The 552d Operational Support Squadron Earns Prestigious Award for a Third Year.

CAMAS, WASHINGTON (May 30, 2017) – A key PLEXSYS Interface Products, Inc. strategic partner and customer has been recognized as the best program of its kind in the Air Combat Command (ACC) for 2016. This is the third year the 552d Operational Support Squadron’s (552 OSS) Simulation Training Program based at Tinker AFB has earned this MAJCOM-level award.

PLEXSYS has supplied Distributed Training systems and solutions to the 552 OSS and other units throughout the world for 20-plus years. The solution serving as the technology foundation for the award-winning results the 552 OSS continues to achieve is PLEXSYS’ flagship product, the Advanced Simulation Combat Operations Trainer or ASCOT®. One of ASCOT’s proving grounds has been with the US AWACS Mission Training Center (MTC) Program, of which the 552 OSS is a large part. PLEXSYS provides similar core technology and services to several US and international training centers like the MTC globally.

ASCOT is a real-time interactive training tool capable of stimulating any synthetic Battle-Space – or DevSpace – for most mission sets. It delivers scenario generation over a wide range of geospatial environments and supports rapid scenario development. ASCOT integrates with other PLEXSYS solutions like sonomarc®, a communications simulation suite, Direct Link Interface (DLI), and other associated utilities to merge reality and simulation. ASCOT and sonomarc are Combat Air Force (CAF) Distributed Mission Operations (DMO) certified and can operate in any security domain. This combination of tools is often the benchmark Entity Generation (EG) suite against which government and industry EGs are measured and tested.

The 552 OSS Training Program powered by ASCOT and sonomarc produced enviable results in 2016. Operating out of the largest facility in the Air Force, the 552 OSS has seven different mission crew simulator facilities and four front-end full motion simulator facilities, supporting about 1,800 flying personnel. The program is the Combat Air Forces’ largest DMO program valued at $59 million conducting 835 events encompassing 1,682 aircrew training hours. The result was a 97 percent effective rate while training over 900 mission crew members.

The 552 OSS managed a synthetic training program of nine simulators conducting 3,200 events which included 96 virtual Expeditionary Force spin-up scenarios for 30 air crews and 524 Airmen. This well-managed program produced 590 new aircrew members capable of forming 30 combat-ready E-3 crews.

Adding to these successes was the 552 OSS’ revival of the Mission Simulator Live Intercept Training Environment (MS-LITE). This previously dormant $3.6 million program now enables ground control of aircraft from 40 fighter squadrons in 32 airspaces, and the program has filled 2,000 Ready Aircrew Program shortfalls. PLEXSYS’ involvement includes the use of the Advanced Simulation Interface Buffer (ASIB) to pass information from the live range radars to not only the MTC, but also the Block 40 (E3-G) Mission Crew Training System (MCTS) and the Legacy simulators. ASCOT and sonomarc LVC are PLEXSYS solutions used to support MS-LITE in the MTC and MCTS.

“It is gratifying to see the 552 OSS earn this recognition for the third time” said Bill Thomson, AWACS project manager for PLEXSYS. “We’ve been on contract to the AWACS community for over 17 years. PLEXSYS’ longevity of service with the AWACS MTCs, and other training systems world-wide, further substantiates our commitment to the war fighter’s training needs. As a founding member of the Standards Development Working Group, PLEXSYS delivers leadership and expertise to industry and government partners. These partnerships help ensure uninterrupted CAF DMO certification and continued DMO ‘Plug-n-Play’ capability to facilitate necessary training for our AWACS customer. PLEXSYS’ DMO, Software, and Test Engineering teams’ depth of knowledge and talent is valuable inventory to both our customers and the industry. Their involvement with the ever-evolving requirements of the LVC/DMO standards community keep PLEXSYS and our partners at the bleeding edge of compliance.”