An exclusive interview with Air Vice Marshal Mark Green, Royal Air Force
There can be few tasks more difficult for a head of training than to have to tell a third of his students that, despite their efforts, cutbacks mean that they will not qualify. That was the unenviable task this month of Air Vice Marshal Mark Green, the officer commanding 22 (Air Trg) Group, Royal Air Force (the head of RAF training), who visited his station to break the news personally that the RAF would cut up to 170 of its 512 trainee pilots.
For a man as passionately committed not only to the Royal Air Force but also to the benefits of training, it cannot have been easy. Green’s actions were the result of cutbacks in the numbers of in-service Harriers, Tornados F3 and Nimrod reconnaissance planes, which have now led to parallel reductions in the numbers of pilots the RAF will need. A statement by Britain’s Ministry of Defence said that “due to the reduction of the RAF’s aircraft fleet the numbers of student pilots in the flying training pipeline will be reduced by up to 170. There will be some redundancies but we will, where possible, consider alternative roles for these trainees. We can confirm that there will be no RAF intake of new student pilots in the financial year 2011-12.”
In the post-strategic defence and security review era, we will clearly be required to do more with less,” he says. “Technology offers us the potential for transferring more training from the live environment to the simulated environment, thereby reducing operating costs and extending platforms’ useful lives.
Having to orchestrate this rebalancing must have come as a disappointment to Air Vice Marshal Green, who is committed to the benefits of training and to the significant improvements in cost efficiency that a clever use of new technology has enabled him to bring to the RAF’s training budget. Despite the cutbacks, he remains optimistic.
“The RAF’s training priorities will continue to be driven by the fleets of aircraft we operate, the way we operate them and the operational effects required by the UK Government,” he says.
“From the training delivery perspective, the defence review hasn’t adversely affected the direction in which we are moving. There is generally less money available to do what we do at the moment and there will be fewer people to do what we do than did it in the past.”
Air Vice Marshal Green realises that the harsh realities of Britain’s financial position have forced both a rethink of priorities and a greater determination to achieve value for money. In this climate, the role of technology in achieving both cost reductions and parallel improvements in ‘training outcomes’ is particularly significant.
In the post-strategic defence and security review era, we will clearly be required to do more with less,” he says. “Technology offers us the potential for transferring more training from the live environment to the simulated environment, thereby reducing operating costs and extending platforms’ useful lives.”
Controversy over the effect of defence cutbacks will inevitably mask Mark Green’s real achievement in transforming RAF training to meet the requirements of a rapidly changing modern security environment. When he joined the Royal Air Force in 1980, after studying Aeronautical Engineering at Imperial College, London, the Cold War was at its height. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in the same year as part of its aggressive, forward foreign policy. NATO troops faced their heavily armed Soviet counterparts across the seemingly rigid iron curtain, which divided Europe. The Soviet Union seemed only too ready to use force to keep its satellite subjects in check and to advance its political, ideological or economic interests elsewhere. The need for traditional military, naval and air power to combat the threat was readily understood and Green spent the first eight years of his service career flying Harrier jets. The emphasis was all on countering the Soviet threat. In the years since the fall of the Berlin wall, however, the nature of security has changed radically, as the shape of the range of new threats that confront us becomes apparent.
“Cold War posturing and (what I now understand as) antiquated and limiting technology had an element of stability. However, modern defence requires a more dynamic approach to strategy, technique and the application of technology. Changes to operational practices can now be measured in months and not years, as they were at the start of my career. Personnel going on 4-month detachments in Afghanistan are totally integrating with allies’ working practices and the good aspects of that are being reflected in the way we operate. Technology doesn’t stand still; evolving practices and SMART procurement enables aspirations to become reality in short order. Furthermore, as fast as we develop, so do those who oppose us in the current conflicts we are engaged in. Keeping ahead is essential.”
Political and technological change has had a profound effect on the Royal Air Force and its training requirements. “Training is more streamlined and reactive to the changing environment,” he explains. “Procedures and training delivery techniques are changing with the times. Simulation, emulation and collective training techniques are increasing to keep pace with the speed of change. Adapting training to reflect the requirement is a necessity to ensure we have the personnel appropriately trained to fulfil the military’s strategic and tactical aims. Joint training between the three services is on the increase and the harmonising of training techniques and facilities are providing significant efficiencies in both time and money. Furthermore, training with other nations is offering opportunities to open up training avenues that would not normally be available or cost effective to our personnel.”
The rapid pace of technological change has radically changed both expectations of what training can achieve and the methods by which it can be delivered. “Technology has a big effect on the teaching methods and learning techniques used by RAF personnel. Teaching in the classroom from textbooks, blackboards and viewfoils has been superseded by high quality computer generated learning material that is delivered through simulation, high fidelity presentation suites, e-learning and distance learning.”
It is all a far cry from the approach to training when Green joined the RAF. “They were fantastic trainers but not great educators,” he says. Now a combination of technological change and the nature of the new, ‘asymmetric’ security environment has created the need for “a more coherent approach”; one which favours a broader education and professional military development with the teaching of “core competencies” to both officers and airmen.
In common with the rest of society, the RAF has to deal with recruits who are already very sophisticated in their use of technology and have a completely different approach to learning from that of Green’s own generation. “Today’s generation don’t want to read instruction manuals. They understand how technology works in thirty minutes without reading manuals. That is why ‘contextualised training’ is important – when they get into a training environment, they learn to deal with equipment within the context of the environment they are. It is all right trying to fix the radio but trying to fix the radio under fire is very different.” Modern training, Green believes, has to be much more flexible and ‘contextualised,’ reflecting the way young people teach themselves how to use technology within the context of the environment within which they find themselves.
Now “a variety of ST devices, from laptops through part-task trainers and medium fidelity, networked flying training devices to top-end, high fidelity, full mission simulators, all using the latest technologies” are an essential part of the United Kingdom’s Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS). Although simulators cannot replace the stresses of real flying experience, “students initially learn better in a lower stress (though immersive) environment of adequate fidelity with sufficient cues of sufficient accuracy.”
“The modern recruit has been brought up in the computer age and expects to be able to acquire knowledge and high quality information quickly and readily through a plethora of mobile and handheld devices, including laptops, mobile phones, blackberries and i-pads. But this does not solely apply to the new recruit because all RAF personnel, like most people in today’s society, expect to have high quality information at their fingertips in an instant.”
Modern expectations of instant access to information and a different understanding of what learning involves have meant that the RAF has significantly changed the way it delivers training and education. Mark Green recognises that the modern approach to learning is very different. “Our recruits today require much more interactive learning. They want to pull learning to them.”
The new approach has meant a much greater emphasis on the ‘online distance learning medium,’ web-based formats and the use of social networking, such as Facebook or ‘chat’ facilities. Students are expected to have completed preparatory coursework on a topic, such as the six-day war and the relevance of air power, before they join a course.
“The chat is moderated by a tutor. When they eventually come on the course, they are ready to articulate and debate a topic. In my day, I was sent a long reading list and it ended up on the shelf because I was too busy to read. In this forum, it is not possible to ignore the material because the instructors keep an eye on everyone. The student can pull the material whenever they want it. They can do this in a forward operating base in Afghanistan. In a rest and recreation phase, they can look at it for something to occupy their mind. It means we can get learning to where the students want it to be.”
Green also finds that today’s young recruits have very different expectations of what they can achieve and this affects thtrainee with a horizon beyond ten years. It is not a bad thing because they have greater levels of aspiration and progression. We need to make sure that they can keep pace with their counterparts in a civilian environment. They need ‘through life learning’ and continually want to develop themselves from a personal perspective.”
He knows that, despite all the risks, this is one of the major attractions of a career in the armed forces for young people. “We feel that part of our responsibility is to make people equally strong in the civilian community. This is very important, so they realise they will get a good career.”
Air Vice Marshal Green believes, in general, that the RAF has been successful in its use of technology for learning and it can now offer the benefit of its experience to the other services. RAF personnel can now learn about Air Power “through active and engaging e-learning modules, rather than having to page through AP3000. The modules are loaded onto the Professional Military Development (Air) Online site, which means they are available to RAF personnel over the Internet from anywhere in the world.” He also cites the RAF’s use of simulation as a particularly good example of the successful use of technology-assisted learning.
“The RAF is constantly monitoring technological developments in industry with a view to introducing new technology into the service environment. A key enabler to technology-assisted learning is to have capable hardware and software to view the material. The RAF has been very well supported by a wide range of commercial companies in exploiting simulation and STat all levels. The key to really, effective, continuing application of ST is speedy reaction to new developments in training requirements and training technologies and ensuring that the quality and flexibility of support is not compromised by contractual constraints.”
“The first and most successful example of technology-assisted learning is the flight simulator, with the inherent saving in fuel costs and increase in aircraft availability and serviceability rates. Flight simulators are now available for all aircraft platforms, allowing aircrew to be tested and trained to the limit in a realistic but safe and simulated environment. The second example is the Small Arms Training Range, which has been introduce to most RAF stations, allowing the RAF Regiment to train and qualify personnel in the SA80 on a simulated firing range. The third example is the myriad of equipment simulators, allowing RAF trades personnel to become qualified and proficient in servicing often highly technical equipment types.
“There are many examples I could pick from among the successful applications of ST within the flying training system. Two that spring to mind are the Hawk Synthetic Training Facility (HSTF) at RAF Valley and the Medium Support Helicopter Aircrew Training Facility (MSHATF) at RAF Benson. The HSTF revolutionised the student experience and allowed every exercise to be rehearsed before flight, reducing overall flying hours by 30% while the output standard increased.”
Now “a variety of ST devices, from laptops through part-task trainers and medium fidelity, networked flying training devices to top-end, high fidelity, full mission simulators, all using the latest technologies” are an essential part of the United Kingdom’s Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS). Although simulators cannot replace the stresses of real flying experience, “students initially learn better in a lower stress (though immersive) environment of adequate fidelity with sufficient cues of sufficient accuracy.”
Green stresses the importance the RAF attaches to monitoring technological developments and working with private sector companies to exploit them for the benefit of its own training programmes.
“The RAF is constantly monitoring technological developments in industry with a view to introducing new technology into the service environment. A key enabler to technology-assisted learning is to have capable hardware and software to view the material. The RAF has been very well supported by a wide range of commercial companies in exploiting simulation and STat all levels. The key to really, effective, continuing application of ST is speedy reaction to new developments in training requirements and training technologies and ensuring that the quality and flexibility of support is not compromised by contractual constraints.”
Green is responsible for coordinating the development of future training across all three services and he sees a continuing role for technology in improving military training in the future. All three services have embraced e-learning and distance learning initiatives, with the Defence Learning Platform now hosting online course in a variety of subjects. Now he sees a particular opportunity in the use of gaming.
“The rapid pace of the gaming world and virtual immersion has created a massive opportunity for us. Not just for the RAF but for all three services. The challenge for industry is to be able to deliver us this virtual environment at sufficient levels of resolution but able to be upgraded by us.”
Air Vice Marshal Mark Green is a visionary, who knows that the future will be very different and changes in training will have to keep pace with changes in society, technology and the probable role of the Royal Air Force. As it faces up to the realities of financial constraints, the RAF can be thankful that the foundations of its future training programmes are in the hands of a passionate and imaginative believer in the benefits of technology, who still believes that, despite all the difficulties facing him, he still “get more from less.”
Photographs: © Crown Copyright
please REGISTER to leave a comment.
0 Comments