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* Home > Defence  > Solutions for Defence > Through Life Capability Assurance > TLCA Case Studies > Baseline Capability *
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TLCA Case Studies

Joint Situation Awareness Experiment - Baseline Capability Case Study

The problem
QinetiQ was tasked by MoD to conduct an experiment into Joint Situation Experiment (JSE) to establish the quality of the Recognised Air Picture (RAP) produced by Anti-Air Warfare (AAW) elements of all three armed services under operational conditions. The evaluation was conducted during a recent live training exercise. The requirements were to:

  • Evaluate network and own platform air pictures against the truth.
  • Investigate how specific platform data impacted the overall network.
  • Highlight reliability and equipment capability issues.
  • Investigate specific customer and stakeholder platform related questions.
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Joint Situation Experiment The Solution
For this trial, it was necessary to objectively measure the picture held by: a Royal Air Force E-3D aircraft, a Royal Navy AAW Type 42 Destroyer, and an Army Ground Based Air Defence (GBAD) unit. Once individual pictures had been measured, a comparison was made between the information held by each unit. A trials plan was agreed with all stakeholders, based on the QinetiQ PANTHER framework.
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Appropriate test points were identified on each system at which data was extracted and the picture reconstructed. GPS truth data was collected simultaneously from up to 20 participating aircraft including surveillance assets, fast jets and rotary wing aircraft. Most truth data was gathered using QinetiQ’s Situation Awareness Measurement Toolset (SAMT), but use was also made of Rangeless, Airborne, and Instrumentation Debriefing System (RAIDS) pods. Ground truth was also collected from the Maritime and Land based systems. All systems were reconciled to UTC time.
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Analysis approach
Truth and system data were fed into the Geographic Track Information System (GTIS) to generate a 2D/3D visualisation and to determine system data errors and the differences between the various pictures.
In addition to kinematic measurements, GTIS also allowed platform and independent truth data to be assigned and the results to be output in the form of Single Integrated Air Picture (SIAP) attributes.

Benefits
SAMT in conjunction with SIAP attributes has been shown to be a powerful and objective tool for the measurement of air picture quality and force performance. It has given the customer a set of unambiguous, quantitative measurements for completeness, continuity, clarity and kinematic accuracy. Output can be tailored for the customer and can be produced as text, tabular analysis, or video clips of the GTIS visualisation output, the latter being useful for customer presentations.

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Related sections
> GTIS
> SAMT
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