A Multi-Year Assessment of the Safety of Introducing Computer- Generated Aircraft into Live Air Combat Training

Abstract

In the U.S. Navy’s proposed Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) air combat training system, live F/A-18 aircraft will fly alongside virtual aircraft flown by pilots in simulators and constructive aircraft generated by computers. The Navy is using a human-centered, gradual, iterative, and research-based strategy to transition to LVC training. Part of this strategy entails a multi-year effort to preemptively identify and mitigate potential safety concerns associated with LVC training. Two cycles of event-driven interviews with 31 Navy aircrew and training professionals, followed by extensive review by two naval air combat subject-matter experts and other stakeholders, produced a list of LVC-related safety concerns. Researchers assessed the safety risk level of each concern to prioritize mitigation efforts. The latest cycle of data collection and subject-matter expert review, reported herein, focused on developing mitigations for the safety concerns and identifying characteristics of the current naval air combat training system that protect against LVC-induced perturbations.