Common Synthetic Battlefield – Next Generation Combat Training

The development of computer simulation software and visual aids has been making a tangible progress recently, augmenting capabilities and role of simulators used for operational, combat and interoperability training of military units.

 

 

Virtual training, being actively introduced, not only allows to save military systems' service life and fuel and ammunition cost, but also enhances quality, efficiency, and safety of military personnel training for all types of modern armed conflicts, ranging from local anti-terrorist operations to wide-scale war.

It must be added that high-level unit cooperation and rapid reaction to quick changes of tactical situation are most important factors contributing to combat success.

This is why the evolution of educational and training facilities has reached by now the stage of versatile integrated simulators providing joint training of specialists in various military services and branches. Russia is pioneering in this technology, with a top-of-the line product introduced by ‘Kronstadt Group’, a Saint Petersburg company with a long and successful history of innovative products and solutions for defence and national security. The product is the new-generation tactical simulator “Combat-E”, based on integrated Common Synthetic Battlefield Environment (CSBE).

Kronstadt’s tactical simulator offers unparalleled functionality and meticulously modeled real-life algorithms of tactical missions. The system can be employed for units training in various military branches and law enforcement agencies with due account of their service specifics and assigned missions.

One of the system’s key features is its ability to visualize large-area landscapes composed of 3D topographic layers, automatically rendered from the reference 2D maps, which comprise various types of terrain, woodlands, roads, rivers, buildings etc. This technology allows the system to visualize any real-world geo-specific terrain taking into account its properties, as well as generate 3D layers based on existing digital maps.

Tactical situation is plotted on the map (and, at the same time, on the 3D layer) by means of standard conventional symbols that can be replaced/supplemented on customer request. One of major hard-to-solve problems for modern battlefield simulation systems is the generalization of tactical situation at different scales and data representation formats while preserving spatial parameters and logical ties. For such cases Russian specialists have developed an effective solution – the so-called "smart symbols" technology. It allows users to quickly plot and edit various tactical situation scenarios, control time and spatial parameters, automatically transfer any scenario to a virtual battlefield, and even change the initial tactical concept during a training session in the tactical simulator. Such flexibility of the “Combat-E” system opens huge opportunities for commanders and staff to perfect their tactical skills and enhance their interoperability.

The simulator allows practicing tactical training tasks and fire missions for teams within a unit according to standards set by respective regulatory documents. But more importantly, the “Combat-E” system can form the basis for tactical exercises conducted at the brigade-battalion-company level.

Truly efficient combat training within Synthetic Battlefield requires very realistically simulated Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven units. The technology implemented in the simulator allows modeling smart tactical actions of such computer generated forces, with detailed movements and combat performance of each separate unit on the battlefield.

The system allows achieving high level of realism in AI behavior thanks to a number of innovative approaches to AI modeling. Thus, all enemy actions are simulated using the same modeling algorithms that are used by human trainees. Among them – calculation of visibility range with due consideration of the terrain elevation model, vegetation types and overall smoke over the battlefield, revealing signs, etc. AI-driven enemies use real algorithms of command and signal exchange, target designation, distribution and guidance, units themselves feature realistic models of vehicle movement and various weapons' ballistic trajectories, etc.

Thus, the simulator modeling system can generate complex dedicated environment for real-world battlefield in accordance with combat capabilities and technical characteristics of specific weapon and other warfare types.

Another important advantage of “Combat-E” is its open architecture, allowing integration of multiple standalone simulators and/or command and control post imitators.

Kronstadt Group itself is a globally recognized manufacturer of a wide range of standalone simulators of various military equipment, ranging from trucks and armored vehicles to war ships and combat helicopters. But thanks to the support of the international information exchange standard called HLA, “Combat-E” can also integrate simulators made by third-party manufacturers, which greatly increases its flexibility and makes it a truly universal and client-oriented solution.

The modern armed forces are unimaginable without a vast array of robotics systems, including UAVs, unmanned boats, ground robots and remotely-controlled vehicles, etc. In this regard, “Combat-E” also provides a unique platform for training of operators of such robotized units, and, more importantly, training of proper coordination and interaction between conventional armed forces and unmanned units. Moreover, the system can be used as a testbed for simulating and assessing the performance of various types of robotized units, including modeling and testing of still very underdeveloped algorithms of joint behavior, or “swarm actions” by multiple unmanned units deployed within the same combat environment.

It is imminent that now, when military just like others have access to high technologies, exercises are no longer held using paper map-boards and on live battlefields, but, instead, inside meticulously created virtual environments in headquarters, units and forces fitted with high-performance equipment with latest software solutions. Kronstadt Group with its “Combat-E” combined tactical simulator makes a very compelling offering to those looking for a truly hi-tech, flexible and future-proof CSBE platform as the basis for highly efficient “digital-era” combat training.

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