Fidelity in Learning Environments for the Effectiveness of Training (FLEET)

Live training of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviators is becoming increasingly constrained by the limited operational life of aircraft, geographic dispersion of personnel, and budgetary restrictions. Training professionals recognize the need for more efficient and effective training, and view simulators as a means to supplement live training at decreased costs. Though transfer from simulators to live-fly is likely to be high, the training community’s knowledge of the effects of simulator fidelity on transfer is limited. The Navy is interested in understanding which training programs can be effectively trained in static flight simulators and which require dynamic flight simulators. The Navy first needs measures of pilot performance in F/A-18 missions (e.g., measures of effectiveness and measures of performance) that are sensitive enough to detect objective performance differences invoked by varying levels of fidelity. Objective performance data collected during fidelity experiments will assist the Navy in making informed decisions about the appropriate balance between training in static and dynamic flight simulators, and training in the actual aircraft. This data can also be used to refine and validate a tool for matching F/A-18 training objectives to appropriate training device fidelity – from lower-fidelity simulators, to higher-fidelity simulators, to actual training in the aircraft.