Senior Indian air force leaders visit Kirtland AFB

  • Published
  • By Stefan Bocchino
  • 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFNS) --  Senior Indian air force leaders visited the 705th Combat Training Squadron here July 26 and 27.

The IAF leaders were here to learn how the U.S. Air Force operators use simulators for different aircraft and how to do distributed mission operations, according to Maj. Mark Hadley, 705th CTS assistant director of operations. DMO is the networking of different simulators together across not only the same building, but across the world.

IAF officers toured the 705th CTS facilities to learn more about the employment of simulators for basic pilot training as well as for combined coalition operations. They are currently looking to upgrade their own simulators and this visit was part of a fact finding mission as they determine a way forward for the future.

"The 705 CTS team showcased DMO for our IAF partners," said Col. Will Reese, 505th Distributed Warfare Group commander. "Not only the pilot training portion, which most people tend to focus on, but also (how it is used) for our space and cyber warriors and our Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines on the ground."

The 705th CTS falls under Air Combat Command's 505th Command and Control Wing at Hurlburt Field in Florida. During the visit to Kirtland AFB, the IAF officials learned how to tie everything together, from the Combined Forces Air Component Commander to the triggerman, said Lt. Col. Dan Pepper, 705th CTS commander.

"I think their expectations were to learn not only about how to use the simulators for basic training, emergency procedures, the very basic things you need to fly an aircraft, but also how to use them in a large-force exercise," Colonel Pepper said. "With this capacity we have here we're able to integrate those simulators not just from a training perspective, but how we employ them in complex mission scenarios, tailorable to the unique requirements of our joint force commanders."

The visiting IAF leaders are interested in taking part in future Virtual Flag exercises according to Colonel Pepper. Virtual Flag exercises link geographically separated live, virtual and constructive weapons assets in a shared joint synthetic theater environment.

"This was a great opportunity for our team to show our coalition partners how we use DMO to train across the entire joint theater (command and control) process for our component numbered air forces and explain it in a way that made sense to them," Colonel Reese said. "It was an outstanding visit overall. We enjoyed the opportunity to host them and share how we use simulators for training.