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What is the Air Combat Environment (ACE) ?
ACE traces its roots back to 1997 (then called GATER, for Global Air Tactics Employment Review), when it was originally designed as an academic tool to model U.S. and allied aircraft against an Integrated Air Defense System (IADS). Over the past decade, due in large part to teaming with agencies such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), ACE has grown exponentially. ACE is a mission planning, mission rehearsal, “sweep by sweep” dynamic modeling and simulation tool. It is a user-tailorable application that can be used as for stand-alone simulation, DIS-capable multi-player simulation, and can also provide threat generation and instructor operator station (IOS) capabilities for other existing simulations.
Award Winning Software - Shaped by Combat Aviators - Used by Combat Aviators
ACE has been used by instructors at the USAF's 563d Flying Training Squadron to train undergraduate Electronic Warfare Officers since 2001. In 2005, the 563d began using ACE on the T-43 for in-flight, ‘rangeless’ Electronic Warfare Officer (EWO) training. In fact, ACE was the first and remains the only airborne simulation used by the US Air Force to train its undergraduate Combat Systems Officers! Because ACE has been shaped by EWOs since 2001, it is no surprise that in 2005 and 2008, ACE was named an Air Force Best Practice for in-flight EWO training, and in 2006 won the Association of Old Crows’ Modeling and Simulation Award. Currently, ACE is being used as the EWO training station in the AC-130 Weapons System Trainer, and was recently delivered to the USAF as the foundation for the T-1A Jayhawk's CSO modification program to provide 21 CSO-capable T-1A's to the USAF for the Combat Systems Officer (CSO) Airborne Simulator at NAS Pensacola.
A Worldwide Battlespace
ACE is built upon a mature Geographic Information System (GIS) core. That means your virtual Battlespace is the entire world! That’s important because it means ACE can be used for operational mission rehearsal and not just for a couple of ‘canned’ training scenarios. ACE supports dozens of industry standard raster and vector formats, including NGA standard Compressed Arc Digitized Raster Graphics (CADRG), Compressed Imagery Base (CIB), GeoTiff, Shape (SHP) files, Google Keyhole Markup Language (.kml), and NGA’s Vector Product Format (VPF).
Integration with Existing Mission Planning Systems
ACE works seamlessly with existing mission planning systems, such as the Portable Flight Planning System (PFPS), Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS) and FalconView. Users can import routes / orders of battle into ACE, or create them from scratch in ACE itself. ACE missions are not scripted; actions can be pre-planned or dynamically injected into the scenario in real-time.
Live-Virtual-Constructive Mission Rehearsal and Simulation
In addition to live, in-flight GPS feeds, ACE is also an advanced, stand-alone constructive mission rehearsal simulation. Additionally, ACE includes an UDP-based messaging interface for linking in virtual clients, and is also DIS (Distributed Interactive Simulation, the DMO standard) compatible. A true mission-level simulation, ACE can simulate many-on-many in real-time, including both red and blue aircraft, early warning (EW), height-finding (HF), acquisition (ACQ) and target-tracking (TT) radar, radio communications, surface ships and ground vehicles.
Configurable Parametrically Generated Emitter Audio
ACE provides the user with a toolset for defining their own beam, scan and pulse patterns for each emitter. This pulse-level fidelity enables the generation of emitter audio from the pulses as they're processed by the receiver. Both crystal video and super-heterodyne receivers are modeled within ACE.
Missile Flyouts and Ballistic Flyouts
ACE uses a physics-based aerodynamic model and limited guidance model for missile fly-outs. Missile aerodynamics are derived from weapon thrust, drag, and weight. Weapon thrust is calculated by the motor’s mass flow rate and specific impulse. Drag is calculated by the missile’s drag reference area, coefficient of drag (subsonic and supersonic), speed, and atmospheric conditions at the flight altitude. Missile weight is reduced as propellant is burned. The missile flight profile is based on a four-stage approach that includes a free fall time, booster stage, sustained stage, and glide stage. The guidance model will shape the missile’s flight path to a loft, direct intercept, or dive profile while maintaining the target within the seeker’s gimbal limits in pitch.
ACE also uses a physics-based aerodynamic model for ballistic fly-outs. The ballistic flight path is determined from drag and weight. Drag is calculated by the weapon’s drag reference area, coefficient of drag (subsonic and supersonic), speed, and atmospheric conditions at the flight altitude. The weapon’s pitch is matched to its flight path angle. The ballistic model / equations are flexible enough for bombs, artillery, and bullets.
Want to Know More?
ACE development began in 1996 and is continuously ongoing. Please feel free to contact us if you want to learn more about ACE!