WALES, Ltd. MAY 2010 CONFIDENTIAL Simulated Battle – Real Challenges… - 1/19 UNCLASSIFIED SIMULATED BATTLE – REAL CHALLENGES HOW TODAY’S SIMULATIONS MEET

WALES, Ltd. MAY 2010

CONFIDENTIAL

CONFIDENTIALSimulated Battle – Real Challenges… - 1/19UNCLASSIFIED

UNCLASSIFIED

SIMULATED BATTLE – REAL CHALLENGES

HOW TODAY’S

SIMULATIONS MEET TOMORROW’S BATTLEFIELD


HOW TODAY’S

SIMULATIONS MEET TOMORROW’S BATTLEFIELD

Presented By:

Mr. Ariel Yaroshevich

WALES, Ltd., Israel

1st Annual Israel Multinational BMD Conference & Exhibition


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PRESENTATION TOPICS

• Introduction

• The challenges of simulated battlefield

• The “perfect” simulation environment

• Recommendations and conclusions



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INTRODUCTION

• This presentation is based on experience gained through many years of involvement in BMD M&S:

– S/W development (FP tools, radar search optimization, Battlefield simulations…)

– Israeli Test Bed (ITB) features definition and validation

– Planning and analysis of large scale experiments and exercises involving HIL and HWIL

– Participation in multi-national exercises (Juniper Cobra series)



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INTRODUCTION (Cont.)

• The past decade or so has seen impressive improvements in M&S capabilities and inter-connections:

– DIS

– STANAG

– HLA and derivatives

• However, the modern battlefield generates new requirements at a fast pace:

– More and more objects/phenomena

– More communication required in/between simulations

– More data required in analysis/more accuracy required

– New systems introduced, while old ones are still operational, thus complicating current to legacy system communication



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INTRODUCTION (Cont.)

• The question we posed for ourselves is – are today’s M&S ready to face the challenges of tomorrow's Battlefield?

• The answer is NO!

– Interoperability

– Ambient phenomena

– Capacity

– Graceful Degradation (predictability)

– Analysis capability

– Coexistence with operational systems



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• Communication technology is one of the fastest progressing areas, both in civilian and military industries

• The defense community used to take the lead in innovative communication technologies (e.g. the Internet…)

• Contemporary trends in communication and interoperability present new challenges:– Network Centric Warfare

– Software as a Service

– Cloud Computing

• The challenges to the simulated

environment are even more subtle

COMMUNICATION

THE CHALLENGESSIMULATED BATTLE – REAL CHALLENGES


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• Operational Communication networks have a restricted and well defined topology, usually following the standard chain of command

COMMUNICATION - CONTINUED

THE CHALLENGES

xxx

x x x

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II II II II II II II

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• In the simulated environment, substantial communication is added, and the network topology becomes much denser

COMMUNICATION - CONTINUEDTHE CHALLENGES


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II II

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Synthetic Environment

Generator

Simulation Management

Data Collection and

Analysis


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• Weather, Terrain, civilians, secondary explosions…… in real life we have them all for free

• Yet in simulated environment, they are all part of the “synthetic environment”, whose realization requires substantive computational power

• The contemporary standards hardly address the required capabilities regarding the simulated environment synthesis, and the derived communication capacities and processing power required

AMBIENT PHENOMENA

THE CHALLENGES



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• Consider the following scenario:

– An enemy target is intercepted successfully by a SAM battery

– The communication latency causes a delay in the propagation of kill assessment, and allied forces keep assuming its existence and having “ghost track” on their screens

– However, as time progresses, the track finally disappears…

CAPABILITY ENVELOPE

THE CHALLENGES



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• In a simulated environment, such a track, if not reported as intercepted according to a strict protocol, will continue appearing indefinitely, thus wreaking havoc to the simulation fidelity…

CAPABILITY ENVELOPE

THE CHALLENGES



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• Operational systems are built to operate in an environment which may exceed their designed capacities. This is referred to as “robustness” or “Graceful Degradation”

• As an example, a radar facing more targets then it can track, will start reducing its search regime, lose accuracies, etc…

• Based on our experience, once the simulated environment approaches it’s limits, more often then not, it will collapse and crash and cause many of the systems connected to it to go down as well

• The chain of simulations supporting a large scale exercise is only as strong as it’s weakest link !

GRACEFUL DEGRADATION AND PERFORMANCE PREDICTABILITY



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• Debriefing, data collection and analysis are elementary requirements from any simulated exercise

• Yet, due to the technological challenges they pose, the data collection facilities are the first to be switched off when the computational power or communication bandwidth become a bottleneck

• This dramatically reduces the training value of the exercise, and introduces high costs to post-exercise debriefing

DEBRIEFING AND ANALYSIS



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• Interoperation with legacy systems is a major concern in all areas of technology

• Due to the relatively slow requirement-to-production cycle of military M&S, the challenge is even more acute

• Interoperability with legacy systems should be addressed both in the design of new systems, and in the standardization efforts of simulated eco-systems

LEGACY SYSTEMS



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• Hypothetical Question:

Major Tom is an experienced F16 pilot. Due to a heavy bio-chemical attack, he is the only survivor left in a huge, modern, military air base. Major Tom contacts the national headquarters and is given two missions:

1. To destroy the enemy’s biological weapon production plant

2. To keep good operational readiness, by taking regular training sessions in a flight simulator which he

never saw before

Which of the missions does Major Tom have a higher chance to complete successfully?

USABILITY

THE PERFECT SIMULATIONSIMULATED BATTLE – REAL CHALLENGES


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The moral from the previous example

USABILITY - CONTINUED

THE PERFECT SIMULATION

Simulations should be designed to be used by operational

personnel, NOT technical, third party support staff



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• Self descriptiveness

• Consistence with operational environment:– Especially important for low intensity conflicts, and

peacekeeping forces

• Performance Predictability

• Minimum requirements to participate in a simulation

• Standard Description of Ambient Phenomena

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

THE PERFECT SIMULATION

Let the simulation fit the need!



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• Standardization should not be minimalistic:– When the subject matter dictates, standardization should deal

with implementation details

– It should not leave out hard to define issues, because these will be the first to break in real world exercises

• Examples of areas where standardization should be more specific include:– Strict capabilities requirements (right of entry)

– Ease of Use

– Analysis/Data Collection capabilities

– Interoperation with operational systems

– Graceful degradation

IN ONE WORD - STANDARDIZATION

WHAT WE PROPOSE



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• Probably NOT, but,

• The challenges are known, and were outlined in this presentation

• The answer lies in further standardization

• The key to achieving this lies in LEADERSHIP

• Multinational organizations, have the potential to lead the standardization efforts which will ultimately achieve the goal to provide realistic, rich and interoperable simulation environment

ARE WE READY?

CONCLUSIONSSIMULATED BATTLE – REAL CHALLENGES

Documents

WALES, Ltd. MAY 2010 CONFIDENTIAL Simulated Battle – Real Challenges… - 1/19 UNCLASSIFIED SIMULATED BATTLE – REAL CHALLENGES HOW TODAY’S SIMULATIONS MEET