Shaw plays in major virtual flag exercise Published Dec. 16, 2009 By Staff Sgt. John Gordinier 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- For the past week the 20th Fighter Wing has participated in a joint "virtual flag" exercise, which is a large-scale, coordinated combined air operations center exercise that has simulators participating across the continental United States. "There is no real flying with the virtual flag exercise; it is all simulated," said Sal Collura, 20th Operations Support Squadron F-16 simulator instructor and Boeing contractor. "The exercise uses distributed mission operations to connect remote bases. All who are participating, connect and fly together virtually. There are no aircraft actually flying, it is all done through mission training centers." The virtual flag is primarily intended for the CAOC personnel to exercise their ability to plan and execute missions, said Capt. Christopher Mulder, 20th OSS current operations flight commander and F-16 pilot. This is more operational practice than tactical. This exercise is very detailed as far as command and control, he added. Many bases played in the joint virtual exercise: Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.; Tinker AFB, Okla.; Robins AFB, Ga.; Moody AFB, Ga.; Eglin AFB, Fla.; Offutt AFB, Neb.; Mountain Home AFB, Idaho; and Dyess AFB, Texas, to name a few. Collura said the simulated CAOC is at Kirtland AFB, which is called the distributed mission operations center. "The DMOC is how we link up with other bases to tie all the simulations together so we can fly at the same time and see each other virtually," he explained. "It is somewhat like playing on the Xbox Live where you can play a game with people across the world." "The 20th FW's role was performing force protection and close air support for the virtual flag," said Tom Twohig, 20th OSS F-16 simulator instructor and Boeing contractor. "We are one of the executed units for the exercise command and control and all mission development." "The pilots here will get some tactical training, but primarily they will get mission-development training," Captain Mulder explained. The pilots get full mission-planning training; they get the real-time coordination with all of the command, control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, Twohig said. Pilots get real-time experience and coordination with the joint terminal attack controllers on the ground for close air-support missions. "The pilots get to do real-world missions with the JTACs, which is what you have to get used to in order to go to Iraq or Afghanistan, because that is what they are primarily going to be doing; close air support," Twohig added. The virtual flag exercise provides the military with operational training and saves a lot of money. "The biggest advantage to the virtual flag is cost savings," Collura said. "You're not burning fuel, you don't have airplanes to deploy and there are no TDY (temporary duty) costs. We can do all of this from home station." "We've had virtual flags before, but not quite to this level," Collura said. "Many units from many parts of the country participated in this virtual flag and this will not be the last. We are planning on doing this approximately every six months." "This was the first major virtual flag and it was more or less baby steps for us to get the 20th Fighter Wing integrated into the whole virtual network," concluded Captain Mulder.