REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center’s Aviation Development Directorate is developing a simulator under the Synergistic Unmanned Manned Intelligent Teaming, or SUMIT, program to enhance situational awareness, provide greater lethality, and improve survivability for the Warfighter.
“The SUMIT program is an early step in a new paradigm for technology development that occurs completely in a synthetic environment from concept exploration to training,” said Dr. Jay Moorthy, CCDC AvMC ADD. “The Warfighter is offered a seamless experience, with the ability to shape technologies in early concept stages and to train with the same technologies once matured, all in the same synthetic environment.”
According to Layne Merritt, deputy director of the CCDC AvMC ADD, SUMIT is the “director” for advanced manned-unmanned teaming operations. “Without the director or mission commander, you just have a bunch of aircraft flying around, not a team,” he explained.The Future Open Rotorcraft Cockpit Environment, or FORCE, is a government-owned modeling and simulation testbed. The reconfigurable, extensible, and portable platform provides readiness to the U.S. Army by enabling innovative technology evaluation through rapid integration timelines.
“We’re looking to evaluate the impact of autonomy, the human-machine interface, and decision-aiding tools on an air mission commander performing manned/ unmanned teaming missions,” said Dr. Tom Alicia, CCDC AvMC ADD engineering research psychologist. “Those (three key) terms are the core evaluation components that we”re (seeking).”