DSTO Army personnel test the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter in the Synthetic Environment Research Facility. Photo provided by DSTO

Get your simulation here

By Cpl Jonathan Garland
Technology Reporter

SIMULATORS are becoming a crucial part of any military acquisition program and the scientists at DSTO in Edinburgh are working on a system that provides a digital environment for these trainers.

The Synthetic Environment Research Facility (SERF) aims to create a digital world in which military platforms can interact with enemy and each other.

Mission Head – Capability Development Systems Jonathan Vaughan said the SERF differed from the Black Hawk simulator at Oakey and the simulator capability component of the AIR87 project.

“Those simulators will have an interface that allows them to interact with ours but they are different to our beast – they are procedural training simulators,” he said.

“They actually replicate switches, buttons and screens to teach pilots to fly the helicopter, whereas we’re concentrating on the mission simulation aspect.”

The simulator consists of a bank of computers that, through projectors, put an image onto three screens in front of a mock-up of the operator module.

High-end PCs power the system, accelerated graphics cards generate the images and digital projectors put out the image – there’s very little hardware in the system you couldn’t buy from an electronics shop.

The mission platform currently being used is the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) but there has been talk of introducing others, such as the ASLAV, into the synthetic environment.

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