Modelling, simulation and virtualisation tools and equipment for training, exercises, systems design, development and integration, as well as testing and validation

Deadline: Dec 1, 2020  
CALL EXPIRED

Specific Challenge:

The Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy defines an integrated approach to conflicts “at all stages of the conflict cycle, acting promptly on prevention, responding responsibly and decisively to crises, investing in stabilization and avoiding premature disengagement when a new crisis erupts”.

The current European simulation structure (in the sense of simulators and their interconnection) and European simulation and wargaming capabilities are fractured into many national systems and infrastructures with a limited interoperability and a lack of common understanding and definition of simulation models employed.

Scope:

The proposals must address the development of a distributed simulation infrastructure including basic simulation data allowing cooperative simulation between Member States, their military and civil organisations, as well as non-state actors originating from Member States.

The proposals must encompass the strategic level down to the tactical level and scenarios from the high intensity conflict to peace enforcement, stabilisation, counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism operations. Furthermore, civil-military cooperation (CIMIC) for the above-mentioned scenarios, protection of critical infrastructure and disaster relief must be included.

The proposals must in particular support the following applications:

• Simulation-based training and exercising for military and civilian staffs.
  • Preparation training for EU-Battlegroups for CSDP (Common Security and Defence Policy) missions;
  • Training on disaster relief scenarios;
  • Support to the integration of RPAS and drones in the national air-space (RPAS (Remotely piloted air system) -ATI (Air traffic integration));
  • Employment of artificial intelligence (AI) for simulated military/civilian force behaviour to reduce staffing of simulation.
• Preparation of force deployment.
  • Validation of EU force deployment plans;
  • Employment of decision support tools for evaluation of scenarios.
• Concept development and evaluation.
  • Identification and quantification of deficiencies;
  • Simulative evaluation of new equipment and systems;
  • Definition and evaluation of new organisations, tactics and procedures;
  • Support of projects, preferably corporately developed by EU Member States;
  • Employment of data mining and operations research tools.

The proposals must address scenarios in either one or multiple military domains (land, sea, air, space, cyber).

Targeted activities

The proposals must cover study, design and prototyping of a solution, not excluding downstream activities.

The targeted activities must in particular include:

• preliminary/feasibility studies:
  • analysis of EU Member States’ defence national standards and regulations concerning simulation;
  • analysis of NATO standards and regulations concerning connection of simulations;
  • analysis of civilian communication and data exchange standards;
  • analysis of commonality of requirements;
  • definition of requirements;
  • definition of CONOPS (Concept of Operations).
• design:
  • definition of the system architecture (hardware, software, networks);
  • definition of the security environment;
  • proposal for a test-case as a basis for the demonstrator;
  • definition of an effects database.
• prototyping - demonstrator implementation:
  • ntegration of a system demonstrator for risk mitigation;
  • presentation of study results and execution of a demonstration with a test scenario.

A detailed planning of the potential subsequent project phases must be generated, including the identification of implementation priorities, according to the operational needs of the EU and its Member States.

Main high-level requirements

The system must fulfil the following main high-level requirements:

• state-of-the-art system, with modern, intuitive user interfaces supporting operators in all their operational, technical and training needs. Usability must be the cornerstone of the system design allowing the rapid installation, administration, operation and training;
• selection of technological solutions with a strong focus on obsolescence management;
• the system architecture must be designed in accordance with the modularity principle in order to deliver simulation services to future operational capabilities and to interface with multiple sources, allowing EU defence projects to be linked or implemented through this one;
• the proposed architecture must be based on a modern service-oriented architecture with an extensive use of open standards, allowing full compatibility with NATO and national systems, both military and civilian. Specifically the system must be interoperable with a federated simulation network;
• effective use of communications, covering also tactical levels. The architecture must operate in a full IP communication network that must be able to integrate different transmission mechanisms (WAN (Wide area network) segments, SATCOM (Satellite communications), DIS (Distributed interactive simulation), HLA (High level architecture), etc.). It must be able to seamlessly use the available transmission mechanisms and adapt the information flows to their specific characteristics;
• the architecture must be able to work simultaneously in different security domains and handle the information security requirements to properly control the information flows between these domains as well as external systems. A security domain must be able to address the community of a project only and offer adequate security requirement securing the confidentiality of the information of the project;
• the architecture must be dynamic, scalable and resilient, capable of easily integrating all the actors and nodes for each simulation scenario or application;
• the architecture must be able to be deployed over distributed simulation centres. The system must be deployable over COTS (Commercial of the shelf) IT equipment and must be able to operate in virtualized environments in conjunction with specific security equipment, such as Information Exchange Gateways (IEGs), Firewalls, Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDSs and IPSs), etc. The feasibility of an architecture based on cloud concepts (either private or hybrid) must specifically be analysed;
• the architecture must be able to support specified availability requirements providing an open, scalable, high availability and transparent failover architecture;
• cybersecurity aspects must be taken into account along all project phases, from requirements capture to system design and implementation, in order to ensure adequate resilience, survivability and information protection;
• the architecture must be adapted to the doctrine generated in Europe.

The architecture of the distributed simulation system must take into consideration all necessary future elements, and in particular:

• simulation and communication equipment and infrastructure, in order to be able to exchange information between the Member States' simulation centres and information systems. This may require the use of dedicated terrestrial networks and satellite links, hub infrastructure and terminals;
• the infrastructure to setup dedicated simulation centres, including facilities for operators, data centres, and all the associated equipment (such as operators' equipment, voice / video communications, local communications, etc.);
• deployable simulation centres, providing operators with workstations, a deployable data centre, communication means and the required infrastructure;
• architecture designed for security accreditation and cyber defence in order to prevent cyber-attacks and to protect the information.

Expected Impact:

• Develop critical enablers for CSDP operations and EU Battlegroup missions;
• Reduce the minimum reaction time for deployment of European military missions;
• Integrate simulation means provided by Member States, EU forces, NATO and civil agencies;
• Improve situational awareness, resilience and security of EU operations;
• Create a reference simulation architecture that will improve the capabilities of the European defence industry to develop and supply state-of-the-art simulation systems;
• Reinforce interoperability of EU Member States’ armed forces;
• Reduce the cost of European military missions;
• Reduce training and travelling costs thanks to distributed simulation.