Navy Exercise Organizers Aspire to Link Players Around the Globe

By Grace Jean

Navy simulations allow multiple strike groups to participate in realistic exercises without leaving the pier. But eventually, fleets will be able to do mission rehearsals en route to theater and even train maritime commanders to lead joint task forces, says an official with the service’s East Coast training command.

Recent fleet synthetic training exercises have linked Navy crews aboard vessels and inside simulators across the country with other U.S. military services and even European forces overseas.

Capt. William Kovach, interim executive officer for Tactical Training Group Atlantic, says he envisions navies around the world training together.

In the short term, he expects to link the East Coast synthetic exercises to West Coast scenarios, and out to Navy groups based in Japan and Australia, and even to the 5th Fleet in the Persian Gulf.

“Ideally, you just get them under way and maybe run that synthetic exercise as they’re actually transiting. That’s where we want to go with this,” says Kovach.

The technology is in place now to allow such drills, he says, but it will take up to two years to execute because of safety.

“What we don’t want is a live F-18 trying to plug into a virtual tanker that’s not really there, and have it run out of gas. Or a live F-18 dropping a bomb on a target that they think is a virtual target,” says Kovach. Constructing an exercise so that the live play and the virtual play don’t conflict requires careful orchestration.

The training command has begun the process with small vignettes. In one recent case, the scenario required ships training virtually pier-side to lower boarding-crew boats into the water to motor over to a live target ship that had people acting as terrorists. The sailors were able to capture the terrorists and interrogate them, which led to a Tomahawk air strike against a terrorist enclave, says Kovach.

Because the future holds more interaction between the Defense Department and other governmental and international entities, the coalition and interagency piece of training must also be incorporated, he adds.

“Why not train our strike groups synthetically to do that? Why not bring in a white cell from the Coast Guard or Red Cross and have them play as they would if you’ve got a disaster response that you’re trying to train to,” says Kovach.

He adds that NATO, too, could benefit from the technology.

“We need our coalition counterparts to be involved with this,” says Capt. Perry Bingham, from aboard the USS Anzio during a recent fleet synthetic exercise. “We’re going to need them by our sides. This is a way to get that training,” he adds.

Kovach says future exercises potentially could train Navy commanders to serve as joint task force commanders.

“That’s never been done before,” he says.

Joint task force commanders typically come from the Army and Air Force because they have the preponderance of forces in theater, he explains. But if the mission is something like hurricane relief or tsunami disaster response, which requires a good portion of the assets coming in from sea, maybe a maritime commander ought to be in charge.

“Why not have a Navy guy, who’s coming in with hospital ships, logistics — the first one on the scene. Why not use a synthetic exercise to certify and qualify him?” says Kovach.

Email your comments to GJean@ndia.org