Russell Offices Canberra ACT 2600

Abstract. Within the Australian Defence Force, Army, Navy, and Air Force are separately taking delivery of sophisticated aerospace training simulators to provide aircrew training for new platforms such as the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH), the Super Seasprite helicopter, and the Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) and F/A-18 aircraft. At the same time, Air Force is developing its Aerospace Battlelab Capability (ABC), Navy is developing its Maritime Warfare Training System (MWTS), and Army its Army Synthetic Capability (ASC) that will utilise these simulators in various roles including training, doctrine and tactics development. To maximise their potential it is essential that these training simulators be able to interoperate amongst each other using standard distributed simulation protocols. This must include exchange of simulated entity, data link, and communications information so that the various synthetic platforms can fully interoperate in a synthetic battlespace like real military assets in a real battlespace. DSTO has been working with the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) and assisting both Air Force and Navy with simulator interoperability issues including advising the project offices, testing systems in the field, and reporting where there are existing or potential future deficiencies such as inadequate provision for handling externally generated synthetic entities. This paper provides a status report on the potentially interoperable aerospace training simulators, and reviews the standards, policies, and procedures needed to make a truly networked synthetic ADF that is also able to interoperate with coalition partners. 1