ARTICLE

June 2004

Singapore Air Force Trains Without Ranges

by Roxana Tiron

Singapore’s air force increasingly is relying on “range-less” instrumentation technology for pilot training. Lacking large training ranges on the tiny island of Singapore, the air force became one of the first users of range-less instrumentation, and now is touted as the most advanced users of this technology—spurring change in the nature of joint training in the Pacific region. The range-less technology is known as the air combat maneuvering instrumentation (ACMI) system. It “was born out of necessity,” because Singapore’s Air Force did not have enough real estate to conduct conventional training, said Air Force Col. Bernard Toh, director of public affairs at the Singapore ministry of defense.

“We knew that we needed something like [ACMI] to make our training more realistic and as precise as it can possibly get,” he said during a briefing at Paya Labar Air Force Base.

Because Singapore does not have enough land to operate its complete aircraft inventory, it has had to seek overseas locations for almost a third of its assets.

According to reports, F-16 Fighting Falcons, KC-135 Stratotankers, AH-64D Apaches, and CH-47D Chinook helicopters are based in the United States, Marchetti S-211’s and Puma helicopters are in Australia and some A-4 Super Skyhawks are in France. The island nation is in the process of deliberating a contract award for the replacement of the A4 Skyhawks. Contenders in the program are the F-15T, the Rafale and the Eurofighter.

Apart from relocating some of its fleet’s operations, Singapore also arranged to train its air crews in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei. The air force sends its crews to Australia as well, and recently it sent its pilots to train in France, according to Toh.

Singapore pilots are regular guests in the United States at Luke and Cannon Air Force Bases, as well as Nellis Air Force Base where the Red Flag joint exercises are conducted.

When they train in Singapore, the ACMI system gives them freedom to move without tying their training down to a slew of ground stations. ACMI provides the pilots with a real-time tactical picture. Further, ACMI does not restrict the number of participants, nor the location where training takes place, according to ministry documents.

Safety algorithms warn against the dangers of mid-air and ground collisions. “Aboard the aircraft, we have only the avionics to give a warning, so this is an additional measure,” said air force Lt. Col. Jacob Tan, who works with the ACMI. “This is very important for us, when you have 20 to 30 aircraft flying together.”

The training system can simulate air-to-air and air-to-ground maneuvers and operations, said Tan. “We are able to capture [everything] on a recorder, and play it back anytime, he said.

Consisting of three components, the system is relatively easy to operate and maintain, air force officials said. The first component is the AIM-9 pod, which houses a data-link transceiver, a global positioning system receiver, data processing computers, an inertial reference unit and a removable data storage unit.

The second component is real-time tracking positioning, which consists of radio frequency telemetry equipment and a computer-controlled tracking antenna. The antenna tracks aircraft operating in the area up to 250 kilometers, said Tan.

System operations, including the control of the tracking antenna, are centralized in the operator’s console located in the de-briefing room, which is the third ACMI component. Resembling a small movie theater, the de-briefing room has three large screen displays plus the operators’ console.

Little modification is needed to outfit aircraft with the ACMI, according to ministry documents. The pod can be moved from aircraft to aircraft. Singapore has about 95 pods for the entire air force, said Tan.

To accommodate the frequent training deployments to other countries, the air force employs a mini-ACMI with a squadron debriefing station real time called SQDI. The deployable version has a smaller antenna that only can track at up to 150 kilometers, said Tan.

“We do quite a bit of our training flying overseas, so in order to be of value, we use the mini-version,” said Toh.

Often in bilateral training with the United States, the two countries’ instrumentation systems are not in sync, which means that in the after-action review period, Singapore pilots can be debriefed solely on their own maneuvers, because the other party uses a different system.

“The ideal would be to have a read-up of the actions from both sides, but because they do not have a system that is similar we are unable to have that conversation,” said Toh.

The same does not happen when joint training takes place in the Pacific region. The U.S. Air Force, the Royal Thai Air Force and Singapore have developed the capability to exchange data.

U.S. Pacific Air Forces received the first GPS-based, range-less air combat training system back in 1997, at Kadena Air Force Base, on Okinawa. Called the Kadena Instrumented Training System, or KITS, the training tool is developed by Cubic Defense, based in San Diego.

Because the United States conducts multiple exercises a year with Singapore and Thailand, which both have different ACMI systems, the need arose to have joint debrief, said Philip Fisch, Cubic’s business development director.

“Technically, it is not that difficult to do, as long as the [systems’ contractors] get involved and make it happen.” Therefore, the Pacific became “one of the few places where we can do range-less joint training,” he added.

“You have to merge the mission files and create a format that the other systems can read,” he said. “We do that by basically exchanging CD-ROMs.”

Interoperability can happen at two levels. One happens in real-time while fighter jets are in the air and the other is the post-mission interoperability, he said. While the former is easy to accomplish, it requires all the data links to work together and that is ways away, said Fisch. One reason is that some countries refuse to release information on their data links, he added.

A few months ago, Cubic Defense received a contract to provide full service support and equipment for Pacific Air Forces. Cubic will supply the Misawa-Osan-Kunsan-Kadena Instrumentation Training System. The system supports the Kadena and Masawa bases in Japan; Osan and Kunsan bases in Korea; and other locations within the PACAF area of operations.

Cubic is developing a range-less air-to-air and air-to-ground system to outfit a total of 27 Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Air National Guard training ranges in the United States, Europe and the Pacific.

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