Introduction Within a collaboration of the French Army, French DGA and industry, sponsored by the ADIS group ( a French M&S organization) in the context of the new program SCORPION* and the joint project ORCUS, the Vulcain aims to demonstrate training of units in their garrisons across multiple sites using distributed simulation based on standard interoperability architectures and protocols. * Scorpion program provides the combat and support systems for the modernisation of the French Army combined arms Battlegroups (GTIA) beginning in 2018. Scenario At the request of Mali, a country undergoing a social and economic destabilization, France responds with a military operation, based on a French armoured brigade. The exercise is a strength reduction mission near the isolated town of GAO, in eastern Mali. The enemy consists of 2 Katibas (2 battalion level units). The first is already in retreat to Kidal in the north. The second is installed in defensive position around GAO. The enemy has already suffered losses. Initially, the French forces could face the 11th company where mobile units of section size could prevent a crossing of the Niger River bridge. These could be strengthened by two companies. The elements from southern GAO could continue harassing the maneuverer and attempt to cross our forces position to reach Kidal or adra Ifoghas. The scenario was created by the Lieutenant-Colonel Tony GARNIER, French Ministry of Defense /EMAT / Bureau PLANS
The elements of the simulation Around twelve simulation systems are used to run the scenario, both existing simulations already in use by the forces, and imminent acquisitions for training or experimentation for the future requirement of the army (of course during a future real training exercise it is unlikely that the Army will connect everything at the same time). List of the simulation systems deployed for Vulcain 2016 Soult, based on Sword from MASA group: Simulation program for Joint Operations Units and Logistics Terrestrial use for the operational readiness of command posts of division, brigade and Groupings Tactics Inter Armes. Starpass, by SILKAN, is an interactive training simulators for a UAV PATROLLER (SAGEM) implementation, being acquired by the French army. SITTAL, by RUAG France, is a technical instruction system for small arms and light weapons, around 50 simulators currently deploy in the forces.
SET MMP, by GDI simulation (a subsidiary of Airbus D&S), is a training simulator for firing the Medium Range Antitank Missile (MMP from MBDA). EDITH, by THALES T&S, is a virtual tactical simulation for Helicopter, currently in use in the Forces. SIMFAC, by Airbus D&S, is a JTAC (Joint Terminal Attack Controller) simulation for training forward air controllers (FAC) for mission preparation,currently use by the French Air Forces (SIMFAC is NATOaccredited) SPARTACUS, is a government product supporting simulator connection to SICS (French C2). SEMBA, is embedded simulation demonstrator produced by Nexter Systems and Agueris. The simulation system is integrated in a real vehicle in order to train and support operations. ETT from AGUERIS (CMI group), is a turret techniques trainer, which represents the future vehicle JAGUAR (NEXTER) from the French Scorpion program. Direct CGF by DIGINEXT, Computer Generated Forces for generating advanced entity behaviours (cinematic, weapon system, tactical data link); DirectCGF will generate all the enemies of the script. Interoperability Ellipse by Airbus Defense and Space for the DGA, Ellipse guarantees system interoperability and each simulator's successful integration into the federation. Pitch Cloud by Pitch Technologies, Cloud Simulation components constitutes the backbone and the infrastructure layer to support the interoperability (data simulation, audio, video and radio simulation)
The technical challenges The main challenge of this demonstration was to play a 25 minutes scenario involving multiple different systems from multiple companies running on multiple sites work together with minimum integration time. Network and interoperability architecture This demonstration was running on two sites: Saumur and Paris (EUROSATORY). 2 Spartacus players were connected to the demonstration and played their role from the Saumur site. The remainder of the simulators ran in Eurosatory. On each site, the simulators run on a LAN network. Only one computer on each site is connected to the WAN network. Thanks to Pitch Booster, all participants to the exercise are connected to the same federations regardless of the site they are situated.
The interoperability standard selected was IEEE1516-2010 HLA Evolved with the Pitch prti. SEMBA Federations 2 federations were implemented during the demo: one for the simulation data, one for the voice and chat data. The Simulation federation connects the simulators and allows the exchange between them during the scenario execution. The backbone was provided by Pitch prti.
The Talk federation is implemented with Pitch Talk, connecting simulator operators and allows: - Voice exchanges between participants during the scenario like operational orders and reports. - Text chat exchange is used at the exercise management level to help synchronisation of participants during the scenario execution and to report troubleshooting if needed. All federates (Except Pitch Recorder) use Pitch Talk. Conclusion This demonstration surpassed all its objectives in illustrating how legacy and state-of-the-art simulation technology distributed across multiple military sites can be integrated to deliver training benefit. By utilising International Open Standards for simulation interoperability, the integration efforts have been greatly reduced as compared to similar previous events, and companies achieved this demonstration within a planned level of effort. This demonstration also served to inform the required services for multi-site training.
APPENDIX Eurosatory 2016 Capability Demonstration of Combined Arm training to the French Army Simulators on Eurosatory 2016
Pitch Recorder Screenshot of Pitch Recorder GUI: one channel per simulator, plus a record of DIS channel (Starpass channel) and time synchronisation of the audio channel (Talk /operator radio channel) and the chat channel (text messages to synchronize de demo). Pitch Booster Topology of the simulator links.