| Network Centric Forces is a comprehensive
network centric warfare simulation package that realistically
models the interrelation of network conditions and the
virtual battlefield to predict battle outcomes. NCF
includes QualNet®, SNT’s simulation engine for predicting
network performance, and VR-Forces®, MÄK’s toolkit for
generating and executing battlefield scenarios — all
the tools a customer needs to get started quickly.
QualNet is high-fidelity simulation software for predicting
network performance. It performs accurate simulation
of network devices, transmitters, antennas, terrestrial
characteristics, and human interactions, all at real
time speed. Because of QualNet’s super-efficient parallel
kernel, it can support high fidelity network models
while still maintaining fast simulation speeds, even
for large-scale networks.
VR-Forces provides an intuitive and easy-to-use GUI
that allows non-programmers to build battlefield simulations
by dragging and dropping entities, drawing lines to
create routes, and assigning tasks and plans with a
mouse click. During scenario execution, VR-Forces entities
send and receive radio communications, interact with
the terrain, follow roads, avoid obstacles, and detect
and engage enemy forces.
Why Use Network Centric Forces?
Network
Centric Forces simulation improves warfighter and commander
training and operational readiness in three ways:
War Gaming
Most war gaming systems assume perfect communications,
meaning that a message sent by entity A to entity B
is assumed to be received instantaneously and with 100%
reliability. Anyone who uses a cell phone knows that's
a myth. By modeling the communications infrastructure,
NCF can show the realistic effects of on-the-move communications
on the battlefield.
Proficiency Training
When you’re on the move, your communications infrastructure
is dynamically changing. NCF allows you to model this
dynamic environment so that signal officers and warfighters
can learn the capabilities of the communications infrastructure
as well as how to handle performance degradations and
system failures. Exposing warfighters to these frustrations
and threats in a virtual context enables development
of strategies to cope with these situations and mitigate
their impact in advance of actual deployment.
Updatating TT&Ps
In network centric warfare, the warfighter is the network.
By simulating a highly realistic communications environment,
NCF gives military planners the detailed information
they need to modify their Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures
(TT&Ps) for network-centric operations. In a network-centric
communications-chain, each entity in the chain of command
assumes new communication-specific TT&Ps in addition
to existing TT&Ps. For instance, once a target has
been spotted by a man on the ground, the commander might
request visual confirmation from an intelligence satellite
or UAV, all within minutes or seconds.
Case
Study
Battle is being waged in VR-Village. Blue Forces and
Red Forces have limited effectiveness because their
radios require line of sight links and the urban environment
limits how much communication gets through. A Blue Force
UAV flies over the streets approaching VR-Village, looking
for a particular Red Force Command and Control vehicle.
The UAV spots the vehicle, and because of behavioral
rules defined in VR-Forces, it relays this information
up the command chain to a helicopter a few miles away.
The helicopter is armed with hellfire missiles and takes
out the Red Force Command and Control vehicle.
With NCF, warfighters and commanders can train to operate
under optimal and suboptimal communication environments
and leverage the power of network-centric systems in
ways previously unimaginable.
Convoy Comms Scenario in VR-Forces |
Convoy Comms Scenario in QualNet |
Data Sheets
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