Socio-technical Simulation for Denied Environments Training: A Contested Airspace Example
(Room S320E)
27 Nov 18
3:00 PM
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3:30 PM
Today’s warfighters are being trained for information-rich, networked, automated battlespaces. But what happens when information access is disrupted? How can training prepare personnel to win in contested environments with austere access to sensors, navigation and communications? A renewed focus across DoD on near-peer adversaries is highlighting the need to answer these questions by incorporating Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2AD) effects (e.g., datalink jamming, GPS spoofing) into training. Despite continuing improvements in simulations, modeling how people and technology (a “sociotechnical system”) coordinate under nominal and denied conditions requires new approaches. Simulations must, for instance, model the disruptive effects of communications degradations on mission effectiveness. We are exploring an area of relevance across the training community, simulating sociotechnical processes to train today’s forces for denied environments. AFRL, Eduworks Corporation, and the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition are exploring pilot training for contested environments, focusing initially on A2AD effects in denied airspace. We use a Government-owned framework called Brahms to model agents, objects, geography, cultural features and information systems. For interoperability with existing training environments, we employ an AFRL tool for connecting models to simulations using Distributed Interactive Simulation, m2DIS, enabling Brahms models to serve as constructive agent controllers. The testbed includes visual, drag-and-drop scenario generation and automated visualization that extracts patterns and trends from multiple scenario runs under different initial assumptions. We discuss how the Brahms Contested Airspace Simulation Testbed (Brahms-CAST) will enable simulations to incorporate A2AD effects and support experimentation and analysis of contested environments.