Blurring the Line
New Hardware and Software Developments
Support SOF Mission Preparation and
Training - Often on the Same System.
by Marty Kauchak, SOTECH Correspondent
The line between mission preparation (planning and rehearsal) and training is being blurred by technology innovations and the military’s requirements to train as it will operate and conduct mission rehearsal on demand.
Hardware and software for training systems are being enhanced to support mission preparation scenarios in the air, land and maritime domains. Similarly, mission preparation systems for SOF operators in the U.S. and overseas are being tailored to provide training.
And while upgraded mission preparation and training scenarios condition SOF for rapidly evolving asymmetric warfare missions, USSOCOM continues to unlock the potential of commercial video games for mission rehearsal and other requirements.
CLOSING AVIATION GAPS
The 19th Special Operations Squadron Mission Rehearsal Operations Center at Hurlburt Field supports mission rehearsal events for AC-130H/U, MC-130E/H and MH- 53M aircrews. The training is completed “via distributed mission training [DMT] connectivity and portable flight planning software [PFPS] with Tactical Operation Preview Scene [TOPSCENE],” said Gary Kaskela, staff analyst, AFSOC Training Support Branch.
The PFPS is a common aviation mission planner delivered by Tybrin Corp. The software and its supported portable flight planning system help aircrews conduct effective and timely mission planning, mission updates and produce mission materials required for flight and post-mission debriefing.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control produces TOPSCENE “which utilizes overhead image data from satellites and other sources by converting the twodimensional images into three-dimensional ‘fly through’ and ‘walk through’ battlefield visualization simulation scenarios,” noted a company brochure.
AFSOC’s DMT environment provides benefits similar to those realized by the services through other distributed architectures. “This capability facilitates connection of geographically separated simulators, allows joint integrated training without temporary duty costs and is independent of aircraft availability due to low densityhigh density assets. It permits detailed joint mission rehearsal with few operations indicators to compromise missions while enhancing realism without peacetime-only safety restrictions,” remarked Kaskela.
A recent merger of mission preparation and training technologies supports USASOC aviators.
In August 2007, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment–Airborne (SOARA) placed into service a new CAE-built MH-47G Chinook combat mission simulator (CMS). The simulator features the first-ever implementation of CAE’s Common Environment/Common Database (CE/ CDB), a new database architecture designed for USSOCOM that provides significantly enhanced database capabilities to support rapid mission rehearsal timelines—on the order of days or even faster.
The CE/CDB also closes the gap that has traditionally existed between training and mission rehearsal systems. “In the past databases and environments that were good for training typically weren’t good for mission rehearsal because they took too long to develop,” David Graham, SOF programs director, CAE, told Special Operations Technology. “The major breakthrough with CE/CDB is, while there is a lot of technology beneath it, there is only one representation of the terrain, buildings and other data, but it is a very high-fidelity representation—and we store it. We say to each simulation engineer, ‘Get what you need from the common database and turn it into whatever you want and you have one-sixtieth of a second [the industry’s run-time publishing standard] to do it.’ So, that’s the paradigm shift,” concluded Graham.
The CE/CDB architecture is also responsive to the SOF mission planning environment by providing MH-47G crews with the capability to very quickly update scenarios with the same, real-time intelligence and other inputs in the CMS’s radar display, visual display and other sub-systems. The CE-CDB will be installed in CAE’s MH-60L Direct Action Penetrator full mission simulator that is expected to be in service with the 160th SOAR-A this summer.
MORE ACCURATE AIRDROPS
Other mission preparation systems support SOF and their services counterparts’ aviation operators.
SOF and other component aircrews in the U.S. and overseas are delivering more accurate cargo and personnel airdrops from high altitudes with the aid of the Joint Precision Airdrop System-Mission Planner (JPADS-MP). The MP delivers improved weather and other information for aircrews to provide a more accurate high altitude release point calculation for these missions.
“The JPADS-MP utilizes weather forecasts from the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency prior to take-off and provides the operator near, real-time updates just prior to the airdrop sequence” said Richard Benney, aerospace engineer, division lead, Aerial Delivery Equipment and Systems Division, Warfighter Protection and Aerial Delivery Directorate, Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC). In-flight updates are supplied through dropsondes that provide in-place, live measurements of wind, and/or pilot reports enroute. “All available weather is assimilated into the software to project the best estimate of winds at the time and in the volume of space the parachutists [military free-fall [MFF] type] and/or dumb ballistic [traditional parachutes], and/or autonomous [self-guided] cargo parachutes will pass through,” emphasized Benney.
The JPADS-MP is fully integrated with a Falcon View map overlay, wireless navigational aid helmets for MFF jumpers, and self-guided JPADS parachutes to provide the latest winds, new waypoints and/or new impact points to all or any combination of the systems just prior to the drop.
This MP system has earned its stripes with SOF for MFF operations since 2004, and with Air Force and Army forces for cargo resupply, primarily in Operation Enduring Freedom, since July 29, 2006. JPADS-MP has supported JPADS and Improved Container Delivery System (ICDS) deliveries through September 30, 2007 “at the rate of about 500,000 pounds each month in Afghanistan,” pointed out Benney.
Beyond the battlefield, JPADS-MP supports the Air Force’s training and testing programs. To date there have been more than 150 2K Screamer precision cargo delivery systems, by Strong Enterprises, placed in theater. Strong also provides contractor support for depot maintenance and repairs. As this issue went to press, the company expected to ship a quantity of their 10K Screamers (5,000 to 10,000 pound capacity) overseas.
Two other systems, each by Para-Flite, the 500 to 2,200 pounds (Firefly) and 5,000 to 10,000 pounds (Dragonfly) are both in development.
During 2007, JPADS-MP entered U.S. DoD Milestone B acquisition phase. Aside from relatively minor hardware upgrades, many new software enhancements are on the program’s horizon to support the MP’s integration into PFPS and then into Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS).
JMPS provides unit-level mission planning for all phases of military flight operations and is being integrated to support fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, weapons and sensors, including precision-guided munitions, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles for all military services. Coalition partners use JMPS to plan missions for combat operations and combined U.S. and coalition operations. Northrop Grumman developed the core JMPS framework.
“Many new parachute systems and capabilities will also be added through 2008 and beyond,” added Benney.
Also during 2007, JPADS-MP program manager functions transitioned from NSRDEC to the U. S. Air Force. The NSRDEC supports multiple project managers and other services with technical, integration and contract support to include the U.S. Army project manager force sustainment support (cargo airdrop systems), U.S. Army clothing and individual equipment (personal parachute systems and many MFF systems).
The JPADS-MP government-industry team also includes Planning Systems (hardware lead and software sub-contractor), Capewell Components (lead for international sales of the hardware), Tybrin (lead for software development), Draper Labs (lead for software in stand-alone mode and JPADS-MP’s integration into PFPS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth Science Research Lab (supporting weather-related assimilation into software). The U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command is the lead user command with the service’s Electronic Systems Center and Aeronautical Systems Center now leading the hardware and software management for the MP.
Australia and the United Kingdom have purchased JPADS-MP systems.
“There is significant interest at NATO and within NATO nations to use JPADS-MP with dumb ballistic chutes, also known as ICDS, to support resupply operations in Afghanistan and help reduce reliance on rotary-wing assets for some resupply missions,” concluded Benney.
MP FOR GROUND FORCES
Overseas, Elbit Systems Training and Simulation provides two products for SOF ground forces’ mission preparation and training.
The Tactical Battle Group Trainer (TBT) delivers training and mission rehearsal scenarios for ground component commanders and their staffs. The trainer combines “tactical battlefield simulation with actual C4I systems and enables commanders to acquire tactical reasoning methods, skills and procedures,” noted Gur Cohen, program manager, Elbit Systems Training and Simulation.
The TBT is operational with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). A recent upgrade allows SOF training and mission rehearsal in counter-terrorism operations, lowintensity conflict (LIC) and military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) scenarios. The SOF-specific upgrade includes integration of accurate actual operational geographic databases of cities and actual urban fighting areas. The TBT’s models include suicide bombers, improvised explosive devices, bunkers, in-house firing, urban crowd behavior, snipers, short-range missile squads and other computer-generated entities.
Elbit’s Mission Planning, Rehearsal and Debriefing System (MPRDS) is a laptopbased product “designed and built especially to answer the need for mission planning and rehearsal enabling in-depth knowledge of the battle zone down to the most minor details,” remarked Cohen.
An accurate 2-D and 3-D view of the area with an integrated computer-generated forces capability enables SOF units to observe, identify, learn and choose battle position and rehearse on diverse LIC and MOUT scenarios.
“The MPRDS is in constant use by IDF’s field units,” pointed out Cohen.
SOF may soon be able to benefit from the Smart Entities Research and Development program, a collaborative effort between the Israeli MoD and Elbit. The project is implanting artificial intelligence for terrorist computer-generated forces in simulation systems. “The Smart Entities application will enable enhanced LIC, highintensity conflict and homeland defense, full-spectrum operations scenarios in all terrains for training, mission rehearsal, operational research and decision-support systems,” concluded Cohen.
MARITIME APPLICATION
Mission preparation systems are also being eyed for SOF maritime warriors.
Brunswick, ME-based Technology Systems, Inc.’s (TSI) Modular Mission Planning Toolkit (MMPT) has been installed on Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit One (EODMU-1) craft. Building on the success of current system deployments, a product demonstration is in planning for U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command.
MMPT evolved from a small business innovative research contract awarded to develop a modular, flexible, open-system architecture mission planner for unmanned undersea vehicles. The system was built with an approach to mission planning which brings in historical and forecasted meteorological and oceanographic data—a strategy increasingly shared by other MP systems.
“Based on the success of MMPT’s modular, flexible, open system architecture, TSI rebuilt its entire suite of software in this manner to include its augmented reality based system,” explained Tom Zysk, chief operating officer, TSI. “Today, this package of software can be used for mission planning, mission monitoring and mission execution for unmanned surface and undersea vehicles as well as surface ships and craft,” he added.
The system installed on EODMU-1 boats combines the mission and route planner with the Augmented Reality Situational Awareness and Craft Master piloting aide. “Augmented Reality geo-registers tracks, nautical chart information, radar data, Automated Information System and other database information, including Mine Warfare and Environmental Decision Aids Library and other mine warfare resources, onto a real-time video feed sourced from a wide-angle camera mounted on the craft’s mast. This image is provided in a display for the craft operator, essentially providing a real-time head-up display for the boat driver,” pointed out Zysk.
Similar to the yellow, or other color, “first-down line” overlaid on a U.S.-version football game broadcast, information is geo-registered on a real-time view allowing instantaneous cognition by the craft masters. “This dramatically improves situational awareness,” remarked Zysk. He added, “The operator no longer has to look at charts, radar and other devices, then do the mental 2-D-to-3-D conversion to determine where this information is in his realworld view. All this information is fused into one common view. Mission tracks are built in the planner and are displayed like ‘highways on the ocean.’ The operator’s brain cycles are freed up to become much more aware of the tactical situation.”
The EOD-focused system also provides Blue Force tracking for other units in the group as well as location of all unmanned assets. All assets are displayed on the 2-D mission planning plot and are geo-registered 3-D on the real-world view.
Interoperability is a foundation of MMPT. Additional software plug-ins have been designed to protect the proprietary nature of other systems as they exchange valuable information. MMPT has communicated with fielded mission planning systems and has ports for connection to the SIPRNET (Secret Internet Protocol Router Network) for eventual JMPS connectivity.
The MMPT industry team is shoring up the product’s training potential. Current mission rehearsal capabilities allow operators to “review track planning, known threats and other imported data,” said Zysk. “Mission rehearsal will be aided by a capability currently being added, which will capture and store video snippets with overlays for post mission de-brief and future mission rehearsal briefings,” he concluded.
BOLSTERING MTPS
The mission, training and preparation Systems (MTPS) allows SOF mission training, planning, preview and rehearsal to come together to provide the most realistic and complete training and preparation possible for today’s special operators. “Special operations forces want to know what the terrain will look like, how the enemy will respond, and how their weapons systems will operate before the mission takes place,” observed Chip Bowlin, USSOCOM Mission Training and Preparation Branch. MTPS delivers geo-specific data and mission profiles with specific tactics, techniques and procedures to support these requirements. “If SOF will be patrolling down a dusty road in Kabul, then their training and rehearsal environment should be a virtual replication of that road,” said Bowlin.
The mission training and mission rehearsal parts of the MTPS portfolio are supported by simulators, desktop applications, commercial video games and personal computer-based mission planning software. The MTPS interfaces provide live, virtual and constructive environments for training and rehearsals. This part of the portfolio remains a work in progress. “Some of the technologies needed to execute meaningful mission training and preparation exist today, while others are emerging as a result of research and development in academia, government labs and the commercial environment,” said Bowlin.
One of the biggest successes in the MTPS family of systems and the system’s mission planning component is special operations mission planning environment (SOMPE). “What is now SOMPE began as a USSOCOM-backed development to provide SOF aviation with the most planning capability that could be packed into a portable package,” recalled Bowlin. The system has expanded to encompass the full spectrum of air, ground and maritime SOF missions. “There are very few SOF missions where SOMPE is not a critical enabler,” said Bowlin.
DoD has quickened the pace to examine the extent to which commercial games can support learning. USSOCOM is further unlocking the potential of this technology for broader applications in the MTPS portfolio.
The command collaborated with Sony for the production of the computer game U.S. Navy SEALS. “Future mission-oriented MTPS video game-based simulations will look and feel much the same with virtual replication of the full spectrum of SOF equipment and capabilities,” forecast Bowlin. He added, “Just like the commercial video games available today, the SOF operators will be logging into multiplayer simulations of their planned missions in order to rehearse them together.” An extension of this capability would allow a joint task force to conduct a full force-on-force exercise or mission rehearsal in a virtual environment.
INDUSTRY OPPORTUNITIES
Several gaps in current mission preparation and training technology offer opportunities for industry to correct. “One of the largest technology gaps is the lack of industry standards on a common database for modeling and simulation to include cultural, manmade and environmental conditions,” pointed out AFSOC’s Kaskela. The command also noted current technology limits aircraft simulator capability to train crews in air refueling operations closer than the pre-contact position (the last 50 feet).
USSOCOM continues to seek innovation and other solutions to allow SOF to bolster their training and mission preparation capabilities. In January 2008, USSOCOM’s program manager for Special Operations Forces Training Systems released a request for information on USSOCOM’s Common Environment (CE) program.
According to the RFI, “The objective of the CE is to provide a synthetic battlespace where special operations forces can train as they fight and conduct mission rehearsal on demand, in a cost-effective manner, through the use of a common architecture, common subsystems and simulation interoperability standards.”
An industry day and other supporting milestones had been conducted as this issue went to press. RFI responses were due February 27, 2008. More information is available at U.S. Army PEO STRI’s Business Opportunities Portal, https://moss.peostri. army.mil/sites/bop/default.aspx or from Helen Garcia, contract point of contact, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . ♦
Hardware and software for training systems are being enhanced to support mission preparation scenarios in the air, land and maritime domains. Similarly, mission preparation systems for SOF operators in the U.S. and overseas are being tailored to provide training.
And while upgraded mission preparation and training scenarios condition SOF for rapidly evolving asymmetric warfare missions, USSOCOM continues to unlock the potential of commercial video games for mission rehearsal and other requirements.
CLOSING AVIATION GAPS
The 19th Special Operations Squadron Mission Rehearsal Operations Center at Hurlburt Field supports mission rehearsal events for AC-130H/U, MC-130E/H and MH- 53M aircrews. The training is completed “via distributed mission training [DMT] connectivity and portable flight planning software [PFPS] with Tactical Operation Preview Scene [TOPSCENE],” said Gary Kaskela, staff analyst, AFSOC Training Support Branch.
The PFPS is a common aviation mission planner delivered by Tybrin Corp. The software and its supported portable flight planning system help aircrews conduct effective and timely mission planning, mission updates and produce mission materials required for flight and post-mission debriefing.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control produces TOPSCENE “which utilizes overhead image data from satellites and other sources by converting the twodimensional images into three-dimensional ‘fly through’ and ‘walk through’ battlefield visualization simulation scenarios,” noted a company brochure.
AFSOC’s DMT environment provides benefits similar to those realized by the services through other distributed architectures. “This capability facilitates connection of geographically separated simulators, allows joint integrated training without temporary duty costs and is independent of aircraft availability due to low densityhigh density assets. It permits detailed joint mission rehearsal with few operations indicators to compromise missions while enhancing realism without peacetime-only safety restrictions,” remarked Kaskela.
A recent merger of mission preparation and training technologies supports USASOC aviators.
In August 2007, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment–Airborne (SOARA) placed into service a new CAE-built MH-47G Chinook combat mission simulator (CMS). The simulator features the first-ever implementation of CAE’s Common Environment/Common Database (CE/ CDB), a new database architecture designed for USSOCOM that provides significantly enhanced database capabilities to support rapid mission rehearsal timelines—on the order of days or even faster.
The CE/CDB also closes the gap that has traditionally existed between training and mission rehearsal systems. “In the past databases and environments that were good for training typically weren’t good for mission rehearsal because they took too long to develop,” David Graham, SOF programs director, CAE, told Special Operations Technology. “The major breakthrough with CE/CDB is, while there is a lot of technology beneath it, there is only one representation of the terrain, buildings and other data, but it is a very high-fidelity representation—and we store it. We say to each simulation engineer, ‘Get what you need from the common database and turn it into whatever you want and you have one-sixtieth of a second [the industry’s run-time publishing standard] to do it.’ So, that’s the paradigm shift,” concluded Graham.
The CE/CDB architecture is also responsive to the SOF mission planning environment by providing MH-47G crews with the capability to very quickly update scenarios with the same, real-time intelligence and other inputs in the CMS’s radar display, visual display and other sub-systems. The CE-CDB will be installed in CAE’s MH-60L Direct Action Penetrator full mission simulator that is expected to be in service with the 160th SOAR-A this summer.
MORE ACCURATE AIRDROPS
Other mission preparation systems support SOF and their services counterparts’ aviation operators.
SOF and other component aircrews in the U.S. and overseas are delivering more accurate cargo and personnel airdrops from high altitudes with the aid of the Joint Precision Airdrop System-Mission Planner (JPADS-MP). The MP delivers improved weather and other information for aircrews to provide a more accurate high altitude release point calculation for these missions.
“The JPADS-MP utilizes weather forecasts from the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency prior to take-off and provides the operator near, real-time updates just prior to the airdrop sequence” said Richard Benney, aerospace engineer, division lead, Aerial Delivery Equipment and Systems Division, Warfighter Protection and Aerial Delivery Directorate, Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC). In-flight updates are supplied through dropsondes that provide in-place, live measurements of wind, and/or pilot reports enroute. “All available weather is assimilated into the software to project the best estimate of winds at the time and in the volume of space the parachutists [military free-fall [MFF] type] and/or dumb ballistic [traditional parachutes], and/or autonomous [self-guided] cargo parachutes will pass through,” emphasized Benney.
The JPADS-MP is fully integrated with a Falcon View map overlay, wireless navigational aid helmets for MFF jumpers, and self-guided JPADS parachutes to provide the latest winds, new waypoints and/or new impact points to all or any combination of the systems just prior to the drop.
This MP system has earned its stripes with SOF for MFF operations since 2004, and with Air Force and Army forces for cargo resupply, primarily in Operation Enduring Freedom, since July 29, 2006. JPADS-MP has supported JPADS and Improved Container Delivery System (ICDS) deliveries through September 30, 2007 “at the rate of about 500,000 pounds each month in Afghanistan,” pointed out Benney.
Beyond the battlefield, JPADS-MP supports the Air Force’s training and testing programs. To date there have been more than 150 2K Screamer precision cargo delivery systems, by Strong Enterprises, placed in theater. Strong also provides contractor support for depot maintenance and repairs. As this issue went to press, the company expected to ship a quantity of their 10K Screamers (5,000 to 10,000 pound capacity) overseas.
Two other systems, each by Para-Flite, the 500 to 2,200 pounds (Firefly) and 5,000 to 10,000 pounds (Dragonfly) are both in development.
During 2007, JPADS-MP entered U.S. DoD Milestone B acquisition phase. Aside from relatively minor hardware upgrades, many new software enhancements are on the program’s horizon to support the MP’s integration into PFPS and then into Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS).
JMPS provides unit-level mission planning for all phases of military flight operations and is being integrated to support fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, weapons and sensors, including precision-guided munitions, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles for all military services. Coalition partners use JMPS to plan missions for combat operations and combined U.S. and coalition operations. Northrop Grumman developed the core JMPS framework.
“Many new parachute systems and capabilities will also be added through 2008 and beyond,” added Benney.
Also during 2007, JPADS-MP program manager functions transitioned from NSRDEC to the U. S. Air Force. The NSRDEC supports multiple project managers and other services with technical, integration and contract support to include the U.S. Army project manager force sustainment support (cargo airdrop systems), U.S. Army clothing and individual equipment (personal parachute systems and many MFF systems).
The JPADS-MP government-industry team also includes Planning Systems (hardware lead and software sub-contractor), Capewell Components (lead for international sales of the hardware), Tybrin (lead for software development), Draper Labs (lead for software in stand-alone mode and JPADS-MP’s integration into PFPS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth Science Research Lab (supporting weather-related assimilation into software). The U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command is the lead user command with the service’s Electronic Systems Center and Aeronautical Systems Center now leading the hardware and software management for the MP.
Australia and the United Kingdom have purchased JPADS-MP systems.
“There is significant interest at NATO and within NATO nations to use JPADS-MP with dumb ballistic chutes, also known as ICDS, to support resupply operations in Afghanistan and help reduce reliance on rotary-wing assets for some resupply missions,” concluded Benney.
MP FOR GROUND FORCES
Overseas, Elbit Systems Training and Simulation provides two products for SOF ground forces’ mission preparation and training.
The Tactical Battle Group Trainer (TBT) delivers training and mission rehearsal scenarios for ground component commanders and their staffs. The trainer combines “tactical battlefield simulation with actual C4I systems and enables commanders to acquire tactical reasoning methods, skills and procedures,” noted Gur Cohen, program manager, Elbit Systems Training and Simulation.
The TBT is operational with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). A recent upgrade allows SOF training and mission rehearsal in counter-terrorism operations, lowintensity conflict (LIC) and military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) scenarios. The SOF-specific upgrade includes integration of accurate actual operational geographic databases of cities and actual urban fighting areas. The TBT’s models include suicide bombers, improvised explosive devices, bunkers, in-house firing, urban crowd behavior, snipers, short-range missile squads and other computer-generated entities.
Elbit’s Mission Planning, Rehearsal and Debriefing System (MPRDS) is a laptopbased product “designed and built especially to answer the need for mission planning and rehearsal enabling in-depth knowledge of the battle zone down to the most minor details,” remarked Cohen.
An accurate 2-D and 3-D view of the area with an integrated computer-generated forces capability enables SOF units to observe, identify, learn and choose battle position and rehearse on diverse LIC and MOUT scenarios.
“The MPRDS is in constant use by IDF’s field units,” pointed out Cohen.
SOF may soon be able to benefit from the Smart Entities Research and Development program, a collaborative effort between the Israeli MoD and Elbit. The project is implanting artificial intelligence for terrorist computer-generated forces in simulation systems. “The Smart Entities application will enable enhanced LIC, highintensity conflict and homeland defense, full-spectrum operations scenarios in all terrains for training, mission rehearsal, operational research and decision-support systems,” concluded Cohen.
MARITIME APPLICATION
Mission preparation systems are also being eyed for SOF maritime warriors.
Brunswick, ME-based Technology Systems, Inc.’s (TSI) Modular Mission Planning Toolkit (MMPT) has been installed on Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit One (EODMU-1) craft. Building on the success of current system deployments, a product demonstration is in planning for U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command.
MMPT evolved from a small business innovative research contract awarded to develop a modular, flexible, open-system architecture mission planner for unmanned undersea vehicles. The system was built with an approach to mission planning which brings in historical and forecasted meteorological and oceanographic data—a strategy increasingly shared by other MP systems.
“Based on the success of MMPT’s modular, flexible, open system architecture, TSI rebuilt its entire suite of software in this manner to include its augmented reality based system,” explained Tom Zysk, chief operating officer, TSI. “Today, this package of software can be used for mission planning, mission monitoring and mission execution for unmanned surface and undersea vehicles as well as surface ships and craft,” he added.
The system installed on EODMU-1 boats combines the mission and route planner with the Augmented Reality Situational Awareness and Craft Master piloting aide. “Augmented Reality geo-registers tracks, nautical chart information, radar data, Automated Information System and other database information, including Mine Warfare and Environmental Decision Aids Library and other mine warfare resources, onto a real-time video feed sourced from a wide-angle camera mounted on the craft’s mast. This image is provided in a display for the craft operator, essentially providing a real-time head-up display for the boat driver,” pointed out Zysk.
Similar to the yellow, or other color, “first-down line” overlaid on a U.S.-version football game broadcast, information is geo-registered on a real-time view allowing instantaneous cognition by the craft masters. “This dramatically improves situational awareness,” remarked Zysk. He added, “The operator no longer has to look at charts, radar and other devices, then do the mental 2-D-to-3-D conversion to determine where this information is in his realworld view. All this information is fused into one common view. Mission tracks are built in the planner and are displayed like ‘highways on the ocean.’ The operator’s brain cycles are freed up to become much more aware of the tactical situation.”
The EOD-focused system also provides Blue Force tracking for other units in the group as well as location of all unmanned assets. All assets are displayed on the 2-D mission planning plot and are geo-registered 3-D on the real-world view.
Interoperability is a foundation of MMPT. Additional software plug-ins have been designed to protect the proprietary nature of other systems as they exchange valuable information. MMPT has communicated with fielded mission planning systems and has ports for connection to the SIPRNET (Secret Internet Protocol Router Network) for eventual JMPS connectivity.
The MMPT industry team is shoring up the product’s training potential. Current mission rehearsal capabilities allow operators to “review track planning, known threats and other imported data,” said Zysk. “Mission rehearsal will be aided by a capability currently being added, which will capture and store video snippets with overlays for post mission de-brief and future mission rehearsal briefings,” he concluded.
BOLSTERING MTPS
The mission, training and preparation Systems (MTPS) allows SOF mission training, planning, preview and rehearsal to come together to provide the most realistic and complete training and preparation possible for today’s special operators. “Special operations forces want to know what the terrain will look like, how the enemy will respond, and how their weapons systems will operate before the mission takes place,” observed Chip Bowlin, USSOCOM Mission Training and Preparation Branch. MTPS delivers geo-specific data and mission profiles with specific tactics, techniques and procedures to support these requirements. “If SOF will be patrolling down a dusty road in Kabul, then their training and rehearsal environment should be a virtual replication of that road,” said Bowlin.
The mission training and mission rehearsal parts of the MTPS portfolio are supported by simulators, desktop applications, commercial video games and personal computer-based mission planning software. The MTPS interfaces provide live, virtual and constructive environments for training and rehearsals. This part of the portfolio remains a work in progress. “Some of the technologies needed to execute meaningful mission training and preparation exist today, while others are emerging as a result of research and development in academia, government labs and the commercial environment,” said Bowlin.
One of the biggest successes in the MTPS family of systems and the system’s mission planning component is special operations mission planning environment (SOMPE). “What is now SOMPE began as a USSOCOM-backed development to provide SOF aviation with the most planning capability that could be packed into a portable package,” recalled Bowlin. The system has expanded to encompass the full spectrum of air, ground and maritime SOF missions. “There are very few SOF missions where SOMPE is not a critical enabler,” said Bowlin.
DoD has quickened the pace to examine the extent to which commercial games can support learning. USSOCOM is further unlocking the potential of this technology for broader applications in the MTPS portfolio.
The command collaborated with Sony for the production of the computer game U.S. Navy SEALS. “Future mission-oriented MTPS video game-based simulations will look and feel much the same with virtual replication of the full spectrum of SOF equipment and capabilities,” forecast Bowlin. He added, “Just like the commercial video games available today, the SOF operators will be logging into multiplayer simulations of their planned missions in order to rehearse them together.” An extension of this capability would allow a joint task force to conduct a full force-on-force exercise or mission rehearsal in a virtual environment.
INDUSTRY OPPORTUNITIES
Several gaps in current mission preparation and training technology offer opportunities for industry to correct. “One of the largest technology gaps is the lack of industry standards on a common database for modeling and simulation to include cultural, manmade and environmental conditions,” pointed out AFSOC’s Kaskela. The command also noted current technology limits aircraft simulator capability to train crews in air refueling operations closer than the pre-contact position (the last 50 feet).
USSOCOM continues to seek innovation and other solutions to allow SOF to bolster their training and mission preparation capabilities. In January 2008, USSOCOM’s program manager for Special Operations Forces Training Systems released a request for information on USSOCOM’s Common Environment (CE) program.
According to the RFI, “The objective of the CE is to provide a synthetic battlespace where special operations forces can train as they fight and conduct mission rehearsal on demand, in a cost-effective manner, through the use of a common architecture, common subsystems and simulation interoperability standards.”
An industry day and other supporting milestones had been conducted as this issue went to press. RFI responses were due February 27, 2008. More information is available at U.S. Army PEO STRI’s Business Opportunities Portal, https://moss.peostri. army.mil/sites/bop/default.aspx or from Helen Garcia, contract point of contact, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . ♦