Inget hemmabygge dir

[Andreas]

Mer ögongodis...




Lite avundsjuk är jag nog!

[Swede]

Verkligen... verkligen fina bilder.
Det roliga är ju att det börjar hända en del saker med grafiken i dessa simulatorer också.... samt att de börjar kunna tillämpa vanliga PC maskiner.

[Mupp]

Andreas (Söderhamns-Andreas alltså), vad är det för helikopter? Finns det modernare varianter av OH-6, eller är det en civil variant? För visst fan är det nån form av Hughes 369/500/nånting?

Jag vill ha en helikoptersim...

[Andreas]

Finns det flera av mig här Mupp? :D

Det är iaf en simulator för AH/MH-6-modellerna.

The Army will get a simulator for the AH/MH-6 helicopter.
By Chris Renninger

A proposed program that had been on and off the Armyââ,¬â,,¢s radar since 1995 finally got the green light in March, as CAE of Canada signed a contract with the Army as prime contractor for the Special Operations Forces Aviation Training and Rehearsal Systems (ASTARS). Itââ,¬â,,¢s initial order: Design the worldââ,¬â,,¢s first AH/MH-6 ââ,¬Å"Little Birdââ,¬Â Light Assault/Attack Reconfigurable (LASAR) Combat Mission Simulator (CMS) to train aircrews for both helicopters.

The simulator is expected to be similar to one CAE constructed for the EH101 Merlin, an Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) helicopter. The Merlin was jointly developed by Great Britain and Italy and first flew in 1987.

The initial value of the contract is $50 million Canadian, about $32 million U.S.

The Armyââ,¬â,,¢s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), the elite regiment known as the ââ,¬Å"Night Stalkers,ââ,¬Â will use the simulator. The contract runs for 26 months, and projections are for installation of one simulator at Fort Campbell, KY in April 2004, with release to the Army two months later, in June.

The Army Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM) made the award under its Omnibus Contract, which pre-qualifies prime contractors to pursue task orders issued under the existing contracting vehicle.

The systems and training devices developed by CAE will interface with existing mission preview and planning systems and after-action review training systems.

The AH/MH-6 simulator will provide aircrew training and mission rehearsal capabilities to the 160th for a range of missions, including close-air support (CAS), resupply in hostile areas, and personnel recovery.

160th History

The 160th came into enough public prominence in the movie ââ,¬Å"Black Hawk Down,ââ,¬Â to blow its cover. An elite unit that functions in the black, the Night Stalkersââ,¬â,,¢ personnel are handpicked. The regiment takes its marching orders from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The 160th can deploy on four hours notice from three locations, including Fort Campbell. It may have smaller units anywhere in the world.

All elite groups have a motto: the Night Stalkersââ,¬â,,¢ is ââ,¬Å"Death Waits in the Dark.ââ,¬Â

The regiment supplies its specialized missionââ,¬â€infiltration, extraction, aerial close combat and medical supportââ,¬â€to Special Operations teams.

To become a member of the 160th requires intense training.

To be considered as an aviator, a pilot must have logged 1000 flight hours, including 100 with night vision goggles (NVG). A realistic assessment of a candidateââ,¬â,,¢s sense of the mission will send many back to lower pressure flying.

If accepted, a prospective aviator or flight crew member will then pass through a short but rigorous basic training; combat lifesaving; marksmanship; hand-to-hand combat; mission qualification; survival, escape, resistance and evasion; and various airborne and air assault courses.

An officer qualification course lasts 20 to 28 weeks.

Over timeââ,¬â€up to five yearsââ,¬â€a pilot may progress to Fully Mission Qualified and Flight Leader. The regiment flies MH/AH-6 Little Birds, the MH-60 Black Hawk and the MH-47 Chinook.

The original Army special aviation unit, Task Force 160, was formed after the failed hostage rescue mission planning and execution in April of 1980 to free 53 Americans held captive in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran for 14 months.

Some 3,000 Irani radicals who wanted the exiled Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi returned for trial, had taken them.

Despite the heroic actions of the Armyââ,¬â,,¢s Delta Force, a rather disparate multi-service group of officers coupled with some uncooperative, unanticipated weather, created a catastrophic series of events, and an aborted mission.

Five Air Force and three Marine officers were killed; there were multiple injuries among the fighters as well as the loss of eight aircraft.

A Pentagon Commission found the chances of success would have been greater or improved if a rehearsal of all mission components had been held.

What came out of the commission findings was a kind of prototype that became the Special Operations Command in 1986.

But almost immediately after the Iran debacle, the Army had taken its best aviators and trained them intensively for secret low-level, night operations. Designated the 160th Aviation battalion, they quickly became known as Task Force 160, largely because they were often on deployment.

In May 1990, reorganization resulted in a new designation, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) with assignment to the Army Special Operations Command.

Today the 160th is based at Fort Campbell., with four active duty battalions and one forward deployed company. The 1/160 is the only battalion that flies the Little Bird.

The AH/MH-6, the attack variant, is an offshoot of the very popular OH-6A Cayuse, an observation and cavalry platform used extensively during Vietnam. In addition to two miniguns firing 7.62mm ammo at 2000 or 4000 rounds a minute, an AH-6 can carry an M261 seven-tube rocket launcher, or an AGM-114 Hellfire semi-active guided missile.

The MH-6 has been modified to carry up to six combat troops and their equipment, and is the aircraft of choice for infiltrations, exfiltrations and combat assaults. It can also be used for command and control (C2) and reconnaissance missions.

Either aircraft can be deployed. A C-141 can transport six Little Birds, and a C-130 can transport three. Each can offload, build up and depart within 15 minutes of landing.

What took so long?

Major Michael Newell is project director for Army Special Operations Simulations System (Army STS), within STRICOM.

ââ,¬Å"Thisââ,¬â€the Little Bird simulatorââ,¬â€is not a new requirement. The Operations Requirement Document (ORD) was approved, briefed and signed in 1995,ââ,¬Â Newell said recently. Early on, the simulator seemed an extravagant expense and funding was pushed up and then pulled back several times.

It languished quietly until an executive summary of the modeling and simulation (M&S) needs of the 160th, published Sept. 19, 2001 by the Modeling and Simulation Information Analysis Center (MSIAC), clearly placed M&S as a high priority item for the elite regiment.

CW4 Larry Grice, the officer in charge of Special Operations Aviation Simulations and Mission Rehearsal Facility, listed as an important need a single repository of databases for Joint rehearsals and trainingââ,¬â€ and then in bold faced type, added, ââ,¬Å"top priority,ââ,¬Â His second request was for a simulator for the AH/MH-6.

The 160th was asking for a simulator along side those already in place for both the MH-47E and MH-60K: full-motion, high fidelity visual training devices that replicated the full functionality of each aircraft.

The regiment was particularly keen on the use of a Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control mission rehearsal system, the Tactical Operational Scene (TOPSCENE) system. Lockheed partnered with CAE in bidding for the AH/MH-6 LASAR CMR .

According to Lockheed, TOPSCENE can utilize overhead image data from satellites and other sources, converting two-dimensional images into three-dimensional ââ,¬Å"walk throughââ,¬Â or ââ,¬Å"fly throughââ,¬Â battlefield visualization simulation scenarios.

TOPSCENE can create a database from images in about two hours, making it possible to train on actual terrain in near-real time. It is also compatible (interoperable) with a number of other databases. Pilots draw from one source rather than three for training, preview and rehearsal.

Grice noted that TOPSCENE current capabilities include a tactical package that depicts threat, friendly and neutral order-of-battle (OOB) information; realistic weather and lightening effects; improved sensor depictions; interoperability with the Portable Flight Planning Software (PFPS); and connectivity through High Level Architecture (HLA).

In addition, aircrew preparation is enhanced by the embedded ability to stop, scale, slew and rotate an image, allowing in-depth study and simulated flight of a mission many times before entering a hostile environment.

Newell said that over time an exacting portrayal of more difficult geographical areasââ,¬â€specifically a MOUT (military operations in urban terrain) environmentââ,¬â€became a reality.

ââ,¬Å"Itââ,¬â,,¢s far more complicated that a mountain here, a hill there. You start building up a city, a block of buildings with alleys in betweenââ,¬â€you can see the size of the database you would need to be able to portray that realistically.ââ,¬Â

ââ,¬Å"Now we can expand the databases for the image generators. If youââ,¬â,,¢ve seen simulators today, the fidelity is incredible (in the air) with clouds, storms, blowing snow, your landing lights or another planeââ,¬â,,¢s,ââ,¬Â Newell said. ââ,¬Å"It is less and less cartoonish and more and more realistic.ââ,¬Â

Where an airline simulator uses three channels to produce its pictures, the Little Bird simulator will run on nine.

ââ,¬Å"The block upgrades will add channels and field of view,ââ,¬Â Newell said. ââ,¬Å"Itââ,¬â,,¢s now designed to be a 270 degrees horizontal and 70 degrees vertical field of view, along with a ââ,¬Ëœlook downââ,¬â,,¢ capability. ââ,¬Å"You should be able to look out the side and see the skid and put the skid on the edge of a building.

Thatââ,¬â,,¢s why the LASAR CMS contains block upgrades to add additional channels and more field of view.

Another Little Bird extreme occurs because the helicopter is flown with its doors off. A pilot using night vision goggles with the outside image simulatedââ,¬â€œactually piped through two tubesââ,¬â€must wear a head tracker. ââ,¬Å"If the pilot leans out of the helicopter, he sees his eye point, and he could see, for example, a skid that blocks other parts of his visionââ,¬â€what they call the masking of a frame,ââ,¬Â Newell said.

ââ,¬Å"This is engineering and rocket science, Iââ,¬â,,¢ll tell you,ââ,¬Â he added.

The new simulator will be for the ââ,¬Å"Mââ,¬Â version of the H-6, requiring the incorporation of a different cockpit configuration, and different avionics. This will be a full combat mission simulator, with every mission the 160th will have to do, as close to the realism as possible,ââ,¬Â he added.

Newell is a helicopter pilot himself, and has been around simulators long enough to know the early ones were bulky, expensive and something less than realistic.

He remembered older computers with six-foot cabinets that are now ââ,¬Å"one-tenth the size and twice as fast. And the image generators have gone from a factor of ten to a factor of 100 in terms of what they can display, ingest and present.ââ,¬Â

Because the Little Bird was, by comparison to others, small, cheaper to buy and cheaper to fly, and because of the cost and complexity of simulation, the decision was made to do all the actual training in the air. ââ,¬Å"Fortunately, Newell noted, ââ,¬Å"we had plenty (of Little Birds) to use.ââ,¬Â

Now it has become largely a case of the simulation technology catching up with the needs of the mission. ââ,¬Å"You get a computer that can do it, and a database capability to do it, and now you design a trainer. Thatââ,¬â,,¢s where we are.

ââ,¬Å"The Little Bird challenge,ââ,¬Â Newell admitted, ââ,¬Å"may be the ultimate.ââ,¬Â

[Mupp]

Mysigt! Jo det finns en Luleå-Andreas åtminstone, men han vill vara anonym. Det är inte Andreas i filmen som skrivit brevet.

Jag skulle vilja se det här med titta ut och ner på skidan, det lät lite skojsigt.

Det skulle vara väldigt kul att se en lite mer distribuerad sim för vanligt folk, antingen open source eller att nån av dom kommersiella blir lite mer modulär. Jag drömmer om att få fart på ett sånt projekt nån gång. Det är lite på tiden, och det skulle vara väldigt intressant.