Challenges
Naval operations are managed according to an iterative process that leads from situation analysis to maneuver planning. The implementation of this decisional process currently relies upon information systems that offer information visualization and communication tools without any higher-level decision-making assistance.
STEAMER is an application commissioned by the French Procurement Agency (DGA, Délégation générale pour l’armement) to MASA Group and the ORPHEUS company, in order to explorer the potential benefits of computer-aided decision-making for naval operations planning and evaluation. It is currently used by the French Navy Training Center (CESM, Centre d'enseignement supérieur de la Marine).
Behaviors obtained with MASA DirectIA engine allow playing fast confrontation scenarios. This speed can satisfy operational constraints. This is not the case with other training simulations available on the market.
Dr Bernard Kassel, DGA
Methods used by French Navy Staff officers, generally supported by military planning tools such as MARS, produce courses of action that are relevant to the military and political constraints of a situation. However, such methods, relying on traditional paper-and-pencil techniques, are time-consuming and do not allow fast replanning if and when the situation changes.
The challenges of STEAMER are twofold:
- To provide a semi-automated tool to plan and evaluate courses of action using Friend-Foe confrontation scenarios.
- To allow at each time step of a confrontation a possible replanning , either partial or total, of the maneuver idea, in order to adapt courses of actions to changing situations.
Solution
The tool commissioned by the French Navy provides three particular functions: maneuver idea planning, courses of action confrontation, and situation evaluation. It has been jointly developed with the ORPHEUS company which provided the Teleplan Maria GIS layer on which the application is currently built. However, the STEAMER tool developed by MASA could be easily interfaced with other GIS or C4I systems.
Maneuver idea planning. Using the planning interface, the user can enter a course of action (CoA) as a mission graph including conditional transitions. The planning tool first checks the consistency of the maneuver in terms of spatial (reserved zones, territorial waters), temporal (fixed schedule, maximum speed), and military doctrine constraints. Then, the planning tool automatically formalizes the maneuver by determining the maritime routes to follow, and the waypoints passing times. Given this result, the mission graph can be modified in order to improve the maneuver planning sequence.
Course of action evaluation. Once maneuver ideas have been established for both sides (Friend and Foe), the simulation tool allows evaluation of CoAs by playing the maneuver ideas of each group, while analyzing the current situation. This is possible thanks to DirectIA, MASA’s proprietary decision engine. DirectIA allows simulation of autonomous and realistic behaviors that follow a given military doctrine. For a given unit, at each simulation step, this engine selects the best action to be performed by considering the current situation and the doctrinal model of the unit. MASA proprietary physics engine simulates actions and interactions (perception, fire actions) between units in the battlespace, accounting for environmental, geographical, meteorological, and political factors.
Situation evaluation. During the simulation, evolution of the situation can be analyzed using an indicator tool characterizing the various units, according to their mobility, relative strengths, etc. Aggregated indicators can yield a global evaluation of the situation, with respect to the strategic options chosen by the user. These two levels of evaluation allow analyzing both local (e.g. force ratio evaluation during a confrontation) and global situations.
Key benefits
- Fast semi-automated course of action planning and evaluation for naval operations
- Partial or total on-the-fly maneuver replanning to match rapidly evolving situations
- Native Teleplan Maria GIS support, compatibility with other GIS or C4I systems
Customer Testimonial
The person in charge of evaluating STEAMER at the CESM, Dr Bernard Kassel of the DGA, gave us his opinion on the released application:
"We consider that the STEAMER approach is entirely relevant to evaluate maneuver ideas. The choice of simulating at Task Group level, and the autonomous behaviors obtained with DirectIA, MASA proprietary decisional engine, allow playing fast confrontation scenarios. This speed can satisfy operational constraints. This is not the case with other training simulations available on the market."
"Right after our first experiments at the Navy Training Center, the STEAMER system allowed us to identify weaknesses in the Friend course of action we designed, and to explore rapidly the possible countermeasures that could be used to address this issue. Moreover, STEAMER allowed us to play our confrontation scenarios way beyond what we usually do during training sessions."
Downloads
STEAMER project presentation video