Special Ops: 160th Aviators Will Get Powerful New Mission Rehearsal Tool First.

[SR-25]

Passing of a CDR (Critical Design Review) for a new software package for mission rehearsal simulation opens the way for special ops aviators to begin doing special ops planning in new ways within two years. The package - called a common environment/common database (CE/CD)- will take incompatible elements that can be simulated today and combine them into an integrated package usable on tactical simulators. The package is being developed as a standard whose ownership will revert to the DoD once developed next year. The idea of a common database was developed by US Special Operations Command, but the first users will be the 160th SOAR (Night Stalkers) at Ft Campbell, Ky., which will get the capability aboard a new MH-47G simulator due for delivery in 2006.

The common standard is being developed by CAE, a Canadian simulator company whose US operating arm inTampa, Fla. is working on the project. The company was the only major simulator maker to take on the task, but is also the builder of the MH-47G simulator, being built to 160th SOAR specifications. Mission rehearsal today is in reality a hodge-podge of various simulator visual progams which have to be drawn together from dissimilar sources, with differerent protocols and databases. 'In reality it is not possible to do comprehensive, rapid mission rehearsal,' comments Dave Graham, CAE's direct or special operations programmes. 'This will change that. Now you can build into the simulation the cues you need - ranging from sensors such as FLIR and NVG, to radar, threats, communications, etc. There are about 13 diffreent simulator programmes that will be drawn together and addressed under the new standard.'

Graham says the development draws on 'new thinking' about the role of simulators in mission rehearsal in areas such as special ops aviation. 'When this is all done we will move from mission preview which is where it is today, to mission rehearsal, a big step forward. I would call it a breakthrough in fact, a change in the paradigm.'

Aviators will move into this new era because they have the most comprehensive simulators, those capable of replicating the complex operating environments of this particular area of aviation discipline, Graham explains. 'There has also been a big development in throughput rates, memory storage and other areas of computer science we all know about. So what we're doing is capturing all tis and putting it into a single source data-base. But the advantages in terms of speed and comprehensiveness of the scene being played wil be enormous.'

The new system obviously owes a lot to the new requirements of urban warfare aviation being experienced in Iraq, but the intent is to broaden the standard to include all aspects of mutli-service operations. 'Looking ahead you can see how we could start linking to some of the networks being built for other systems and tactics,' he says. 'We're not there yet, but you could run an exercise in as close to real-time as you could physically get, including all the known environmental cues - out the window as well as from the wider tactical environment. It's certainly something we're all thinking about.'

The 160th has been experimenting with mission rehearsal databases for some time. Their Falcoln View map planning tool uses a PC programme that can then be transferred to the Topscene visuals in their current generation MH-60K simulator. 'But they don't get the special effects,' Graham says. 'They certainly can get them - they're out there - but the process of integrating it together takes weeks if not months, which of course is not what you want. This will change that.'

Successful passing of the CDR means the new database standard will be available to the DoD from early next year.