Page 105 - North Atlantic and Nordic Defense

North European and North Atlantic Defense: The Challenges Return

Even though the group has embodied knowledge of doing ASW in the Cold War years, they are keenly
aware of the new technological and threat environment.

And like the rest of us, they are sorting what it means for concepts of operations for a 21st century combat
force.

The simulation training facility provides a significant complement to real world flying, something especially
crucial when flying an older aircraft, even if it has seen a service upgrade on the airframe. As with other air
forces, there is the challenge of striking the right balance between simulated operations and actual flying
operations.

According to Lt. Col. (retired) Rodney Ward, Chief Simulator Officer:

“The Aurora fleet allocates flying hours between operations and training, and what we call these days Force
Employment and Force Generation, respectively.

“In all the RCAF military fleets today it has become important to Commanders – who are minding their
bottom-line budgets, that the ratio of simulation flying to real flying is at a high proportion so that they can
demonstrate that they are wisely obtaining the necessary training for their troops. It is more cost effective to
simulate where you can & conserve the real aircraft for real operations, not training.

“This fleet is doing very well in that respect as our simulation hours (all four devices) run at approximately
73% of our annual real flying rate.

“Combining this fact with the powerful learning value of authentic and well researched simulation makes me
proud to say that this fleet exploits simulation very well.
"The payoff is that we have managed to carry through the last decade, with very few Op Force playmates
out there on the high seas, with lots of very valuable Force Generation through simulation.

"We always challenges crews so that they come away with a ‘been there, done that’ moment, what we refer
to as ‘experiential learning’.

"We have thus kept our ASW sword quite sharp despite significant peace dividend challenges.”
The well-researched simulation point is especially important when looking at the new strategic, technological
and operational environment.

A key event for the simulation team is the annual SIMEX exercise. Here the force is tested against creative
scenarios, which test challenging conditions to operate in coalition to be able to make decisions in hybrid
environments.

We raised the question of flying in simulators and not getting a sense of what failure actually means in
combat.

They provided two responses to this challenge.

First, because of the operations in the land wars, their ISR role has exposed them to getting shot at.

So there was a real world sense of danger drawn from those experiences.

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