The milestone took place March 6-10 during Exercise Avenging Eagle -- the culmination of the 30 month Mission Training through Distributed Simulation Capability Concept Demonstrator (MTDS CCD) program. The exercise connected flight simulators distributed throughout the United States, United Kingdom and Europe, delivering realistic operational training to diverse military aircrews.

"The CCD facility signals the future of synthetic mission training," said Gen. Sir Kevin O'Donoghue, U.K. Chief of Defence Materiel. "Such a capability will allow us to make even better use of our opportunities for live training."

Tornado, Typhoon, E3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) and Forward Air Control simulators located at U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) Base Waddington were linked to A-10 aircraft simulators in Spangdahlem, Germany; F-16 aircraft simulators at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Arizona; F-15 aircraft simulators at Langley Air Force Base, Va.; and AWACS simulators at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.

The participants were able to plan, brief, execute and debrief the mission, and review their learning experience, within the same virtual environment.

"Avenging Eagle was an excellent opportunity to use simulators for coalition training," said Capt. Richard Ward, 390th Fighter Squadron, Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. "This is something that is usually cost-exclusive and available only at Red Flag exercises. The more aircraft we can link, the better the training opportunity for improving both British and U.S. capabilities."

The U.K. Ministry of Defence initiated the MTDS CCD program to lower risks and capture requirements for any future MTDS capability. The program staged nine events of varying complexity over the past 30 months, drawing from a wide range of air assets and operational scenarios. Avenging Eagle was designed to prove that U.S. and U.K. mission-training systems could be linked from technical, security and political perspectives.

"Each event has taken our understanding to a higher level," said Tony Jones, vice president, Boeing Training Systems and Services. "The U.K. approach to MTDS is very different to the U.S. distributed mission operations approach, and it's great to see how both solutions can work together to deliver outstanding operational training to all participants."

The program has succeeded in demonstrating the benefits of training in a large scale networked synthetic environment, even for experienced instructors and role players. It also has identified a unique role in providing training on working with Air Power to U.K. Army Fire Support Teams and Fire Planning Cells.

One additional program success is its use to prove ships and aircraft can train together by linking from RAF Waddington to naval training systems at HMS Dryad. The program also has demonstrated that UK MTDS would be able to involve existing training simulators, such as the Aviation Training International Ltd. AH-64 attack helicopter simulators in the United Kingdom and in large international training events.

"MTDS CCD is only the beginning," concluded Clive Richardson, chief operating officer for QinetiQ's Europe, Middle East and Australasia operations.

"We are extremely keen to see the U.K. and other nations improve their mission-training capabilities by acquiring networked simulation facilities. Not only could such a solution deliver important operational training to existing forces, it also could be used to help understand the impact of future upgrades to equipment at an early conceptual stage. We will continue to work closely with our prospective customers to expand further the overall scope and potential of networked simulation to achieve these goals."

Team ACTIVE, established to deliver the MTDS CCD program, is led by QinetiQ and includes Boeing, cueSim, Rockwell Collins, Aviation Training International Ltd. and HVR Consulting.

QinetiQ (pronounced as in 'kinetic energy') is a leading international defense and security technology business formed in July 2001 from the U.K. government's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency. QinetiQ has approximately 13,500 employees, who deliver technology-based services and exploit QinetiQ's strengths in technology research by selling systems solutions, products and licenses to government and commercial customers in a spectrum of defense, security and related commercial markets.

In February 2006, QinetiQ Group plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange (main market) and joined the FTSE250 in June 2006. In the year to March 31, 2007, QinetiQ delivered a 17.4 percent rise in underlying operating profit before tax to pounds106 million on turnover, which rose by 9.3 percent to pounds1,149.5 million.

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