Aptima's Software Supports USN's Distributed, Multi-Simulator Training

As net-centric warfare changes the nature of air and combat operations, the U.S. Navy is modernizing its aviation training, combining its various simulators into a unified platform to better replicate these complex missions. To improve the training value of these networked exercises, the R & D company Aptima is providing the Navy with software that will measure the performance of warfighters training on these distributed simulators, providing the feedback to improve their individual and team mission skills.

“Linking together various simulators to represent the various aircraft involved in a joint mission, such as F-18s and helicopters, provides a much more realistic, life-like training scenario for today’s exercises,” said Michael Paley, Executive Vice President of Aptima. “Given this environment, you still need a way to measure the performance of pilots, air controllers, and commanders involved in that training exercise, so you can help shape their skills. This goes to the heart of the Navy’s ‘train as you fight’ doctrine.”

To support that goal, Aptima is adapting the PM Engine, part of its A-Measure performance measurement software suite, for the “Navy Aviation Simulation Master Plan” (NASMP), the technical and interoperability blueprint for the simulation network. PM Engine is software that plugs into various simulators to track individual and team performance across live, simulated, and constructive (agent-based) training exercises. Where simulators often don’t include built-in, real-time measuring tools, limiting their training value, PM Engine extracts and calculates the human performance measures, interpreting and transforming raw, code-level information into valuable feedback.

That performance information is essential for helping trainees (and their instructors) develop critical mission skills. It also supports NASMP’s goal of leveraging its simulation assets into a cost-effective and efficient distributed training platform.

Through a contract with Tybrin Corporation, Aptima will deliver PM Engine to the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). The NASMP-compliant PM Engine will be first utilized in a parallel effort, in which Aptima will develop and implement performance measures for the P-8 Multimission Maritime Aircraft.

FMI: www.aptima.com