L3Harris Team to Support Air Force’s Simulator Program

L3Harris has announced that it will lead an industry team to help the Air Force integrate and standardize its aircraft training simulators. 

The team – composed of CAE USA, CymSTAR, Dell Technologies and Leidos – will support the service's Simulators Common Architecture Requirements and Standards program. 

“The future of Air Force training is here. The L3Harris team will transform the simulator infrastructure and provide the Air Force with increased cyber security and a common operating environment. The integrated solution will allow the Air Force to grow into multiple platforms and provide crews with a more realistic training environment," said Todd Gautier, L3Harris' president of aviation systems. 

The industry group will help the Air Force develop a set of common standards for simulator design and operation. L3Harris explained that training updates are difficult as simulators are built by multiple vendors using different interfaces. 

L3Harris added that SCARS' strict cybersecurity criteria will allow the Air Force to link simulators together, perform remote software updates and improve the training environment. 

About 2.4K simulators across 300 locations will be updated with the team's new common architecture over the coming years. Their initial task order covers nine sites and updates standards on the A-10 and KC-135 platforms. 

Rick Jaime, materiel leader for operational training infrastructure at the Air Force, said the service is increasing its focus on commonality and interoperability as it moves towards multi-domain operations. 

“We look forward to working collaboratively with our prime and partners to create a unique approach to synthetic training environments. These are capabilities that will integrate into broader training systems in the future," Jaime said.