Integration of ASW helicopter operations and environment into NPSNET

Abstract

Despite the increasing emphasis by the military on joint force operations, existing modelling and simulation programs, including NPSNET, fail to address joint operations and crew coordination. The problem is that previous work on NPSNET, the virtual environment and visual simulation platform developed by the Computer Science Department at the Naval PostGraduate School in Monterey, California, has focused primarily on individual ground force elements with little emphasis on naval forces or crew concepts. This restricts the practical use of the system to ground force training while ignoring joint force training with sea and air components and between crew members. One solution to is expand the capability of NPSNET by incorporating a variety of vehicles from different components of the military with the added capability of multiple workstation control of a single vehicle. The approach taken is to expand NPSNET to simulate helicopter Anti-Submarine Warfare. This work focuses on realistic helicopter flight control, multiple workstation control of a single vehicle, and interface design between workstations controlling one vehicle. NPSNET has become a more useful training tool for today's military forces by implementing more realistic helicopter flight controls and adding joint mission capabilities. The significance of this work is that a broad range of forces can receive valuable joint training and crew coordination training conducted in a virtual environment.