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Development of Environmental Models for Surface Radar Training Systems
Navy SBIR 2013.2 - Topic N132-109 NAVSEA - Mr. Dean Putnam - dean.r.putnam@navy.mil Opens: May 24, 2013 - Closes: June 26, 2013 N132-109 TITLE: Development of Environmental Models for Surface Radar Training Systems TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Human Systems ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMS 339, Surface Training Systems Program Office RESTRICTION ON PERFORMANCE BY FOREIGN CITIZENS (i.e., those holding non-U.S. Passports): This topic is "ITAR Restricted". The information and materials provided pursuant to or resulting from this topic are restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120 - 130, which control the export of defense-related material and services, including the export of sensitive technical data. Foreign Citizens may perform work under an award resulting from this topic only if they hold the "Permanent Resident Card", or are designated as "Protected Individuals" as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). If a proposal for this topic contains participation by a foreign citizen who is not in one of the above two categories, the proposal will be rejected. OBJECTIVE: This topic seeks innovation to allow multiple surface ship radar training systems to replicate various radar environmental effects, including geographical and atmospheric conditions, so as to provide accurate and realistic operator training. DESCRIPTION: Radar’s performance is impacted by the environment in which it is being used, including geographic and atmospheric conditions. Existing training systems used to teach radar operators lack the ability to replicate different environmental conditions to support sensor management training and demonstrate radar performance and considerations such as ducting and clutter. Therefore, training objectives, such as managing the radar controls to compensate for environmental conditions, cannot be met using current technology. The inability of operators to properly manage the radar can result in delayed or missed detections of threat targets (such as manned aircraft, cruise missiles, submarine periscopes, and fast attack craft) and operators could detect false threats by misinterpreting radar clutter. To mitigate this risk, radar operators are trained live, in the operational environment. Live training is very costly and of limited effectiveness, as it is impossible to train in all possible environmental conditions. If these skills could be taught during pipeline training, it would eliminate the need for live training, resulting in workload reduction costs. At the same time, the ability to train in a simulated environment will allow for more repetitions and more scenarios for the trainee, which results in better retention and performance. An innovative solution is needed to enable multiple, existing radar-training systems to replicate environmental effects. Some radar simulators have environmental effect models. However, these have been built for radar system development and testing purposes (rather than for implementation in training systems) and are typically only applicable to a single radar system that often uses proprietary software. In addition, many of these systems only have environmental models for one specific aspect, such as weather. These are "stovepipe" simulators, which would not be a viable solution for use in multiple radar training systems. What is needed is a system, which will provide multiple training systems the inputs needed to display various environmental conditions for any geographic location in the operational environment. Existing technology for Submarine training systems uses a parallel concept during sonar training. The All World Environment Simulation (AWESim) can simulate ocean-acoustic phenomena in the Submarine Multi-Mission Team Trainer (SMMTT) (Ref 1). However, it will be more challenging to develop a system for surface ship radar training, as radars have more complex environmental variables, and integration with multiple training systems will be more challenging than integration in SMMTT. Radar operators need to be trained on many types of surface radars: AN/SPY-1 (B/B(V)/D/D(V)), AN/SPQ-9B, AN/SPS-67 and AN/SPS-73. All of these training systems need to be able to demonstrate environmental effects to support effective training. It will take an innovative solution to create a system that will be flexible enough to be used in differing training systems and will also have high fidelity to meet training objectives. The Navy is seeking environmental models and algorithms to determine how clutter should be modeled and integrated into the solution. The proposed system should use an open-source, open-architecture computing environment so that it can be integrated with various training systems and provide common services and operating environments. The solution should allow the training system to input the desired environment based on geographical location and season, and the system should return the appropriate seasonal environmental conditions to the training system such as topography, land radar reflectivity, predicted atmospheric conditions, sandstorms, and sea states. Radar environmental modeling has been investigated and several models exist which could be applied in an innovative way to develop a solution. These models include, but are not limited to, Billingsley and Larrabee’s database of land clutter at low angles (Refs 2-4), Littoral Clutter Model (LCM) (Ref 5), Sea Clutter Models (Ref 6), and Weibull distribution. In addition, weather and geographic data using such as Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) and historic weather data must be included. The Navy is seeking innovation to create a scalable system to interface with existing (and future) training systems, which will model the environmental effects of a chosen location and season to demonstrate impacts to radar performance. PHASE I: The company will develop concepts for environmental models that can function with various radar-training systems based on an input of geographic location and season. The company will demonstrate the feasibility of the concept in meeting Navy training needs and will show that the concept can be feasibly developed into a useful for Navy. The company will provide system architectures, implementation approaches for achieving training goals, and an analysis of predicted performance. The company will provide a Phase II development plan that addresses technical risk reduction and provides performance goals and key technical milestones. PHASE II: Based on the results of Phase I and the Phase II development plan, the company will develop a prototype environmental model to be integrated with the Open Architecture Simulation System (OASIS) system for evaluation at the Center for Surface Combat Systems (CSCS). OASIS is one of the systems used to train Radar operators. The prototype will be evaluated to determine its ability to meet the performance goals defined in the Phase II development plan, including the ability for the system to generate the training system’s radar output with the input of a chosen geographic location. Evaluation results will be used to refine the prototype into an initial design to meet Navy training requirements. The company will prepare a Phase III development plan to transition the technology to Navy use. PHASE III: The company will be expected to support the Navy in transitioning the technology for schoolhouse use. The company will develop the full training module to be implemented at CSCS in multiple radar training systems including OASIS, AEGIS Simulation Test and Training System (ASATS), Synthetic Combat Operating Trainer (SCOT), and Next Generation Simulator (NGS). The company will support the Navy and CSCS for test and validation to certify the system for use and ensure that it meets training objectives. PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The potential for dual use of an open architecture system that has models to create environmental conditions has many applications that can be used with various radars. This includes potential use in other DOD radar training systems. Radar training is done by the naval aviation community and by other DOD branches such as the Coast Guard, Army, and Marine Corps. In addition, commercial industry has radar-training devices that could use this technology. The algorithms could also be used for various radar system requirement analysis, system development, and testing. It has the potential to save radar developers expense by using a software-based environmental simulator instead of performing testing in a live environment, which is cost prohibitive. REFERENCES: 2. Billingsley, J. B., and J. F. Larrabee. "Multifrequency Measurements of Radar Ground Clutter at 42 Sites," MIT Lincoln Laboratory Technical Report 916, Volume 1, November 15, 1991. <http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a246711.pdf> 3. Billingsley, J. B., "Ground Clutter Measurements for Surface-Sited Radar." MIT Lincoln Laboratory Technical Report 786, Revision 1, February 1, 1993. <http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a262472.pdf> 4. Billingsley, J. B., "A Handbook of Multifrequency Land Clutter Coefficients for Surface Radar." MIT Lincoln Laboratory Technical Report 958, 1 August 1995. <http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a297680.pdf> 5. LeFurjah, George, Donald de Forest Boyer, and Terry Foreman. "Comparison of a Trans-Horizon Littoral Clutter Model with Shipboard Radar Data." Radar Conference Paper, IEEE International, May 2005. <http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA503655&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf> 6. Gregers-Hansen, Vilhelm and Rashmi Mital. "An Improved Empirical Model for Radar Sea Clutter Reflectivity." Report number NRL/MR/5310—12-9346, 27 April, 2012. <http://torpedo.nrl.navy.mil/tu/ps/pdf/pdf_loader?dsn=14019175> KEYWORDS: radar simulator; radar training systems; radar environmental modeling; radar atmospheric effects; radar clutter; submarine attack center team trainers
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