Air Combat Training – Preparation for Real Combat Missions
For the success of missions and the protection of own pilots, Diehl Defence supplies not only the most modern guided missiles to arm fighter aircraft but also a high-quality equipment to prepare the crews optimally for real combat missions – the air combat training system FPR (Flight Profile Recorder).
All flight maneuvers and actions of the pilot are recorded in a so-called FPR pod. This special container attached to the wing of the fighter aircraft also offers the possibility of simulating the dropping and employment of various weapons. During debriefing at the ground station which is part of the system, the highly agile maneuvers and actions of the pilots involved can be viewed in a synthetic image from a variety of perspectives, and any faults can be pointed out and analyzed.
All FPR pods are interconnected via a data link within a radius of 60 NM (approx. 110 km) and exchange their positions 10 times per second. The advantages of the FPR system compared to aircraft onboard data recording are the high accuracy and the possibility to simulate weapon employment with different aircraft types in real time. The FPR is also the only AACMI (Autonomous Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation) system with collision warning to reduce the risk of accidents during training flight operations.
The FPR air combat training system has largely established itself in Europe as the NATO standard. The latest further development, COMTESS, supports the expansion of simulation functions toward an LVC training environment (Live-Virtual-Constructive) in which aircraft can compete in the air (Live) against flight simulators (Virtual) and computer-generated units (Constructive) and practice realistic scenarios.