Grumman’s Training and Simulation website.

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, strike, and logistics and modernization to customers worldwide. Please visit news.northropgrumman.com and follow us on Twitter, @NGCNews, for more information.

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Northrop Grumman Demonstrates Live Distributed Connectivity Between Royal Australian Air Force Simulators and US-based Test Lab

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 20:13:00 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia – Dec. 13, 2016 – Northrop Grumman Australia, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC), successfully provided a proof-of-concept demonstrating the value of a distributed network environment between two Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) simulators and a Northrop Grumman test lab providing advanced, realistic, virtual training at multiple sites on opposite sides of the globe.

The demonstration last month for the first time successfully provided distributed simulation capability by connecting a RAAF KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport simulator with a C-17A Globemaster III simulator at RAAF Base Amberley and a Northrop Grumman test laboratory located in Orlando, Florida.

The industry-funded demonstration was conducted in conjunction with leading industry support providers, CAE and L-3 Communications. It follows the first of a four-phased program where the simulators of RAAF’s Air Mobility Group (AMG) KC-30A, C-17A and C-130J Hercules transports were surveyed to determine their operating standards compared to those of the U.S. Air Force’s Distributed Mission Operations Network (DMON). The survey determined configuration changes required to achieve U.S. Air Force Mobility Air Force standards.

Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for DMON, a system that enables dissimilar aircraft platforms located across the globe to seamlessly interoperate and train together in a realistic virtual environment.

“In these times of increased operational tempo and stretched resources, the ability to connect and execute distributed missions virtually across multiple sites across the globe is a real force-multiplying capability,” said Ian Irving, chief executive, Northrop Grumman Australia. “We are grateful for the opportunity to have worked closely with CAE and L3 on this important demonstration and, as a world leader in the provision of distributed networks through its DMON system to the U.S. Air Force, Northrop Grumman looks forward to the potential development of a persistent capability for the Australian Defence Force.”

The dedicated Northrop Grumman communications integration and test environment provided the necessary high fidelity for close formation maneuvers as well as communications between the aircraft simulator and the boom operators across the world. The advanced integration and test environment enabled the introduction of simulated constructive or computer generated elements that simulator crews observed and interacted with. This capability proof-of-concept demonstrated the value constructive elements provide in achieving current and future training needs of the RAAF.

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