The United States Air Force Academy Multi-Domain Lab

After several years of work, the USAFA MDL is ready for prime time and has officially opened its doors at a ribbon-cutting on September 17, 2021. Industry partners Salient CRGT, PLEXSYS Interface Products, Inc., and ZedaSoft, Inc. have created suites that house a fully integrated Joint All-Domain Operations Center (JADOC), Flight Bay, and remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) control room.

Each suite contains a JADOC with 24 operational positions providing strategic- and operational-level command and control simulators. These tailorable simulators replicate air operations centers (AOC) and space operations center (SpOC) mission roles include cyber integration and other joint domains. Each suite’s Flight Bay consists of 6 tactical-level command and control (C2), electronic warfare (EW), and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) positions.

ZedaSoft, Inc. provided 12 networked flight simulators per suite powered by our CBA® for Simulation software to support the employment of 10 different fighter and bomber aircraft types, as well as operational overwatch from 3 Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) ground station simulators powered by our Mockingbird® Suite with pilot and sensor operator positions. Image generation for the visual scene displays and sensors is supplied by MVRsimulation’s Virtual Reality Image Generator (VRSG). The simulator start-up operations are coordinated through the PLEXSYS’ Launch Control product with all applications running on PLEXSYS CASE-V virtual machine architecture.

The two suites can run independently or be linked into the same scenario. Furthermore, the suites fully integrate voice, data link, and chat capabilities to enhance decision-making processes. A third suite is planned for Fiscal Year 2024, with dedicated spaces for space domain control. Future upgrades target the integration and networking of the MDL suites to entities outside of USAFA and beyond.