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Command and Control/GIS Practice
Case Studies:
Multi-Role Armament and Ammunition System (MRAAS)
_________________________________________________Challenge
The U.S. Army's Armament Research, Development, & Engineering Center (ARDEC) needed a software integration laboratory (SIL) for developing and testing fire control software components to support the Netted Fires concept, a key part of the Future Combat System (FCS) program.
The SIL would be designed as a crew station for use with a variety of weapon systems, such as the Multi-role Armament & Ammunition System (MRAAS), rocket and missile launchers, and cannon systems. The crew station would perform netted fires functions at the vehicle level, and also perform fires and effects control at the various operations centers within the FCS Unit of Action. Map display, tactical orders, ammunition logistics, driving, and main gun pointing and shooting capabilities were also required. The SIL had to perform within a high-fidelity simulation environment.
Result
In less than one year, CHI Systems' Command & Control/GIS Team adapted the entire C3Core architecture, and installed a MRAAS SIL that met all ARDEC requirements at Picatinny Arsenal in November 2001. This SIL is in constant use by ARDEC, and has been shown by ARDEC to the FCS Prime System Integration Contractor (Boeing).
ARDEC is basing its current fire support architecture on the C3Core netted fires capabilities contained in the SIL. Further, it has proposed using the MRAAS SIL software as the basis for all netted fires and FCS command and control in the FCS program. The SIL is maintained and upgraded each month by the Command & Control/GIS Team; upgrades are scheduled through 2006.
