Difference between revisions of "Command: Modern Air Naval Operations"

Revision as of 17:48, 19 August 2014

Globe

Command’s built-in map layers include a global “Blue Marble NG” tileset and a custom relief layer derived from our terrain elevation data. Blue Marble NG has a resolution of ca 500m and is the tileset used as standard.

The elevation data come from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and has a base resolution of 3 arc-seconds (~900m/cell at the equator), thus allowing for unprecedented terrain detail benefiting air, naval and land operations alike. The elevation data is used by the navigator, weapon logics, sensors logics (line of sight, LOS), etc.

Databases

Development and Release Timeline

Update Release

Scenarios

Mechanics

Sensors

Sensors work according to their RL counterparts. Radars are affected by factors such as weather, clutter, jamming (true radar equation, incl. propagation loss), line of sight, horizon (incl. surface effect) and others. Likewise for sonar (passive, active, ping intercept), visual and IR sensors, electronic warfare (ESM/ECM) and so on. Some types of sensors like laser designators/rangers and MAD have simpler models. The radar model takes a great number of factors into account, like frequencies, horizontal and vertical beamwidth, System Noise Level, Processing Gain/Loss, Peak Power, Pulse Width, Blind Time (yes we simulate pulse compression!), PRF, min & max range, min & max altitude, scan interval, range/height/angle resolution, various capabilities such as air/surface/ground/periscope & range/altitude/speed/heading (RASH) info, OTH-B/OTH-SW, pulse-only & early/later doppler with limited/full LDSD, MTI, NCTR, Phased Array continuous target tracking, CW and CWI capability.

Radar

Sonar

Electronic Warfare

Visual / IR

Command distinguishes between Detection, Classification, and Identification. Visual detection and classification/identification signatures are based on physical size and various Visual/IR modifiers such as High-Viz, Retro Camo, Low-Viz Camo, etc. However the aircraft’s color only has limited impact on detection range except fluorcent colors. Typical classification ranges for high-viz civilian aircraft is ca 8nm while for low-viz aircraft it is ca 5nm. For visual sensors it is actually the _length_ of the aircraft has the largest impact on detection range. In contrast to earlier games, anti-air missiles and small ASM/AGMs can not be visually classified by type in Command. So there are no more ‘Incoming AIM-9M-5 Mod 4 Build 3 Block A-2/63′ messages. There is much talk about using IRST sensors to counter stealth. But in reality IRST sensors have relatively short range due to the fact that IR radiation is absorbed very quickly by the atmosphere. As such it is a great tool to help improve short/medium-range situational awareness as it has a much wider FOV than the radar, but it certainly isn’t a long-range anti-stealth sensor! This fact is of course also reflected in Command. Command also handles contrails. The effects of these can be demonstrated through the following example: Three A-4M Skyhawks are overflying a ground observer using Mk1 Eyeball as search sensor. One Skyhawk is at 1000ft, one at 25000ft and one at 36000ft.

• The lowest is detected at ca 2.1-1.8nm slant range and classified as a A-4 Skyhawk at ca 0.8-1.0nm slant range.
• The middle aircraft is not detected as it is too far away / too small.
• The highest Skyhawk creates a contrail and is detected at a considerable distance, and thus is the first of the three to be detected. The ground observer can determine the size of the contrail (small/medium/large) but can never see the actual aircraft nor classify it as an A-4 Skyhawk.

TECHNICAL DETAILS: Contrails will only form at altitudes greater than 8000m, and at temperatures below -40 deg C. The simulator has a ‘standard atmosphere’ model that checks if the temperature is lower than 233 deg Kelvin at the aircraft’s current altitude. The simulator uses the aircraft’s ‘Visual Size Class’ to determine the size of the contrail, and thus detection range. The detection range also depends on time-of-day and cloud cover. - Very Large: 50nm - Large: 30nm - Medium: 20nm - Small: 10nm

Stealth

Stealth and low-observable aircraft and ships in the database have smaller radar, visual and IR signatures than other units. The simulator uses several different generations of radar stealth and various signature modifiers to produce realistic detection ranges. We also simulate the fact that A to D-band radars are far better at detecting stealth aircraft than E to K-band radars. The AN/FPS-130 is a D-band long-range air search radar which means it is quite effective against stealth aircraft since the wave length is equal to the aircraft or big fuselage components such as wings or tails. This produces resonance effects which give good radar returns. This is not the case for E to K-band radars, and the effect of LO shaping is much, much higher.

Low Probability of Intercept

In Command, LPI radars use their real-life power output (0.1W or 1W) and pulse lengths but have much lower System Noise Levels and better Processing Gain/Loss than conventional sets. We do not simulate the ‘ESM-style analysis techniques’ used by these radars in real life, we adjust the processing gain. As such LPI radars work just like any other radar set except they are counter-detected at much shorter ranges. RWRs have much smaller antennas than the LPI radars, and thus the LPI has an advantage as it uses signal analysis methods similar to that of ESM gear. That means modern LPIs are often detecting stuff before being counter-detected, and this is also the case in the simulator. For more advanced RWRs and ESM sets the LPI will be picked up at longer ranges

Graphics

UI