Cycle time reduction in ground battlefield simulation, for C4i systems, using time compression and time jump technique

Ground Battlefield Simulation (GBS) is carried out to avoid actual movement/usage of resources (manpower, vehicles and weapons). GBS usually stretches from hours, days to months, depending upon the Scenario visualized/exercised. Though we have already saved upon resources, time is still an important factor that we are always short of. Simulating a Ground Battlefield scenario of a few hours at normal pace may be acceptable (still not most of the time), but simulating a longer duration scenario and waiting for that period of time is really not feasible. As actual exercise or experimentation may require multiple runs of the same GBS scenario, scenario/cycle time reduction becomes necessary. This paper discusses need as well as mechanism of cycle time reduction in GBS.

I. Introduction

C4I stands for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence. C4I systems are the systems where a human operated, computer based intelligent system is developed for the purpose of command and control in military operations [4]. These systems consist of sensors (radar, sonar etc), communication mechanisms (to transmit sensor data to the processing unit), processing unit with custom made software, operator work stations with display, weapons (for engaging/neutralizing a target) etc. Block diagram of a C4I system is shown in Fig 1.