Carderock Uses High-Fidelity Signature Simulation

In the world of simulations, getting a system to act asclose to authentic as the real-world situations it represents is always themain goal. Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Carderock Division developshigh-fidelity acoustic simulation and training systems, giving naval personnelthe ability to practice combat scenarios virtually.

The Combined Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) andAnti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Trainer, better known as CIAT, made its officialdebut in December 2018 at Naval Base San Diego. In June, Naval Station Norfolkbecame the site for another CIAT installation.

Motions to create this trainer began in 2014, according toRich Loeffler, Carderock’s senior scientific technical manager, director forsignatures, tactical decision aids and training systems (Code 705).

“CIAT is what we refer to as a Combat Systems Team Trainer,”Loeffler said. “Meaning that your goal is to bring in the whole portion of thecrew that would be operating the combat system and train them in a shore sitehow they can best utilize the system when they are at sea.”

Carderock shares CIAT responsibilities with NSWC DahlgrenDivision. Dahlgren is responsible for the overall system integration andmanages the IAMD aspect of the trainer, while Carderock leads the developmentof the acoustic and ASW capabilities. Carderock also has capabilities thatcontribute to the IAMD training. Using the periscope simulation that creates areal-time visual simulation of what one could see through the periscope of asubmarine, Loeffler said they were able to utilize that technology for thesurface ship trainer in the CIAT.

“In this case, they have deck cameras if they want to beable to see when a missile launches from the forward or aft launchers. Webasically provide the visuals for that,” he said.

By modeling the threats and the ocean environment and thenstimulating the actual tactical combat system software, the CIAT system ishighly flexible in the ability to train real-world scenarios. With the manypossibilities of training situations that can be created within the CIAT comesthe need to use multiple sources of knowledge to create effective trainingsituations that will benefit the fleet.

“We’ll work with people like the Office of NavalIntelligence to get threat intelligence data, we’ll work with folks like theNaval Oceanographic Office to get the latest environmental models anddatabases, and then we’ll work with the tactical programs themselves to get thetactical software,” Loeffler said.

“Our role here at Carderock has been to leverage signaturesimulation capabilities we have developed over the years across submarine,surface and surveillance ASW trainers and provide the system design,development, integration and testing support to implement the CIAT requirementto support the fleet’s training needs,” he said.

Before the CIAT existed, the Surface ASW Synthetic Trainer(SAST) was developed by Carderock as an on-board embedded training systemwithin the AN/SQQ-89 A(V)15 Sonar system. Loeffler said beginning in 2008, theywent through a series of large analyses to compare and contrast what thesimulation produced with what operators saw at sea. The data from that testinghelped further develop the SAST and subsequently create the CIAT.

Now, they are able to represent all components of theoperations they run from the physics modeling perspective, such as what soundsare generated and how they propagate through the water, interactions withinterfering objects and sea-state effects on these variables.

“Since we’re acoustically stimulating the actual tacticalsoftware of the sonar system, the users are operating the systems just as theywould at sea,” he said.

Loeffler believes that there is not anything off limits forwhat the CIAT can do, but adapting with new threats will require the rightdevelopment within the trainer to represent the real-world situation. Althoughthe system is relatively new, discussions on the next steps in the developmentof the trainer are already taking place with the help of Center for SurfaceCombat Systems (CSCS) defining and prioritizing fleet training requirements

“CSCS is basically the primary stakeholder that owns the surface-ship training schoolhouses, and they’ve done their requirements review to see what additional capabilities they’d like to see in the next version of CIAT,” Loeffler said. “So, we’re going through that process, assessing those requirements and looking for what would go into the next version to further improve training and also address training of the new combat system capabilities as they are being introduced into the fleet.”

Source: US Navy