Part 2: Seeing is Believing – System Perspectives

This is a second in a series of articles on developments in the visual display market for military training audiences. We initially gleaned insights in this technology sector with overviews of activities in the projector space. We’re elevating our market overview in this piece to the system level.

A few trends, opportunities and challenges are evident after gaining insights from two, randomly-selected leaders in this industry segment.

The technology foundation of system-level products is quickly advancing. While a hefty amount of media and marketing content focuses on visual display systems supporting the military aviation community, these products are not the exclusive purview of their enterprises. As we’ll read later, individual operators and crews in adjacent domains are also stepping up their requirements for simulator-based training – driving the demand for higher-fidelity visual systems. Of no surprise we’ll see a continued “cross pollination” of these simulation technologies, where the suppliers of visual displays are also meeting the requirements of adjacent high-risk training industries.

The author, available at marty.kauchak@halldale.com, looks forward to gaining your insights on new products, programs and technologies being brough to bear for follow-on articles in this series.

Meeting Requirements from Diverse Communities

3D Perception (3DP) is one company providing system-level solutions to an expanding list of end users.

Knut Krogstad, the company’s founder and CEO, noted 3DP is on contract for, and has delivered, visualization solutions for different sectors including aviation and maritime. One common customer requirement 3DP has received and responded to from these different customers is the need for higher image resolution and faster framerates to push training devices as close to reality as possible. The corporate leader added, “It is now possible to provide eye-limiting resolution over a wide field of view, enabling users to more accurately ‘train as they fight’ with less considerations to simulator limitations, which is also an important aspect when developing training objectives and courseware. Higher framerates are also crucial to ensure sharpness in fast-moving images and reduce visual system latency.”

Circling back to 3DP’s expanding portfolio, the company’s maritime business received a boost this past December when it was tapped by ASI to deliver its Cetus line of maritime visual display systems for the US  Navy’s Navigation, Seamanship, and Shiphandling Trainer (NSST) program.

Of equal significance, the sea service continues to invest in NSST for its globally deployed and stationed crews. One recent development that gained our attention was the opening of a new NSST facility in Yokuska, Japan in January 2024 -- strengthening the Navy’s commitment to train its surface operators anytime, anywhere with high-fidelity simulation – even as they are forward-deployed or homeported overseas. Enter 3DP and its visual system to support prime contactor ASI.

On the topic of cross pollination of content between high-risk training communities, 3DP’s CEO also pointed out his Cetus display systems have also been used in a number of commercial maritime applications, including ship navigation. “These systems provide high-resolution, wide field of view displays optimized for the unique challenges of maritime operations,” he recalled and added, “As an example, 3DP recently delivered a Cetus dome display to a commercial astro navigation training system in the Philippines.”

Delving a bit deeper into the visual display technology linkages and differences between the adjacent maritime sectors, Krogstad pointed out the military and commercial maritime training systems share many common visual display requirements, especially on the ship navigation side. “Both sectors focus on wide field-of-view to accommodate multiple crew members viewing the display. However, military training places a stronger emphasis on realistic night scenarios to ensure navigation without relying on electronic navigation tools like radar and GPS. As a result of this, the fidelity requirements in military training devices are higher.”

Beyond Maritime Training

Leaving the maritime domain, 3DP is also seeing multiple new opportunities for its Draco  high-performance mini-domes, primarily in fast-jet training applications. One overview of the Draco product line gained from the company’s website noted these systems are innovative, high-fidelity reconfigurable fast jet simulator dome displays designed for rapid deployment and installation. “These compact visual systems offer enhanced pilot immersion with dynamic eye point adjustments and motorized height settings, accommodating various cockpit configurations,” the resource added.

This segment of 3DP’s preconfigured Northstar simulation display systems portfolio also includes: Atlas fixed-wing simulator dome displays; Titan fast-jet full dome simulator displays; and Lyra helicopter simulator dome displays.

Within the aviation domain, Mark Saturno, President of TREALITY SVS, told MS&T his company’s displays currently support a wide variety of fixed-wing, rotary, fighter and trainer aircraft training devices in more than 20 countries around the world. And then there is the expanding roster of supported weapons platforms, with most recent deployments including devices for F-16, F-15, KF-X, Typhoon, MH/UH-60, CH-47, M-345/346, Jaguar, C-130, MiG-29 and H-139 among others.

The corporate leader emphasized that while TREALITY is currently focused on flight training displays, his company has a long history with visual systems that includes supporting maritime, ground vehicle/driver, and air traffic control training. “We do still support such programs.”

The industry executive also shared some of the end-user requirements he is observing in this fast-moving sector. At the overarching-level, training requirements across aircraft platforms continue to leverage the latest developments in projector technology, image generation and databases, as well as computer processing power. Further, fast-jet training devices are pressing for 360-degree FOV capability with ever-increasing resolution requirements. “The industry benchmark for resolution has long been 4 arc minutes per optical line pair (AM/OLP). However, end-users are now defining objective requirements for near eye-limiting resolution, or 2 AM/OLP. TREALITY’s rear-projection domes can now achieve this requirement,” he noted and significantly added, fixed-wing and rotary aircraft now require a wider FOV in collimated visual systems requiring solid glass mirror displays, which only a few visual display system vendors have fielded successfully. Of additional importance, the TREALITY SVS leader

said that in both cases, military customers often require stringent night vision device capabilities as well. “Balancing and integrating FOV, visual resolution and contrast requirements are perhaps the greatest challenges with delivering a fully compliant VDS.”

Another state-of-the-art view of this technology space is included in a TREALITY SVS product survey provided by Saturno:

• TREALITY’s Rear Projection displays (the RP-X and RP-360c) “are optimized for fast-jet training, delivering the best resolution available today. We recently delivered an RP-360c (contiguous, spherical) display with 3 AM/OLP capability, setting a new operational standard. The RP-X is becoming an industry standard by delivering superior visual performance while optimizing physical footprint constraints and total cost of ownership,” he explained;
• TREALITY’s Collimated Display-Glass (CDG) was reported to “deliver superior visual performance for fixed-wing and rotary aircraft training devices. TREALITY’s substantial investment in glass mirror design and production results in segments with exceptionally low breakage (less than 1%), no degradation in mirror coating over time, consistent mirror parameters across segments, and reduced installation time;”
• TREALITY’s Small Environment Enhanced Reality (SEER) direct projection displays offer modularity and scalability to support a wide range of training objectives, aircraft platforms, and physical space constraints. The corporate leader pointed out that “Ranging from 3 to 15 projectors (channels) and up to 360-degree FOV, SEER offers great value for the price;” and
• TREALITY’s Transportable Display (TD) which Saturno said “is an outstanding, mobile and cost-effective solution for any single eye-point cockpit, to include fighter, trainer or even business-jet training.” TDs provide a 220 x 95-degree FOV, support NVG training, and can be networked for multi-ship training or mission rehearsal. TDs can also fit in a container for mobile/deployable training.

The Relevance of Domes in Platform Training

MS&T offered Saturno our observation of the increased efforts to provide XR-enabled, lighter and portable training devices for aspiring pilots. Against this burgeoning trend, the company leader was asked to tell us about the current and anticipated relevance of dome systems for training in high-risk communities - aviation, transportation and others. The industry veteran first noted, advancements in mixed reality training devices afford end-users an excellent capability to satisfy several training objectives, particularly with entry-level pilot training or part-task training. They are a solid compliment to full flight simulators (FFS). He continued, “However, for advanced training objectives, long-term pilot proficiency, and/or mission rehearsal, dome-based FFSs provide the optimal return on investment to address: more comprehensive training objectives; the rising costs of live flying hours; the need to train pilots faster (to meet supply shortfalls); and the increasing restrictions and availability of live training airspace.”

One System Building Block

Below system-level offerings, 3DP is fully integrating the camera-free WarpSync auto calibration technology into the Norxe family of projectors, significantly streamlining the display system architecture.

Market Forecast

Diverse, converging factors will continue to create an insatiable demand for quality, affordable visual display systems to be part of future training enterprise programs.

In one instance, the military and adjacent high-risk communities remain challenging places in which individuals and teams must safely operate  -- establishing the imperative for nothing less than well-trained workforces throughout an enterprise.

At the same time, defense departments are fielding ever-more capable weapons platforms  placing the onus on military-industry teams to provide the highest levels of quality training for operators, units and staffs.

And then there are life-cycle issues. In one case, 3DP is observing a large need in both the commercial and military sectors for upgrading old visual display systems with lamp-based projection to new solid-state light source projection, due to the upcoming ban on mercury in projection lamps. The 3DP team added, the EU and UK will fully ban the manufacture and sale of products containing mercury, including lamp-based projectors and replacement lamps, starting 1 January 2026 (EU law, entitled “2023/2049, amending 2017/852”). EU Regulation to KILL Lamp Projectors for Mercury Hazards.) “Therefore, 2025 will be a busy year with numerous opportunities for us in both the upgrade and new simulator installation markets across all applications,” CEO Krogstad concluded.