SBIR-STTR Award

The Department of Defense (DoD) Test and Evaluation (T&E) Process is a disciplined iterative process. Live tests are valuable in the T&E process, but are hampered by safety, cost and reconfigurability restrictions. The team of FAAC Incorporated and Amherst Systems proposes to develop a fully Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) compliant threat simulation/SAFOR prototype that incorporates a quantifiable, repeatable process to validate its performance for T&E applications. The prototype will include an interface with an RF or IR stimulator. The team proposes to develop and demonstrate a prototype simulation and validation process within the context of a T&E experiment. Phase I will include selection of an existing threat model for re-use, selection of a T&E experiment in consultation with program sponsors, development of T&E requirements for the experiment, development of concepts for the validation process, and development of a work plan for the actual experiment to be conduced in Phase II. By drawing on the team's extensive simulation and validation background and reusing proven components, project resources can be directed primarily towards the unique problem of establishing a standard process to validate performance parameters and tactics/doctrine of the threat models, which will be re-usable by many agencies in all services.

Keywords:
VALIDATION SIMULATION STIMULATION DIS SAFOR THREAT T&E REALTIME

The Army's Threat Simulator l4 Management Office (TSMO), and the Department of Defense as a whole, has the responsibility of testing -Electronic Warfare (EW) equipment built for potential use in a battlefield environment. Development costs associated with building specialized threat emitter surrogates to thoroughly test new battlefield systems often exceed available resources. The alternative to be demonstrated in Phase II is a hybrid threat simulator composed of reprogrammable software and hardware and capable of duplicating the threat EW environment at much lower cost and with greater flexibility. Phase II testing of the hybrid system will be in direct comparison, i.e., measured EW signatures, with an existing, custom-built threat emulator to validate the capabilities of the hybrid system. In addition, the hybrid system will be integrated into a network of TSMO threat simulators in order to demonstrate interoperation and coordinated tactical behavior. The benefit to TSMO and other government agencies responsible for conducting EW system testing is a much lower cost to build complex -EW test environments and the ability to