"Translating Military Training Requirements into Visual Simulation Systems"
Maj.Gen. Ron Ladnier, USAF (Ret.), FlightSafety

Simulation training systems provide dynamic synthetic environments which stimulate user behaviors and simulate vehicle/environment responses in a manner which creates skills that transfer to a real-world environment. In flight simulation, a critical component and major contributor to the synthetic environment is the visual system. The visual system comprises all the hardware and software needed to produce out-of-the-window visual scenes, sensor views, and correlation data for other subsystems such as radar. This topic will focus on flight simulator visual simulation technologies used in military applications and the plethora of training requirements that drive their design, development and deployment.

Current visual systems are capable of creating very realistic environments. Years of experience and knowledge have gone into their design and they are generally adequate. However, the training environment is an ever-changing one. Today's environment is not only effected by the type of weapon systems and force level skill-set deployed, but also by political, economic and other pressures. Future visual simulation technologies must be able to rapidly adapt and meet the challenges that lie ahead.