Virtual Warfare Center: Decades of Shaping the Future of Defense

In the confines of purpose-built spaces, armed with powerful computing and deep data on defense systems around the world, a team at Boeing Phantom Works imagines future warfare scenarios and brings them to life through analysis, live engagement and immersive simulation more realistic than the latest high-tech massive multiplayer online (MMO) game.

The warfighters and defense leaders that engage with Boeing Phantom Works’ Virtual Warfare Center (VWC) aren’t playing for a score on a leaderboard. They’re fighting to stay ahead of deadly real-world threats being developed by our adversaries.

“Our team has been helping customers out-innovate the enemy, revolutionize defense strategies and optimize the kill-chain for decades,” said Scott “Frag” Jobe, Boeing Phantom Works Executive Director of Business Development and Strategy. “We have more data on defense platforms and technologies than anyone else out there – and our facilities empower collaboration with hundreds of military operators at a time, across multiple locations, for any given exercise.”

A fair amount of the predictive capabilities analysis and live-virtual-constructive wargaming events that the VWC hosts takes place in St. Louis, in a 70,000 square-foot facility with multiple floors of operations, which opened 20 years ago this month. It’s been a premier stop for customers, warfighters, analysts and developers to experiment, test and train exactly how they will fight, learning how to interact and interoperate – in real time, in the joint battlespace environment – and analyze the results.

An Immersive Battlespace

The VWC’s complex battlespace simulation can include hundreds of operators and thousands of simulated scenarios. 

Aside from St. Louis, which has the largest VWC facility, there are four other sites – Arlington, Virginia; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Seal Beach, California; and Seattle, Washington. These facilities feature command rooms and virtual theaters to provide a comprehensive environment for monitoring and analysis. The five sites are networked together to enable a system-of-systems demonstrations and development.

“During an exercise, users are able to monitor the test execution and control the simulations and visual data displays that enable system analysts and decision makers to witness and understand emerging events,” said Justin Tkach, Boeing Phantom Works VWC Director.

Reconfigurable crew stations enable the center to incorporate real-time, in-flight data from tactical aircraft and C4ISR systems, allowing warfighters to survey the simulated scenario and control it through voice and data commands.

Shaping Future Programs

The VWC has touched nearly every Boeing defense program – past, present and future.

In 2018, Boeing was awarded the contract for the U.S. Navy’s first unmanned, carrier-based refueler. But with the work of the VWC, Boeing was imagining, designing and developing long before it became a program of record.

Eight years prior, the Navy had a program called Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS). The Boeing team had already been envisioning an unmanned carrier-based aircraft around 2005 based off the X-45, Phantom Works’ unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrator designed and tested in early 2000s. The VWC team joined the Boeing UCLASS team to perform computer simulations to model vehicle effectiveness in combat, but also began the early exploration of how humans and unmanned vehicles will work together.

“Autonomy, automation, operator interfaces, and communication systems were all developed so operators could sit at the controls, fight the war, and then make suggestions as to how make the system better,” said Scott Semmelmayer, VWC operations analyst who supports the MQ-25 program. “All of this was done within the VWC where the appropriate environments exist to model a complete system-of-systems warfighting environment.”

In 2016, the Navy changed the requirements to be an unmanned aerial refueler – MQ-25 program that is known today – the VWC team’s support focused first on how the MQ-25’s capabilities as an air-to-air refueler could support a conflict in the Pacific, and second, how the MQ-25’s tremendous potential for growth will enable it to support the Navy well-beyond the refueling mission in years to come. Again, computer modeling and operator-in-the-loop live events guided the growth of the MQ-25 into an aircraft that will support the Navy for decades to come.

The team is continuously ideating, planning and designing capabilities and platforms that U.S. and allied nations’ forces will need decades in the future.

Looking Ahead

As the Virtual Warfare Center’s St. Louis location celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, it stands not just as a facility, but as a beacon of innovation and collaboration in defense strategy. The simulations and scenarios crafted within its walls have not only shaped the capabilities of platforms but have also redefined how military forces prepare for the complexities of modern warfare.

With each exercise, the VWC empowers warfighters and decision-makers to envision a future where technology and human ingenuity work hand in hand to address emerging threats.

As Boeing continues to push the boundaries of what is possible, the VWC remains at the forefront, ensuring that the lessons learned today will pave the way for the defense strategies of tomorrow, ultimately safeguarding nations and fostering global security for generations to come.