Gulf legacy: emulating the battlefield

High-technology training of US military personnel, which demonstrated its value in the Persian Gulf War, is described. The two largest training facilities, the Army´s National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California and the Air Force´s Fighter Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, run training programs created in response to training deficiencies exposed during the Vietnam War. Throughout the Gulf War, Nellis´ Fighter Weapons School hosted two major exercises emphasizing targets and tactics used by Iraq. The exercises, dubbed Desert Flag, were intended to train follow-on air crews in case of a protracted war. Desert Flag was a modification of Nellis´ standard training, against Soviet-style tactics, which encompasses all aspects of modern air warfare. NTC´s nerve system is the multipole integrated laser engagement system (Miles), a US $100 million, range-wide network that monitors and records all action during the force-on-force training. All of NTC´s high desert terrain, its collection of Soviet-style armor, and even the skills of its Opfor (opposing force) troops are being programmed into a series of Darpa-designed simulators operated by the Army.<>