THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 8, 1994 TAG: 9411080309
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By KERRY DEROCHI, Staff writer
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Tanks roll across hilly, green terrain as an F/A-18 Hornet readies for attack above a quaint European village.
An Aegis cruiser patrols the cool waters off a neighboring sea, while two fast-attack submarines lurk just off-shore.
A pair of MiG-29 fighters engage two F-14 Tomcats in an intense dogfight over rolling farmland.
The scenes were part of a mock war waged in a row of darkened rooms at the Oceana Naval Air Station - where dozens of Navy and Defense Department officials came to fight a battle.
Dubbed STOW-E (synthetic theater of war - Europe), the four day battle has been fought on computer screens throughout the country and in Germany as some 3,500 Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine units simulate a regional conflict in a make-believe country of Titania.
The exercise, which ended Monday at noon, marked the first time that the four services have been able to link simulators with live ships, tanks and aircraft in a wartime scenario.
Military officials hope the demonstration proves that some combat training can be completed without firing a single missile or launching a combat jet. Though the simulated exercises are not expected to replace field training, they should provide the forces with a realistic glimpse of war.
``We are demonstrating the potential to training,'' said Cmdr. Guy Purser, a modeling and simulation officer with the Navy Doctrine Command in Norfolk.
``It gives us a learning situation that is less costly than when we go out there and do it live.''
Results from the demonstration are expected to be used in alarger simulation being planned by the U.S. Atlantic Command in Norfolk for 1997. The concept was the brainchild of the Advanced Research Project Agency, which operates under Defense Secretary William Perry.
The battle began Friday at U.S. Army bases in Germany, at Hohenfels and Grafenwoehr.
Information from live and simulated units in Germany as well as Newport, R.I.; Mayport, Fla.; and Oceana, was transmitted over the Defense Simulation Internet. The network allowed participants to appear together on an electronic battlefield, even though they were separated by thousands of miles.
As an example, data collected from F/A-18 Hornets flying off the North Carolina Coast was transmitted into the network and appeared on computer screens as if they were actually flying in Germany.
The center of the Navy's efforts was at Oceana, in the domed building known as WISSARD - the ``What If Simulation System for Advanced Research & Development.''
There, retired fighter pilot Mark Checchio surveyed the air war from a computer screen, watching as two MiG fighters approached his F-14 Tomcats. ``Bogeys inbound,'' Checchio barked into a microphone. ``Get those guys heading north.''
Next door, in response to the order, a pilot and radar intercept officer go after the MiG in the 40-foot dome simulator as Checchio watched their progress on a computer screen. by CNB