Real-Time High-Fidelity Threat Simulation Capability

Man-in-the-Loop (MITL)/Hardware in the Loop (HWIL) simulation environments have become invaluable for maturing Warfighter capabilities and significantly reduce the time, risk, and cost associated with evolving and transitioning new technologies. However, current laboratory synthetic battlespace environments do not have the flexibility and fidelity to digitally simulate critical communication architectures, protocols, and effects. Increasingly, programs such as the Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) and Joint Distributed Engineering Plant (JDEP) are using simulation environments to perform a variety of tasks from requirements analysis and concept evaluation to testing and evaluation. As simulations become more widely used to support the full acquisition life-cycle, through simulation based acquisition, the importance of realistically modeling communications effects is becoming increasingly critical. This Phase II proposal builds on a very successful Phase I effort in which we developed the design for an advanced HLA-based Communication server. This HLA-based Communication Server is designed to fit seamlessly into distributed real-time simulation environments using tools developed by VTC for the JDEP infrastructure enhancement effort. In addition, VTC had secured matching Fast Track funding from the ACS program, which has a requirement to model the effects of the network and communication infrastructure supported by the ACS systems.