Of all the demands made on British armed forces in Afghanistan, the need for forward air controllers (FACs) is among the most pressing. So it is surprising to find that the Joint Forward Air Control Training and Standards Unit (Jfactsu), which trains FACs from every branch of the U.K. military, is housed in a dilapidated prefab building here.

"We are at the cutting edge of defense training, we are mission-critical, and it doesn't quite reconcile when you come here," says Squadron Leader Morgan Williams, commanding officer of Jfactsu. "But like everything in the military, we just get on and do it."

FACs undergo a three-part training program beginning with the five-week Jfactsu course, assignment to a unit, then a two-week combat-ready course. In 2010, training will consist of one eight-week course run by Jfactsu. The unit trains 144 FACs per year, up from 80 two years ago. The new course could train as many as 190 a year.

The Leeming course mixes state-of-the-art technology with homespun savvy. The first time a trainee talks an aircraft onto a target, he shouts directions at an instructor maneuvering a wooden airplane on a pole over a model landscape. Training moves to a PC-based simulator running off-the-shelf software from Meggitt plc. in Dorset, England, where a trainee with a virtual-reality headset tackles one of more than 100 scenarios written in-house.

Before controlling aircraft on the Otterburn Ranges in Northumberland, trainees fly in the back of one of Jfactsu's BAE Hawk T1 trainers. "That gives us a better idea of what the pilot is seeing," says Capt. Will Harris, a trainee from the 9th/12th Lancers. "You get a clearer understanding of how quickly things come up, which helps when talking to a pilot."

Jfactsu uses Rockwell Collins' StrikeHawk video downlink receiver, which is smaller and lighter than previous equipment, and the company's FireStorm targeting system, which generates GPS coordinates from a tripod-mounted system that are accurate to around 4 meters (13 ft.) (DTI November 2008, p. 30). FireStorm has limited portability and is thus unsuitable for foot patrols, so trainees also work with Precision Strike Suite for Special Operations Forces, software developed by the U.S. military, to generate coordinates that are almost as accurate from hand-held rangefinders.

In addition to learning new terminology--ground soldiers are not used to working in latitude and longitude, and aircraft compasses use degrees rather than mils--trainees must acquire in-depth knowledge of munitions and aircraft. The latter include RAF Harriers and Tornado GR.4s. U.S. Air Force F-15s from RAF Lakenheath flew in during a visit by DTI to Otterburn, and NATO air forces training at the Electronic Warfare Range at RAF Spadeadam are eager to take up Jfactsu's open invitation for close air support (CAS) practice when they are in the area.

Trainees have been working with the Typhoon for the past two years, even though the aircraft is unlikely to be deployed to Afghanistan before 2013. "It's a brilliant CAS platform," says Williams. "It's got [MBDA's] Brimstone [antitank guided missile], [Raytheon's] Paveway IV [precision-guided bomb] and a [27mm. Mauser] gun, which is invaluable in a CAS aircraft. It's fast and turns on a sixpence so you've got situational awareness at all times."

An important point for trainees is that FACs call in effects, not platforms. "If you start being specific about what you want, stand by to be disappointed," Williams says. "If you say you want an A-10, [the request] will be interpreted as, 'There must be a reason he wants an A-10 and nothing else. We don't have one at the moment, so he'll have to have nothing.'"

One concept being explored is qualifying unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operators as airborne FACs. "We have airborne FACs in helicopters," Williams says, "and the U.S. has them in fixed-wing platforms. There's work to be done translating that to a UAV. But airborne FACs are a force multiplier. If you have an operator who's read-in, who has a degree of situational awareness and knows what the FAC wants, he can help enormously."