General News

By Captain Rae Joseph

We interrupt this regular scheduled program to bring you the latest developments in West Isle. From the CTV News desk, here is news anchor Lloyd Robertson...

Lloyd Robertson: Things continue to heat up for our Canadian troops in West Isle after a United Nations convoy was attacked by small Peoples Liberation Army cell round 6 p.m. today. More on this story from our CTV correspondent in Barahona, West Isle, Lynn Chadwick.

Reporter: Thank you Lloyd. Yes according to reports from the 4 Tactical Helicopter Squadron Mission Commander, personnel were escorting a UN humanitarian re-supply convoy in the Barahona-Jimani corridor when the convoy came under attack by a small group calling itself  the Peoples Liberation Army

Lloyd Robertson: Lynn, were there any casualties and what of the report of a downed helicopter?

Reporter: No confirmation yet of how many or the severity of the injuries, Lloyd, but the injured were airlifted by one of the Griffon helicopters on the convoy escort mission. As for the helicopter it was an AH-64 Apache and had to land due to mechanical reasons - not sure what those reasons were or what caused the malfunction. But what we do know is a second Griffon extracted the U.S. crew and troops from Alpha Company were placed to secure the Apache until it can be removed...

West Isle? 4 Tactical Helicopter Squadron? They don't exist you say? Well, they did in simulation and were quite real to the 12 students being assessed during the 10-day first-ever virtual Exercise Winged Warrior - the final phase of the Advance Tactical Aviation Course (ATAC).

The ATAC, based out of 1 Wing's 403 Helicopter Operational Training Squadron at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, is a captain-level pilot course designed to train future aviation mission commanders in planning a mission, executing that mission and their ability to react to change.

"This was the inaugural virtual Exercise Winged Warrior," said Lieutenant-Colonel Al Meinzinger, 403 (Hel) OTS commanding officer. It was the prefect venue to test this proof of concept, according to the CO, because the aim of the course is to assess the students' capacity to plan and execute a mission. "It's not about flying - they already know how to do that."

In the past, to properly challenge students, 1 Wing had to assemble a squadron's worth of aircraft of all types - recce (reconnaissance), attack, utility and lift - and personnel to conduct the exercise in conjunction with ground forces. That was still true for this Winged Warrior, but the equipment, personnel, ground forces as well as enemy forces weren't real - they were being simulated.

The exercise took place at the Defence Land of Synthetic Environments (DLSE), a component of the Land Force Doctrine and Training System at in CFB Kingston.  While there, students were able to learn in a clean, controlled environment and focus at the task at hand - planning and executing the mission.

"I was skeptical, at first," said student Captain Brodie Conrad from 427 Special Operations Aviation Squadron about the effectiveness of a full simulation exercise. "But now I believe it's a valuable training tool. In fact, we (students) all agreed that it was an effective aviation system and surpassed it's training objective. It was simulation but it was very realistic."

The simulation was made available through a commercially available program called Steel Beast Professional by eSims Games that 403 (Hel) OTS acquired last year. But the realism came because the program allowed for a full simulation of hundreds of ground troops and air assets such as the Tactical Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle, CH-47 Chinook and AH-64 Apache.

"Our planning capabilities were good because we had more assets to use just like we would have in a real operation," said student Captain Ian Robert, 430 Escadron tactique d'hélicoptères, Valcartier, Quebec.

To keep the realism going, directing staff and scenario writers were able to interject enemy forces and enemy mortar attacks - something that just wasn't possible or plausible in the live Winged Warriors of the past.

"There are things you can do in a virtual world, like simulated enemy forces, that cannot be carried out in a live exercise," said Capt Conrad, adding that after this course and virtual exercise, he feels prepared enough to be an aviation mission commander.

The effectiveness and realism not only came from the simulation program, admitted both Conrad and Robert, but from the support received by the more than 50 military augment staff from across 1 Wing, the Subject Matter Expertise Chinook pilots from Britain, and the DLSE civilian staff who role played as command post personnel, air assets, Brigade ground troops and even enemy forces.