JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s training methods are evolving quickly, as the 673d Logistics Readiness Squadron showed in moving to utilize virtual reality to aid in training future Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants refuelers.
"The JBER Fuels Flight set out to create the Air Force Specialty Code first risk-free training environment that allows POL & Multi-Capable Airmen to become task proficient,” said Tech. Sgt. Jordan Laughlin, 673d LRS fuels distribution section chief. “We partnered with industry to develop an agile training tool that can be utilized across the enterprise to effectively train anyone, anywhere, and anytime."
The first training module is currently under testing, with developers closely monitoring how airmen engage with the vast virtual tools now at their fingertips.
“We start from scratch on every project,” said Dov Margalit, owner and developer at Res3D- the company helping develop the technology. “We didn't know anything about a Refueler 11 or Refueler 12, but that's not really an issue. We do site visits, we get sheets on every piece of equipment, learn everything we can."
The Department of Defense annually uses partnerships with industry, like that with Res3D, to push innovative ideas that modernize and enhance training for overall mission effectiveness.
To build a detailed training simulation of this caliber, Margalit's team worked with the 673d LRS to become experts on refueling equipment themselves, a subject that, up until this project, the team had no exposure to.
"VR has the capability to train or to give someone the ability to use the equipment in a remote location," Margalit said. "That has a lot of possibilities."
Using information from the initial documentation, developers can now construct scenarios that would otherwise be difficult to replicate in real life.
“It’s convenient and you can create scenarios that you would normally have to wait for,” said Staff Sgt. Jeremy Matias, fuels service center accountant. “With VR you can get into repetitions and can create any scenario anywhere. Whereas in regular training, you need to wait for the opportunity.”
This type of innovation allows many opportunities to train multiple capable airmen using modified and wholly controllable criteria anywhere.
From the ground up, the 673d LRS and Res3D will next develop FORCE: Forward Operating Refuel Capable Equipment into their VR training.
“Essentially FORCE operations for us are the operations we perform at deployed locations where we necessarily don’t have our traditional field setup," said Matias. "In the desert, you can use this equipment to fuel contingency aircraft, or in any bare location."
In its completion, what started as an idea will now produce faster, more resilient training for future airmen.
“In terms of working with ACE: Agile Combat Employment," said Matias. “Wherever ACE needs us to be set up, we’re pretty much able to do that and give them the support they need to carry out the mission.”