USAF Selects Collins Aerospace for Next-Gen Air Combat Training System

The US Air Force (USAF) has established the P6 Combat Training System (P6 CTS) as its official Program of Record and selected the Collins Aerospace Tactical Combat Training System – Increment II (TCTS II) as its preferred solution. 

Announced at the Farnborough International Airshow, this selection was the result of USAF evaluation of TCTS II’s growth capacity to meet all USAF future Air Combat Training requirements while remaining fully interoperable with the US Navy’s TCTS II.

The P6 CTS Program has been funded to replace 100% of the legacy combat training systems at an estimated 55 USAF training ranges. The P6CTS program leverages the Navy TCTS II program to achieve economies of scale resulting from existing training enhancements and common logistics throughout the program life cycle. The USAF’s stated priority is to integrate P6CTS on fighter aircraft followed by trainer, bomber, cargo, and other platforms.

P6 CTS provides a growth path to more realistically emulate contested/congested environments thanks to its Live Virtual Constructive (LVC) training enhancements and Synthetic Inject to Live (SITL) capability. 

Because P6 CTS also includes multiple-individual-level security (MILS) encryption – which allows full-fidelity threats and weapon simulation sharing between platforms with varying security levels – the USAF can eliminate the need for costly platform-specific embedded training apps.

“Pilots will be able to train like never before with secure cross-service air combat training and joint Live, Virtual, and Constructive-enabled capabilities,” said John Sapp, vice president, and general manager, Integrated Solutions for Collins Aerospace. “This program truly redefines the future of training and warfighter readiness.”

TCTS II has successfully demonstrated secure blended LVC enabling capabilities during NAVAIR’s Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX-21 and ANTX-22). Initial Operating Capability (IOC) is scheduled at NAS Fallon in late 2022 with Full Rate Production (FRP) starting in early 2023. The TCTS II is envisioned to be available to both adversary air (AdAir) providers as well as foreign military partners subject to DOS exportability determination of critical TCTS II technologies.

Developed and built by Collins and teammate Leonardo DRS, TCTS II/P6CTS is a scalable and flexible open architecture system that enables highly secure air combat training between the US and international aircraft, including 5th and 4th generation platforms. 

Collins Aerospace is showcasing the new TCTS II/P6CTS pod and a notional form-factor for F-35 at the 2022 Farnborough International Airshow at the Raytheon Technologies Pavilion.