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Trainer development saves money, innovates

  • Published
  • By Thomas Lassabe
  • 81st Training Support Squadron chief of training technology flight
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  This week marks another Trainer Development cost-saving initiative with the fourth and final install of the Air Traffic Control courses' Enhanced Terminal Voice System trainer.

This trainer was initially built in 1994 by the men and women of Keesler's Trainer Development and has served as a valuable training asset for nearly 20 years.

With real-world environments changing, training emulators must reciprocate what students will see in the field.

Commercial-Off-The-Shelf ETVS trainers cost approximately $2.7M. Trainer Development has constructed, installed and will sustain four ETVS labs at a combined cost of about $600K. These ETVS trainers allowed for more than$2.1M in cost savings andwill provide the training necessary to more than 400 Airmenannually, ensuring that they are trained for their real-world duties once in the field.

Trainer Development along with the 334th Training Squadron researched all avenues to update existing trainers at the lowest cost possible. The best solution was to recycle the previous cabinetry built in 1994, provide an electronics upgrade, software upgrade and match the existing color scheme as seen in the field.
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