B-1B Armament Systems Trainer

The B-1B Armament Systems Trainer (bottom) is a full-scale aircraft mockup that reduces the need for operational aircraft (top and middle) to conduct load crew training and certification.

Under contract to the Air Force Air Education and Training Command (AETC), Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)  is currently upgrading the hardware, software, and checklist procedures for the B-1B Armament Systems Trainer (AST) to provide concurrency with Block D of the aircraft.

The AST was fielded by AETC at three sites to train B-1B ground crews to load weapons in the forward, intermediate, and aft bomb bays, and to perform a postload checklist in the aft crew-station.

The goal of the AST was to reduce the requirement to use operational aircraft for load crew training and certification. Minimizing aircraft use for training reduces the chance of accidental aircraft damage and increases aircraft availability for the daily flying schedule.

To train ground crews in postload checklist procedures, the AST contains a mockup of the aft crew-station operator panels. Software simulates panel operation during the checklist procedure. SwRI replaced the existing AST simulation software and postload checklists to provide concurrency with the Block C version of the aircraft operational flight software, and increased scenario development and monitoring capabilities. SwRI also has options to design and build two additional mini-ASTs and provide simulated panel hardware spares.

As part of the previous Block C software upgrade, SwRI developed an instructor environment, a simulation authoring environment, and system diagnostics based on National Instrument's LabVIEW®‚ programming language.

• Instructor environment -- allows an instructor to set up a training exercise, start/stop a checklist simulation, and monitor the student's progress during
  the checklist procedure
  
  
• Simulation authoring environment -- allows course instructors to create and edit authored checklist simulation files
  
  
• System diagnostic software -- used to validate AST readiness for training and isolate hardware failures to a replaceable unit

Ground crews train using the aft crew-station mockup by running weapons for postload checklist simulation.	Using the AST instructor/operator station, an instructor can create, modify, control, and  monitor a training scenario.

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