by Michael Irish
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea (AFNS) -- Emerging successfully from its trial in Ulchi Focus Lens 96, the new Korean Air Simulation Center is receiving excellent reviews for realistic depiction of air and space power and the battlefield.
The KASC, now a permanent fixture on the Korean Peninsula, will allow commanders and war gamers daily access to air- and space-power modeling and simulation. Its customers will include Korean Combined Forces Command, the U.S. Air Force and Department of Defense.
"The KASC successfully demonstrated its capabilities and strengths in the largest combined and joint exercise in the world, Ulchi Focus Lens. This was a great test of the center's systems, models and global connectivity," said Col. Robert Gregory, one of the senior air controllers during Ulchi Focus Lens in August.
The center uses modeling and simulation technology. With that, an array of computer and software tools create graphically represented, synthetic environments for training and mission planning. The goal is to challenge decision makers while testing strategy, plans and doctrine in a high-stress environment.
Focused on air- and space-power modeling and simulation, the KASC is one of two centers outside the United States.
Gregory explained that the models help commanders practice execution of air and space tasking orders for missions -- whether strike, reconnaissance, inter-theater airlift, logistics, unmanned aerial vehicles or maintenance. With these models and simulations, the same people who do their jobs in wartime can walk through the decision-making process as if real hostilities occurred.
During Ulchi Focus Lens, the KASC was linked real-time to the KBSC in Seoul, the Navy's 7th Fleet Blue Ridge command ship, the Air Force's Theater Battle Arena at the Pentagon, the Warrior Preparation Center in Germany and several other locations. The technology that made this possible is known as distributed interactive simulation.
The power of DIS allows computers, software, models and simulations, as well as individuals, to interact real-time anywhere in the world. This means the KASC can distribute its powerful modeling and simulation tools to locations throughout the world in real time. Thus, war gamers can stay at their home bases and save millions of dollars in travel costs.
Air and space power are only part of the picture in joint and combined exercises such as Ulchi Focus Lens, he added.
"Air- and space-power simulations must be fused into overall models that represent ground warfare, naval operations, marine forces and other critical functions, such as intelligence," Gregory said. "Only then is it truly joint and combined.
"Ultimately, the theater commander in chief benefits most from an improved air and space picture. It gives a more accurate understanding of the tools at hand and greater flexibility in campaign planning." (Irish is with the Air Force Directorate of Modeling, Simulation and Analysis at the Air Staff in Washington.)