An Enhanced Synthetic Environment for Maritime Surveillance

The Future Forces Synthetic Environments (FFSE) and the Radar and Application Space Technology (RAST) Sections made a joint effort to overcome some limitations associated with the Synthetic Environment (SE) employed during the mission rehearsal, in June 2004, for the Atlantic Littoral Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance Experiment (ALIX). During ALIX experiment, the fidelity of the different vessels was deficient, the realism of the sensors was poor and the accuracy of the generated contact reports was incomplete. The realism and fidelity of the merchant and fishing traffic within the synthetic environment was improved. The realism of the sensors within the synthetic environment was increased. The accuracy of the generated contact reports was improved. This document provides a summary of the achievements of the current task as well as a list of lessons learned and recommendations for organizational and process changes within the FFSE section. Based on the work accomplished in the present task, along with the recommendations, a complete maritime synthetic environment, supporting continuous V&V, for surveillance missions will soon be a reality in the FFSE section. The original document contains color images.