Skip to main content

Military Health System

The Need for Speed Requires Intense Training

Image of  Military personnel conducts routine ops in US 3rd Fleet. Military personnel conducts routine ops in US 3rd Fleet

Recommended Content:

Health Readiness & Combat Support | Education & Training | Physical Fitness

This summer's blockbuster movie showcases some amazing feats by military aviators, pushing the envelope beyond 10 Gs and incredible combat maneuvers.

But, initial military aviation training focuses not just on the Gs, but learning to control an aircraft, while also understanding the physiology of acceleration forces on the body.

Being able to maneuver an aircraft while withstanding high levels of gravitational forces, or G-forces, is a key component to training for combat aviation. But mishap prevention and survival, and enhancing and sustaining performance all play a role.

If you've ever been on a rollercoaster, you've felt a minimal amount of the G-forces and the effects the acceleration that aviators experience.

For military aviators, their training requires that they learn how to deal with sometimes severe G-forces and negative G-forces that change rapidly, especially in combat operations. Those G-forces affect all aviators to some degree, whether they fly fixed wings, jets, turboprop aircraft or helicopters.

G-Forces

Military aviators first learn the basics of the flight physiology and its impact on the human cardiovascular system during the lecture portion of their training with aerospace physiology personnel.

Next, these aviators learn how to avoid or overcome what is called G-induced loss of consciousness, also known as GLOC.

"That's when the blood leaves your brain. After about five seconds, you're lights out," said Navy Cmdr. Timothy Welsh, who is the director of the Aviation Survival Training Center, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, part of the Naval Survival Training InstituteNaval Survival Training Institute.

To combat GLOC, military aviators learn the anti-G straining maneuver, which is a series of isometric abdominal and leg muscle contractions that help to keep blood flowing up toward the heart and brain and not downward.

Aviators are also taught breathing techniques that are a primary method of resisting GLOC.

In the Navy, aviators are taught the Hick maneuver. The term alludes to the sounds the pilot makes while saying the word Hick as they breathe in and out.

The Air Force also teaches a respiratory component, which means "every three seconds, we're going to do a rapid half-second exchange of air where we want to move the equal amount of air out and right back in," explained Air Force Maj. Stuart Sauls, who is the acceleration training branch chief in the Air Force Research LaboratoryAir Force Research Laboratory 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force BaseWright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.

"We want pilots to do a very calm breath hold because that allows them to control their air and their chest pressure much better," said Sauls.

In the respiratory component, "air exchanges briefly drop pressure around the heart to allow for that blood flow to continue properly, he said. "Then pilots have to get that air right back in and block it back off in the lungs so that we can get pressure back because, if they don't, they can lose consciousness."

Pressure suits are another way for aviators to reduce the amount of blood going into their extremities under G-forces. These are worn on the lower limbs and the abdomen.

Pressure suits also have a "tactile function" as they start to inflate, Welsh explained.

Military personnel exits aircraft centrifuge
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Joe Pick, 1st Combat Camera Squadron, exits the centrifuge at the 711th Human Performance Wing, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, April 5, 2021.

Training Includes Centrifuges

In the Air Force, undergraduate pilots begin flight training on the T-6 single prop airplane - so they can experience moderate G-forces.

The next step is the T-38 trainer for fighter aircraft. Before pilots can train in that aircraft they go to AFRL in Dayton for tests of exposure to severe G-forces at the only DOD human-rated centrifuge.Wright Patterson News

The centrifuge can produce up to nine Gs, or nine times the normal force of gravity, to measure the student's ability to counteract the effects of G-forces to prevent GLOC.

Jet aviators must be able to sustain sudden changes in pressure and altitude at speeds approaching or exceeding the speed of sound and gravitational forces up to nine times the normal pull (9Gs). If an Air Force student aviator is assigned to F-15s, F-16s, F-22s or F-35s, they go back to Wright-Patterson AFB for more centrifuge training qualification.

Naval aviators get centrifuge testing at Brooks City Base in San Antonio, Texas. That centrifuge can produce more than seven-and-a-half Gs with various onset rates, Welsh said.

Both the Air Force and Navy also have a "low fidelity simulator" that connects an aviator's oxygen mask to a box "that scrubs oxygen out of the air they're breathing, and increases the amount of nitrogen they're breathing. They become hypoxic, meaning they lack of adequate oxygen levels to perform," Welsh explained. The pilots learn emergency procedures to overcome various physiological episodes that could cause incapacitation.

Water Survival Training

The highest risk training done by the Navy is water survival training, Welsh said. That is a whole day of learning how to prevent panic and to stay calm in extreme situations. "The primary objective of our water survival training is water comfort and controlling your fear," Welsh said.

In the water, instructors flip aviators upside down, blindfold them in a dunker while they're in their full gear – flight suits, boots, survival helmets, and a life preserver. The aviators also learn swimming strokes, and how to hold on to reference points.

One of the most difficult training drills is when their life preserver fails to inflate, Welsh said. In that situation, the pilots have to tread water with all their gear on and manually inflate the life preserver.

Nutrition and Exercise to Optimize Performance

The military trainers teach aviators about proper nutrition and exercise to optimize performance.

"Much like maintaining an aircraft, it's maintaining your body," Welsh said.

"If you don't give your body the proper amount of fuel, the right types of fuel, meaning calories, or the right types of food groups," pilots' bodies will not be able to stand up to a barrage of high G-force maneuvers, he said.

Low blood glucose levels can also impact G-force performance, Sauls said. Proper hydration and enough sleep to combat fatigue are also necessary, because human factors are the biggest cause for aviation mishaps, Welsh said.

The Air Force relies on lower body and core strength training. That means "we're going to think heavier weight, lower repetitions. Things like squats, lunges, and deadlifts really build up that base, improve that frame," Sauls said.

"And then from a cardiovascular standpoint, to best mirror the operational environment, we would lean more toward high-intensity interval training, sprint intervals, circuit training, only get a heart rate up for a short period, then rest and repeat."

Some bases are now hiring dietitians and conditioning coaches, Sauls added. The 19th Air Force19th Air Force at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, which oversees Air Force pilot training, has created formal instruction on how pilots can improve their diet and exercise.

The Army Aviation Center of ExcellenceArmy Aviation Center of Excellence is the Army Aviation Branch's training and development center, located at Fort Rucker, Alabama.

USAACE trains and develops "agile and adaptive" Army aviators, manages the aviation enterprise, and "integrates aviation capabilities and requirements across the warfighting functions to enable commanders and soldiers on the ground to fight and win in an increasingly complex world."

You also may be interested in...

Theater Medical Command Experiment Focuses on Large-Scale Combat Operations, Future Operating Environment

Article Around MHS
1/6/2023
Military medical personnel at Fort Sam Houston

The Medical Capability Integration Directorate hosted its culminating limited objective experiment for calendar year 2022. See how the Theater Medical Command (TMC) Experiment will affect large-scale combat operations and prioritize limited Army Health System capabilities and how the TMC will support future operating environments.

Recommended Content:

Health Readiness & Combat Support

U.S. Army's Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year is Proof Army Medicine is Army Strong

Article Around MHS
12/28/2022
Military personnel performs tactical combat exercise.

He's the first Army medicine soldier to be named the U.S. Army’s Noncommissioned Officer of the Year. Find out what - and who - motivated U.S. Army Sgt. Garrett Paulson toward earning this honorable distinction, in his own words.

Recommended Content:

U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence | Education & Training

New “mCurriculum” Launched to Help Surgeons Worldwide Sharpen Skills, Improve Clinical Readiness

Article Around MHS
12/23/2022
Military personnel holding new device developed by USU

Imagine surgeons honing their skills using their smartphone, tablet, or computer. Thanks to a collaboration between the Uniformed Services University, the American College of Surgeons, the Military Health System Strategic Partnership American College of Surgeons, and the University of California, Davis, it's happening. See how this groundbreaking "mCurriculum" is helping surgeons around the globe save lives.

Recommended Content:

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences | Education & Training | Health Care Technology

How Blue Angels and Thunderbirds Keep Flying 300 Days a Year

Article
12/16/2022
U.S. Air Force Capt. (Dr.) Travis Grindstaff at Nellis Aviation National air show

The U.S. Navy Blue Angels and U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds high-performance demonstration teams rely on their flight surgeons to sustain their readiness for more than 300 shows a year.

Recommended Content:

Civil Support | Health Readiness Support Division | Physical Fitness

Aviation Soldiers Volunteer to Lead Functional Fitness

Article Around MHS
12/12/2022
Military personnel training at a CrossFit gym

It's not uncommon to find soldiers continuously performing their own workout routines while deployed. The U.S. Army's new Army Combat Fitness Test continues to serve as the fitness requirement for all components, and soldiers stationed overseas are doing everything they can to keep physical fitness standards in check across their formations.

Recommended Content:

Physical Fitness

New Work Group Looks at Preventive Health Measures for Service Members

Article Around MHS
12/9/2022
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Christopher Mohan

The U.S. Coast Guard is now prioritizing a review of health-related data to determine how to reduce illness and injuries within the workforce. This shift is prompted by a policy update within the Coast Guard Medical Manual COMDTINST 6000.7, as well as the new Population Health Optimization Work Group that will impact members, civilians, dependents, and retirees.

Recommended Content:

Health Readiness & Combat Support | Medical and Dental Preventive Care Fitness

How the U.S. Military Acclimates Units to High-Altitude Operations

Article
11/28/2022
Service members on a mountain

The Military Health System takes measures to prevent and mitigate altitude sickness in service members operating at high altitudes. For best results, it’s key to acclimate units gradually and progressively.

Recommended Content:

Total Force Fitness | Health Readiness & Combat Support

Project Crimson 22 experiments with New Medical Technology for the Battlefield

Article Around MHS
11/25/2022
Military personnel carry items from medical supply drone Project Crimson

When the packages hit the ground, medical warriors scramble to retrieve critical supplies. See how an unmanned medical supply aircraft helps military personnel preserve lives in battlefield emergencies.

Recommended Content:

Building Partner Capacity and Interoperability | Education & Training

Soldiers Learn Nuances of Basic Life Support

Article Around MHS
11/16/2022
Military medical personnel in life support class

U.S. Army Reserve soldiers from the 801st field hospital learned the nuances of providing care to adults, pregnant women, children and infants when they attended the basic life support class on Nov. 7.

Recommended Content:

Education & Training

Tactical Combat Casualty Care Training Benefits All Warriors

Article Around MHS
11/15/2022
Military nurses with Canine Tactical Combat Casualty Care dog

Tactical Combat Casualty Care training is not unique to the active-duty nurses and medical technicians from the 72nd Medical Group, however, what is unique is training in Canine Tactical Combat Casualty Care Training.

Recommended Content:

Tactical Combat Casualty Care Course | Education & Training | Veterinary Service

Medical Maintenance Sustaining the Warfighter

Article Around MHS
11/1/2022
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Monica Hewey works on ventilator

Biomedical Equipment Technician, or BMET, is one of those little-known career fields in the Air Force, yet it has a big impact on readiness and lethality.

Recommended Content:

Health Readiness & Combat Support

Exoskeleton to Enhance Safety, Retention for Aerial Porters, Others

Article Around MHS
10/26/2022
Military personnel pushes exoskeleton robotic fitness machine

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Center for Rapid Innovation, or CRI, held an event Oct. 6 with the U.S. Air Force Reserve Commander’s 445th Airlift Wing for a robotics team to demonstrate the latest Forge System, a pneumatically powered exoskeleton that augments leg strength to reduce fatigue, increase endurance, and offset weight.

Recommended Content:

Physical Fitness | Research & Innovation

Tactical Medical Augmentation Team Increases Combat Medical Capability

Article Around MHS
10/24/2022
TacticalMedical-725

To find a solution to an identified gap in medical care provided in combat situations, the U.S. Air Force 920th Rescue Wing’s Aeromedical Staging Squadron developed the Tactical Medical Augmentation Team, an embedded medical team that will bring a new level of patient care directly to the battlefield.

Recommended Content:

Health Readiness & Combat Support | Readiness Capabilities

Air Force Medical Officer's Quick Thinking Saves Life at Accident

Article
10/12/2022
Profile image of a woman

U.S. Air Force officer’s heroic efforts helps save a life after car crash.

Recommended Content:

Education & Training

Out for a Bike Ride? Remember These Safety Tips

Article
10/11/2022
A safety officer overlooks bike riders on a street

Bike riding is a popular form of transportation, physical activity, and fun, but doing it safely is key.

Recommended Content:

Physical Fitness | Summer Safety | Winter Safety
<< < 1 2 3 4 5  ... > >> 
Showing results 1 - 15 Page 1 of 41
Refine your search
Last Updated: July 20, 2022
Follow us on Instagram Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on YouTube Sign up on GovDelivery