Training computer hardware

SUFFOLK, VA. -- One of USJFCOM's Joint Experimentation Directorate's (J9) new capabilities may help change the way warfighters experiment and train in the urban battlefields of the future. J9 developers and engineers are currently testing the Scale Parallel Processor, a multi-million dollar super computer, which the command will use to help combatant commanders experiment and train in urban operations by creating a realistic simulation of the environments in which they conduct future operations. J9 programmers, working with the powerful SPP can model an urban environment, to include representations called "entities" of items such as detailed city streets, buildings, vehicles, aircraft, ocean tides, weather, trees and civilian populations.

According to project engineers, the SPP allows simulations at a scale and level of resolution never before possible. "As we started doing entity-based experiments, we could not scale the experiments to the desired levels with the computer hardware that was available," said Rae Dehncke, from the Institute of Defense Analyses, who is supporting J9's modeling and simulation efforts. "We needed an SPP to increase the number of entities in a given scenario, and to allow higher resolution and higher fidelity in the entities and the synthetic environment.

The SPP increases our computer power so we could model a larger number of urban environments and populate them with thousands of vehicles and civilians we would expect to find in such urban areas. We just could not do that with the existing PC based computer system." During Millennium Challenge 02, programmers could simulate only about 35,000 entities, but utilizing the power of the SPP they can now create over one million, according to Tony Cerri, director of J9's experimentation, engineering support department. Cerri said the SPP enables JFCOM to better represent the real urban environment and that will help combatant commanders better understand some of the problems that occur when fighting on urban terrain.

"We can simulate multi-elevation buildings down to details such as stairs, situations in which soldiers are waiting in ambush and we can represent the urban environment in much greater detail, giving combatant commanders the opportunity to experiment and train on the types of problems he faces in the complex urban battlespace."

"During Operation Iraqi Freedom, our simulations were limited and we could only simulate a couple of city blocks in great detail. Now we can play 'where's Sadaam' in a much more realistic setting," said Cerri. "We can simulate real cities tree by tree and building by building if necessary. Troops could deploy to any nation on earth and we're currently dealing with territory all over the world so that we can more quickly provide simulation support to the warfighters.

"Developers are constantly working to increase the capabilities of the simulations," said Cerri. The simulation federation now running on the SPP can also simulate structures and obstacles which can be found on urban warfighting landscapes such as underground tunnels, roadside explosives, concertina wire, sand bags and metal barriers called "dragon's teeth" to name a few. Cerri said upcoming challenges include accurately mirroring cultural aspects of the population such as going to work and home again at the right times of day.

The "clutter" of civilians moving about the urban environment on foot and in vehicles greatly adds to the realism of the simulation.

"We can also build things in a simulation that don't yet exist in order to test new concepts or new technology. The purpose of our experimentation is to simulate these concepts and new technologies and see if they work," added Cerri. Dr. Bob Lucas, from the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, said the power of the SPP J9 is currently using, a computer about the size of a large filing cabinet, can be compared to having the combined capabilities of 256 top-of-the-line, dual-processor personal computers linked together. During a recent J9 capabilities test, three SPPs, one in J9's Simulation Analysis Center in Suffolk, Va., one in Maui, Hawaii, and one at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio were linked together over the Defense Research Engineering Network to demonstrate the ability of the SPPs and the network to work together to support J9. J9 has been working in cooperation with ISI, the Institute of Defense Analyses and the High Performance Computer Center in Maui, Hawaii, to develop the capabilities of the SPP to potentially support other JFCOM programs such as the Joint National Training Capability.

"Our partnership with ISI allows us to take advantage of the experts in academia in these projects," said Dehncke. "There's no way we could have done this by ourselves and one of ADM (Edmund P.) Giambastiani's goals is to involve industry and academia to help us get these projects off the ground."

"The High Performance Computer Management Program recognized the joint warfighter is doing significant experimentation, so they gave us our own computer. JFCOM was their number one priority thanks to the work we had already done and the advancements we're making here," added Dehncke.

In the future, combatant commanders will be able to network into the SPP-simulated environments through the Distributed Continuous Experimentation Environment and one of the goals of the SPP Project is for the combatant commanders to have easy access to the computer's capabilities.

"From any installation within the United States, we want people to have the ability to link to our events," said Dehncke. "Our goal is to be able to turn on, plug in and use this anywhere across the country, so people won't have to travel continuously to participate in JFCOM events." Development of the prototype began over a year and a half ago, and by October 2002, the development teams were building, testing and growing the capabilities.

Several specialists working with the SPP Project recently attended the Interservice/Industry Training Simulation and Education Conference in Orlando, Fla., and presented papers on the subject. "From the JFCOM perspective, this is a great opportunity to advance the state of the art through modeling and simulation," said Dehncke. "Implementation of the SPP truly is a major step forward and our target of modeling a million entities represents a significant advancement.

"Dehncke said the project has created a lot of interest from people involved with joint experimentation.

"This is cutting-edge stuff and everyone is excited," said Dehncke. "All of the services and representatives from joint commands are eagerly awaiting our demonstration of the SPP operating within the DCEE."

An upcoming joint urban operations experiment will feature the SPP in the computer's first official use with JFCOM. J9 hopes to have the SPP fully implemented and available for use by regional combatant commanders in October 2004.

SGT Cupp is with USJFCOM Public Affairs Office.