ASTi’s SERA for Australian Defence Force pilot training

Advanced Simulation Technology’s (ASTi) Simulated Environment for Realistic ATC (SERA) product has been selected for the Air 5428 pilot training system developed by Lockheed Martin, the company announced on 24 July.

ASTi will provide SERA as part of a contract that is expected to exceed $1 million over a five-month period.

The Air 5428 programme delivers an integrated training solution customised for all future pilots of the Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Australian Navy and Australian Army.

To support the training solutions, the latest SERA developments provide users with diverse capabilities, such as transitioning to an instrument flight rules flight plan in the middle of a visual flight rules flight; implementing vectoring to/from practice areas and adding practice area traffic; and creating traffic patterns.

The capabilities also include adding and configuring repeatable runway incursion incidents in the scenario; performing military high key/low key style approaches and touch-and-go landings; and configuring custom settings for military traffic.

The product’s new features include enhanced CASA phraseology. The automatic digital aeronautical flight information file data imports synchronise SERA with the simulator, providing up-to-date procedures and air spaces.

These utilities allow programme engineers to test artificial intelligence behaviors and responses for an entire flight. The tools can also confirm proper operation before and after SERA software updates.