Defence

Defence Science and Technology Organisation

Transforming and training for networked air operations

Colin Martin
Chief Air Operations Division

DSTO's Air Operations Division (AOD) has major S&T capabilities directed towards the future challenge of Transforming and Training for Networked ADF Operations.

AOD provides advice and analysis for defence capability planning, system acquisition, tactics development, operations support and problem solving within a highly networked environment.

This advice may be required at extremely short notice as particular defence capability or operational issues arise. AOD works with other divisions to integrate high quality S&T advice and has a responsibility to ensure that air operational needs are widely disseminated throughout DSTO.

Major Science and Technology Capabilities in AOD

To provide the appropriate S&T Capability, AOD has focused on four key science and technology areas which relate to the use of aerospace systems. These areas have been identified as critical to the current and future needs of aerospace environment within the ADF.

The four areas are:

• Air Operations Research
• Airborne Mission Systems
• Aircrew Human Factors and Training
• Aerospace Simulation and Systems Experimentation.

AOD's investment in these four key areas provides outcomes for Defence Aerospace in the following ways:

Capability Development

• advice for use in strategic policy and planning, and force structure and capability analysis decision making (reword)
• technical advice for use in capability specification and tender evaluation
• advice on technical risk for use in project development and acquisition
• testing, analysis and interpretation support for test and evaluation covering system development, system qualification and operations

Technology

• software and hardware design solutions for integration into military systems
• technical information and advice to aid comprehension of the implications of future technology and in particular advice on technical risk

In-Service Support

• advice for use in decisions on tactics development, training and logistics
• technical advice for in-service problem solving

A major new element of AOD's program is the development of an Aerospace Battlelab Framework as part of SSL's Battlelab initiative. This framework comprises a range of software and hardware infrastructures linked where necessary through distributed simulation. The framework will enable the RAAF to explore air operations in a future networked environment and to develop appropriate training regimes.

Depiction of the Networked Air Force in 2015.

The nature of warfare is constantly changing, driven by international politics, but also by rapid technological developments. In the air environment particularly, the technical capability of weapon systems and their performance strongly defines the type and nature of operations that can be undertaken. In the next ten years, the Australian Defence Force will introduce aircraft with complex integrated systems for sensing, electronic-protection, weapons delivery and networking -- heralding an era of complex networked operations.

In chronological order, these will be the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter, the Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft, the Multi-role Hornet Upgrade Aircraft, the Seasprite Surface Surveillance and Response Helicopter, the Air to Air Refueller, the Unmanned High Altitude Surveillance Aircraft, the Medium Lift Helicopter, the Joint Strike Fighter and the Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft and the Sea Hawk Multi Mission Helicopter. In some of these cases the ADF will be the first service to experience and evaluate the demands placed on pilot and operators and the first to establish training curricula and infrastructure.

Although automation, on-board processing and advanced colour displays, including helmet-mounted systems, promise to improve operator performance, the multiplicity of sensors, weapons and external communications threaten to overburden the pilot and operators. "Single crew" operations in the Multi- Role Hornet Upgrade Aircraft, and in the JSF, and the "two-crew" operations in Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter and Seasprite will be particularly demanding. Furthermore, the nature of modern warfare, including greater precision and lethality, raises the bar on accurate and timely target identification and hence the need to link broader operational infrastructure to weapon platforms to achieve mission objectives.

All these developments will place a commensurate need for the development of technologies such as simulation models and synthetic environments for team training, and for creating team trust in information and decision makers.

AOD is evolving a program of work whose objective is to enable us to understand and identify the dimensions of this challenge. Firstly, operations analysis and system experimentation are being used to evaluate the capability of networked airborne systems and to assist in the development of CONOPS and tactics. Secondly, cognitive work analysis is a major tool that will enable us to describe system functionality and to identify the roles and functions of the operators. Thirdly, human factors research and expertise are being used to determine the performance, and, in some cases, safety limitations of the total system leading to the development of individual and team competency requirements.

Examples of Battlelab Activities required to understand and train for networked operations.

These elements are being brought together under the modeling, simulation and analysis environment named the Aerospace Battlelab Framework (ABF). The ABF is a prototype for the Air Forces Aerospace Synthetic Environment, which aims to link with real world systems to provide a range of functions ranging from system experimentation, tactics and CONOPS development through to team training and readiness management.

The Air Synthetic Environment should provide the air component of a joint synthetic environment and in turn contribute to the Joint Combined Training Capability, which is a high-level Government initiative incorporating constructive, synthetic and live entities.

Models of military systems and synthetic environments are currently being developed for many of the applications named above to meet particular needs. Synthetic environments are already being linked, to each other and to real assets demonstrating the feasibility and utility of this approach. The planning and management challenge is to develop interface protocols where real and synthetic environments need to be connected, and to coordinate models and data to minimize duplication of effort.

In summary, the operator of future military systems will be required to conduct a much wider range of cognitive and command tasks and to interact with a network of other operators. Synthetic environments linked together or with real systems will be essential, firstly to understand the pilot/operator challenges and limitations, and secondly to provide operators with the necessary training to reach the levels of both individual and team competencies demanded. AOD is working in close cooperation with the RAAF to evolve these new synthetic systems.

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