Cubic Prepares Coalition Forces for Joint
Air Operations
during Exercise Maple Flag 2005
San Diego, Calif., July 20, 2005 – The defense segment
of Cubic Corporation (AMEX: CUB) said it helped prepare more
than 5,000 ground and 300 air crew personnel from 11 nations
for joint air operations during Exercise Maple Flag, one
of the world’s largest air combat coalition exercises
held annually at 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alberta.
Allied crews successfully trained together
with Cubic’s
next-generation air combat training system during the recent
event, held May through June. The upgraded system, called
the CF-18 Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation System,
or CF-18 ACMI, provides interoperable training in a realistic,
simulated environment – without reliance on a fixed
range.
At Maple Flag 2005, the CF-18 ACMI supported more than 3,700
sorties over the vast, unrestricted airspace at the Cold
Lake Air Weapons Range. Pilots and maintenance crews engaged
in two daily missions that involved confronting air- and
ground-based threats.
“The emphasis at Maple Flag is multinational, joint
training. For mission success, coalition forces must rely
on systems that allow them to train together and plan missions
in concert,” said Don Jacobs, Cubic Defense Applications’ vice
president, for Air Combat Training Systems. “Cubic
is very proud to provide the technology and expertise to
make this possible.”
During the exercise, the CF-18 system allowed interoperable
training among nine different aircraft types: F-16, CF-18,
Mirage 2000, Mirage F-1, F/A-18 Hornet, Tornado, Harrier,
C-130, and AWACS aircraft. The system trained military crews
from Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, France, Netherlands,
Israel, NATO Airborne Early Warning Control Forces (AWACS)
and the U.S. Air Force and Navy.
With the aid of GPS technology, this “rangeless” ACMI
system allows pilots to train in any available airspace without
a fixed infrastructure. It features aircraft position and
simulated air-to-air, air-to-ground, and ground-to-air weapons
employment, real-time monitoring capabilities and post-mission
debriefs to capitalize on “lessons learned.” The
CF-18 system also uniquely integrates rangeless capabilities
with an electronic warfare system, the Surface Threat Electronic
Warfare System.
The main components of Cubic’s ACMI
systems are the instrumentation pods loaded onto the aircraft
or packaged
internally, as well as the display and debrief systems that
provide the tactical aircraft picture. The mobile pods track
and record aircraft events and position. The display system,
called the Individual Combat Aircrew Display System, or ICADS,
provides real-real-time exercise control and post-mission
debriefs.
Cubic installed the Canadian Forces' first
fixed range ACMI in 1982. In 2001, Cubic installed the
current Canada “rangeless” system
at both 4 Wing in Cold Lake and at Bagotville. In addition
to Exercise Maple Flag, the system also supports daily squadron-level
operations.
The Cubic Defense Applications group, one of Cubic's two
major segments, is a world leader in realistic combat training
systems, mission support services and defense electronics.
The corporation's other major segment, Cubic Transportation
Systems, designs and manufactures automatic fare collection
systems for public mass transit authorities. For more information
about Cubic, see the company's website at www.cubic.com.