The next generation of pilot education with Red 6: Weapons and Warfare

Hey everyone, and welcome to Weapons and Warfare for Straight Arrow News

I'm your host, Ryan Robertson. Happy almost birthday, America. Just ahead on this week's episode, the M10 Booker may have a new lease on life in the

U.S. military. The Army may have killed the program, but another branch might just be in the M10's future

Plus, we're headed for the open water for our Weapon of the Week as we check out the

the Whiskey Project, we get up close and personal with a watercraft designed by and for warfighters

to enhance their performance in maritime operations. Leading things off today, though

we're going to talk about an effort to address two of the Air Force's biggest obstacles when it

comes to training and retaining their pilots. Those obstacles are resource constraints and

just not enough available aircraft to meet minimal training requirements. But you know

we are solutions-oriented journalists here on the show, so enter Red 6, and some potentially

game-changing innovations for military aviators. That's why they're the subject of this week's

debrief. What was once viewed as a short-term problem is now a generational one

The Air Force's pilot force is too small, and it's poorly structured to be the force required to prevail in peer conflict

The Air Force has suffered a persistent pilot shortage for decades. If we don't have experienced fighter pilots, we risk the outcome not just of the mission, but the entire operation or even the war

You don't have to listen to the Air Force here to be led to believe that we need to be bigger

Listen to the joint force. Listen to the demands of the combatant commanders that are asking for airpower

According to Heather Penny, a senior resident fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies

the Air Force has been roughly 2,000 pilots short of its goals for more than a decade

On top of that, they're dealing with outdated training aircraft, potential cuts to their force structure, and expected squadron closures

Add it all up and it's easy to see why the service is finding it hard to make sure its current pilots are getting the training experience they need to perform well in combat

I commend the Air Force for all the efforts they're making, but this is a long-term problem that we're not going to see the outcomes of for five to maybe even ten years

While there is no one cure-all, there is a Florida-based company working to provide an answer to part of the problem right now

Founded by Daniel Robinson in 2018, Red 6 is on a mission to reimagine military flight training

by using cutting-edge augmented reality and mixed reality. While serving in the British

Royal Air Force, Robinson, a former fighter pilot himself, conceived of the idea while

encountering problems similar to those of the U.S. Air Force. We needed to train against, you know, significant numbers every day of the week against relevant threats, and we were just failing to do that

That experience led him to the idea of putting augmented reality into the cockpit of actual aircraft rather than a simulator

So we asked ourselves, could we make simulation work outdoors up in the sky

And that was the genesis of the idea for ATARs, the ability to create virtual synthetic

worlds, but up in the sky, such that pilots in real airplanes physically are interacting

with digital content and digital environments, but outdoors. And that was the idea behind ATARs and Red6s

ATAR stands for Airborne Tactical Augmented Reality System, the backbone of Red6s' fully

immersive training environments that are driven by data and powered by AI

so pilots can train safely and effectively in realistic threat situations, especially in high-speed settings

Their goal is to combine the best of simulation with real-world experience

to better prepare American pilots. We had to have a means by which we enter these digital worlds outdoors

So the enabling technology is augmented reality, and I will draw a distinction right up front

Augmented reality is not helmet-mounted queuing. Helmet mounted queuing does not do augmented reality

It is a fundamentally different technology. We're not aiming to put a head of a display in the field of view of the pilot

We're aiming to mimic human vision and put three-dimensional contextual information into the field of view of the pilot

and have it behave in a manner commensurate with real objects flown by real pilots

To do that, Robinson says RED-6 had to create purpose-driven technology to work in real-world environments

That meant creating something that would work in any weather condition on any kind of helmet

We don't manufacture helmets. We manufacture an AR optical system that attaches to any helmet that does everything that helmet

mounting systems do, but to orders of magnitude, great, a far higher standard

But it also now gives you a gateway into this digital world, if you like

a synthetic training world outdoors. Doing that meant Red 6 would have to create something that tackled three specific problems

The ability to produce equipment quickly, then make it work on frontline jets

and then putting it all together to create the experience of fighting peer threats

So the beauty of what we have is if we have, assume, an intelligence base on the platforms

it's simply code. You put the codes in, and they're much like any simulator you're flying against

whatever it is you want to fly against. So we've created environments that are scalable, able to train infrequently, and are absolutely relevant to the threats we'd face if we were going to do it for real

For decades, the Air Force has used aerial combat exercises like Red Flag at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada to gather fighters, bombers, and refuelers, and simulate real-world combat situations for all kinds of air crews

But those kinds of exercises demand a lot of man hours, logistics, and big budgets

It something Red Six can offer at a fraction of the cost It gives you the ability to expand the training scenarios enormously but you still doing the job for real So when you in these representative threat environments

you're still under the cognitive loads you would be for real and making the decisions in those environments

One thing Red 6 offers pilots that they've never been able to fully replicate in training

is surface-to-air missile threats. Think Maverick, Phoenix, and Rooster trying to evade their unnamed adversary

in Top Gun Maverick. Here it comes. Radar warning. Smoke in the air

Phoenix, right, right. Emergency Jensen. Dagger 3 defending. Here comes another one

Dagger 1 defending. It's the greatest risk to an airplane being shot down

Well, now we can be physically flying the airplanes and you'd see a surface-to-air missile launch

You can see the boost, the sustain phase. You see the smoke trail

You can see whether it's taking lead and lag. you get to fly the airplane against it, deploy countermeasures, physically try and defeat it

with endgame maneuvers. That level of realism and training will save lives, and we've never in our

history been able to do it. So that's the benefit of bringing simulation and connecting it to

lifeline. There are multiple examples of that, but that one I think is perhaps one of the most

important things. Of course, the Air Force, as well as the Navy and Marine Corps, fly a lot of

aircraft that aren't fighter jets. Red Six knows this too, and built out simulations for a number

of training scenarios, like in-air refueling. The first time you ever go air to air refueling

as a pilot, whatever kind of pilot, is the first time you ever go, is the first time you go air to

air refueling. And it's scary by day and it's terrifying at night. Well, now we can start to

utilize this technology to expose pilots to this level of training in multiple scenarios. So by the

time they go to these assets for the first time, it's so intuitive because they've seen the picture

multiple times and they've seen it as they're physically flying an airplane. So what does the

future hold for Red 6? Robinson tells us they're already working with a number of training platforms

and are making inroads beyond the Air Force within the DOD, as well as Britain's Ministry

of Defense as well. I really believe that ATARS doesn't just represent a brand new

really important technology. I think what we've actually done is create a new market

And I think this is going to change training to the point where it will never be the same again

Training has broken the world throughout the world for all allied nations. It's

really in dire straits. This is the solution to how we'll train in the future. We're really

excited to be a part of it. All right, folks, time now for headlines

You may have noticed there is a guest with me or I have some company rather with me

not really a guest because it's super producer Brett Baker. Brett, you're part of every single

show. You're also an Air Force veteran. And you've heard, I've heard you say numerous times

you had the most fun out of any Air Force veteran you know. Is that true? That's true

That is true. I had, I had an amazing career. I worked with a lot of great people. I got stationed

in a lot of great assignments, had a lot of great deployments. Nobody had it better than I did

Maybe somebody had it as good, but nobody had it better. So, Brett, you were a Denfos grad broadcaster in the Air Force

So you were a journalist for the Air Force covering a lot of stories. And that experience obviously plays very well to what we do here on the show

For the audience out there, Brett goes with me on when we go out to these defense expos

Excuse me. Brett's there. Brett is the one who puts together most of the scripts for the show

and then the rest of us kind of, you know, add our own flavor to it

So, Brett, really excited to have you here on Headlines. So how this is going to work is I'll give you, the audience

the nuts and bolts of the story, and then Brett and I will dive in with our insights and observations

hopefully provide you with some deeper context. What do you think, Brett

Should we just go ahead and get to it? I say let's get to it. One of the many emerging stories from the recently concluded Paris Airshow

was Lockheed Martin's confirmation that the long-awaited TR3 upgrade, also known as the Technology Refresh 3 for the F-35

is ready for formal government approval. The software and hardware upgrade was originally supposed to be ready back in 2023

but problems with the software pushed that delivery date back to sometime this year

Brett, you and I were at the Lockheed Martin production facility, and this news of the TR3 was kind of starting to bubble at the time

it's ready what do you think well I think I think Lockheed probably be happy to have it

you know out there in the world rolling ready to go you know as soon as they get

the final government approval which I would expect will happen soon yeah they've got a lot of stuff on their plate

so I would have to think getting this one off would be a big relief seeing as how it was supposed

to be done in 2024 yeah yeah well 23-3 originally and then yeah

and everything right TR3 I was doing some research on it It's a lot to do with, you know, fusing the data or making the data fusion easier, empowering more long range weapons

Basically, the F-35 is a flying computer, and this is a bunch of hardware and software upgrades to make it more interoperable with all of the high tech toys that the Air Force and Space Force are making available

So like Brett said, good thing to get it off their plate, and that means they can move on to the next

for sure think of it as like going from a ps4 to a ps5 and they just keep you know delaying the

release date for ps5 i think that's probably what this is more a situation of uh you know

nothing you know the f-35s could still fly i could still carry out their missions they were

just kind of waiting on this next piece now they're finally it looks like that's going to happen

you bet all right uh oh and also brett i said you bet something that i always say in interviews is

You have a you bet jar. You have a you bet jar for those who don't know

So Brett always hears me say you bet when he's logging sounds. Sorry about that

The next story that we got going on is remember the M10 Booker, Brett

We had reported on it a few times. So the M10 Booker, it was a billion dollar program

It was supposed to give the Army their first new combat vehicle in four decades, but was killed back in May

So what was the Army's, what, excuse me, what was the Army's loss

can now be the Marine Corps gain At least that the opinion of two Marine officers In a recent task and purpose opinion piece Lieutenant Colonels John Dick and Daniel Phillips state their case by arguing the M10

which is not a tank, would suit the needs of mobile recon battalions better than the newly

integrated ultralight tactical vehicle. Brett, I say it's not a tank because it's not. The armor

isn't as thick. The gun is not as big, but it is an armored vehicle that these Marine Lieutenant

colonels think that the recon Marines might be able to use when they're poking and prodding

around the battle space? What do you think? Yeah, I think anytime you've put that much time

energy and investment into something, I would have least liked to have seen, hey, let's see

if we can find maybe some other purposes for this before we just kill it outright. So I really

appreciate these two Marine colonels coming aboard and saying, hey, look, maybe there's another use

for this. Maybe this thing doesn't have to go away completely, especially if it suits their

needs. I don't begin to pretend to know what the Marine reconnaissance needs, but if a couple guys

who are in that position say, hey, this could work, I think they're worth listening to

You bet, right? So yeah, the Marine recon guys, they share a lot of mission sets with special

operation forces, to be honest with you, but they are within the, they are there to support the main

infantry of the Marines. So they do some recon, they do some battle space shaping is what it's

called. And they do amphibious recon, land recon, all kinds of stuff. So might be an opportunity

where they need to, you know, put a hole in a building, take down a bridge, maybe they come

under fire, and they need just a little bit more protection than what the ultralight tactical

vehicle can offer. Those ULTVs, super fast. It's basically like a Marine haired down pickup truck

that's, you know, super light, super fast. But it's not necessarily offering the most armor

and Marines might have to face some of that. So yeah, we'll see what happens with the M10 Booker

coming up. And this last story, Brett, is on the C-17 Globemaster. There are some talks about

possibly restarting that production program. No word on which country is asking Boeing to restart the C-17 Globemaster program

but it's possible. In your Air Force days, did you have any opportunity to ride in one of these things

I did. I actually spent a lot of time in C-17s. I want to say the summer of 95

They were brand new back then. They still had that new airplane smell

I flew on one over the English Channel to the VE Day 50th anniversary commemorations, which is pretty awesome

But here's my favorite C-17 story. When the Air Force launched Global Reach Global Power in the 90s, Global Reach was the lift portion of it

We can move anybody anywhere, take anything anywhere, get it at any time

And so I decided to do a story on the C-17, and I found this mission that launched out of Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina

So we flew from Charleston to Lodges Field in the Azores. That's Portugal

And then we went from Lodges to NAS Sigonella, which is on the island of Sicily, and then changed crews, except for me

I stayed with the jet because it was my story. So then we flew the C-17 from Signala to Bahrain and then back to Signala

In Bahrain, we picked up an entire unit, a squadron of people and all of their gear and equipment because they had been in Bahrain for months

And so we picked them all up, flew back to Signala, back to Lodges, back to Charleston, and then finally on to Mountain Home Air Force Base, which I think was like some 14,000 miles round trip

I was the only one that stayed with the jet the entire time because that was kind of my story

The theme was, think of the Pony Express, except now we just changed the rider and not the horse

So I have a lot of fondness for the C-17, but that is a very big ask to bring back a program like that

It is not an easy thing to, A, start, B, shut down, and then, C, consider restarting

That takes a lot of moving parts and pieces. but I can't see where another country would want it because it's an outstanding aircraft

and it does so many missions so well that I think, you know, that if a lot, if Boeing's got somebody

saying, hey, we're willing to pony up, maybe they consider it. Right, right. You know, with, with

potential fight in the Pacific, with what we're seeing and with Israel and Iran right now, with

Israel having to rely on American tankers, you know, the, the heavy lift capacity, the giant

tanker capacity is something that, you know, the Air Force calls it the exquisite systems

And it's something that a lot of smaller countries don't have. But with the U.S. kind of pulling back

from NATO, pulling back from that world police role, you start to see these other nations

you know, stepping up and saying, hey, we want some more of those toys also

So it could be a good thing for American industry. It could be a good thing for world defense. We'll

have to wait and see. Brett, really appreciate you taking the time to join us today. Let's make

this a regular thing what do you say absolutely i think it'll be a new fun new part of the show

all right So

when I say the words whiskey projects, what images come to mind

Right? Me too. So imagine our surprise when we pulled up to the team manning the Whiskey Project group booth at Modern Day Marine

only to learn whiskey was code for watercraft. And I mean, it was impressive, no arguing that point, which is why it's our weapon of the week

Even parked on a display stand in the middle of the washington dc convention center the 30 whiskey alpha makes an immediate impression touted as being crafted by warfighters for warfighters

the alpha is essentially a product of darren schuback's personal experience i left the navy

and i had a mission to build the boats that i wish we had throughout my tenure in the navy i

experienced a number of different challenges with the small craft that we were conducting

our missions from, whether they were safety, performance, or just being generally fit for

purpose for the mission at hand. So that was our primary focus through the development of this

business. Based out of Sydney, Australia, Shoeback is the Whiskey Project's founder and CEO

He tells us the Alpha and its big brother, the 40-foot-long Bravo, feature modular platforms

that maximize deck space and payload, making them adaptable for various operations

It was important for us throughout the development of this craft to maximize versatility with any craft we design

And you'll see here in the Whiskey Alpha, it's completely modular by design because the mission steps can change

They can change at a moment's notice, and we need to be able to adapt our craft, adapt our technology

to be able to provide a fit-for-purpose solution for the mission at hand

Mission at hand, but also the customer might be different, right? The Australian Royal Navy might want something different than the USMC

then the Navy, they all might want something a little bit different, and you're able to give them that playground, so to speak

Yeah, that's right. It's almost like choose your own adventure with the craft

Whatever you need to do, however you need to adapt the craft, you can do that

And that's not only through the back deck area here, it's through the modular mass system

it's through the access to power, versatility of the architecture underneath the deck here

So it's more than just the deck that you see here. Schubach says the Alpha and the Bravo are built for quick deployment

offering convenient access and retrieval. Both can be transported by land or dropped from the air

What we've done here is demonstrated what we believe to be an ultimate package for the

customer, base level package for the customer. We've designed the craft to have that open architecture, electronic infrastructure underneath

the craft here so that they can essentially plug and play as they see fit, whether it's

by sensor system, whether it's by autonomous systems or remote control systems, whatever

they want to plug in, I can plug that in. One major consideration for the design team was improving

the ride for the operators. Shoeback says historically crews working on small boats get

pretty beat up and have to deal with knee and back problems, the types of injuries that could

end careers. So both boats have shock mitigating hulls built from carbon fiber composite. That

means the boats are more stable and operators don't get tired or sore on the way to the fight

The design of this hull provides a 40 percent up to a 40 percent reduction in shock onto the hull

and therefore onto the human or onto the sensitive equipment that they're hosting on board

It has a lower planing threshold as well which means it gets up onto the plane

and stays on the plane a lot better than the traditional Deep V craft

creating more fuel efficiency with the craft as well. As for potential customers

Shoeback tells us four of the Bravos have already been delivered to Marines in California

where they've been tested extensively for several months. And the Alpha that we were on in D.C

was actually sent to Marines in Tampa, Florida for testing and evaluation

All opinions expressed in this segment are solely the opinions of the contributors

and like, and subscribe to our social media feeds. Leave a comment in the section that

you're supposed to leave comments in. I do read those, despite my friends, family, and co-workers

encouraging me not to. All right, for my wrap this week, and with America's birthday just a

couple days away, I want to spend some time on patriotism, which simply means devotion to and

vigorous support for one's country. I love the United States. I love the fact I live here. I love

the opportunities it affords me. I love our origin story about fighting against oppression

I love how people around the world still want to come here for a chance to live the life we have

I do not love everything our country has done. I don't love the atrocities committed against the

native people who lived here first. I don't love that we used slave labor to build much of what we

have, and I don't love the current animosity and infighting that seems so prevalent today

But I love this country, and I'm a patriot, so in my devotion to this land, I also support

this country. What does that mean? Well, the definition of support is to bear all or part of the weight, or to give assistance

to help. If you call yourself a patriot and you don't help your country, you're a liar

So what does the United States need help with right now? Patience, the return of decency and

civil discourse, affordable homes, well-paying jobs, schools that teach life skills and aren't

diploma factories. I mean, take your pick, folks. The country could use some help in lots of areas

So have fun this July 4th, but also think about how we can fulfill our patriotic duty

all year long. How can we help this country all year long? For senior producer Brett Baker

video editor Brian Spencer, and graphics artist Dakota Patio, I'm Ryan Robertson

Mestradero News, signing off