Pilots sometimes train in simulators—machines on the ground that do their best to mimic the experience of operating an aircraft in the sky. This month, the simulators that give F-35 pilots the chance to practice down on terra firma at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada received an update that allows them to link with a number of other Air Force simulators in real time.
Thanks to the new uplink, a pilot in a sim at Nellis can fly their F-35 alongside a virtual F-16 operated by another aviator in a simulator in, say, Asia.
That may sound like basic video game stuff—the equivalent of playing Call of Duty or Fortnite against a friend in another location—but before this month, that capability didn’t exist for F-35 simulators. Previously, the four rigs at Nellis could mimic a four-ship exercise in a virtual flight with each other—..MORE
