Missile Integration for Combat Simulators

As with all engineering endeavors, air combat simulators are benefiting greatly from increased computer prowess. With the latest Silicon Graphics processors, it has become possible to double the number of aircraft and missiles in simulated combat, while even improving the fidelity of their models.

Air combat simulators are piloted flight simulators that engage multiple air­craft and missiles simultaneously. They support all phases of aircraft and missile development. During the definition of requirements, they are used to establish air­craft maneuverability and missile fly-out performance. In the development phase competing designs are evaluated on simulators. Eventually, the airman is trained on them for combat.

Depending on the implementation, we distinguish between dome, workstation, and virtual helmet simulators. At the current state of the art the dome simulators provide the highest situational awareness, but may be replaced by virtual helmets in the future. A poor-man’s choice is the tabletop workstation.

The software that drives the air combat simulators has a long history of devel­opment. The equations of motion of the vehicles are well understood. However, the fidelity of the models is restricted by the limitations of the computer hardware. Although the aircraft are modeled in six degrees of freedom, the missiles in current simulators are simplified point-mass formulations in three degrees of freedom or pseudo-five degrees of freedom.

With the increased reliance of the developer on prototyping by computer, it has become necessary to improve the fidelity of the missile model. Particularly for close-in combat with its highly dynamic environment, the missile should be modeled with six-DoF fidelity, or at least any simplification should be validated against it. Fortunately, the continued increase in computing power will eventually allow full six-DoF representation of aircraft and missile models in air combat simulators.

To shorten the time of the design and evaluation cycles, the simulation models should be adaptable to both activities: execution in batch mode for design and real-time implementation in simulators. The batch simulation is built first, then converted into a real-time capable subroutine, which is embedded into the air combat simulator.

I will first describe standard air combat maneuvers as they affect modeling choices, discuss the effect of missile model fidelity, and describe a typical con­version process from batch simulation to real-time code. Your knowledge of five – and six-DoF simulations and particularly your familiarity with the SRAAM5 and SRAAM6 models will be an asset.