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Permanent 'dry-dock' for DSTO's Virtual Ship

The "Virtual Ship" will assist in maritime operations research and systems analysis.

A new 'dry-dock' at the Defence Science & Technology Organisation (DSTO) in Edinburgh, South Australia, houses Defence's highly advanced Virtual Ship and provides a permanent home for studies supporting the acquisition and ownership of future generations of Royal Australian Navy platforms.

The building houses a 10 x 9 metre Virtual Ship operations room and a presentation and exercise control area, which provides for observation of the operations room. The building also includes offices and open-plan workspaces for staff as well as a software development area, which doubles as an additional operations room if required.

The Virtual Ship concept integrates simulation models, which represent the component systems of a warship. A virtual representation of a warship is constructed in a manner similar to the construction of a real vessel.

"The use of modelling and simulation to support acquisitions is high on the agenda for DSTO, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that synthetic environments have a critical role to play in assessing capability shortfalls and cost-capability trade-offs." said Dr Nanda Nandagopal, Director of DSTO's Systems Sciences Laboratory.

At the heart of the Virtual Ship are systems which facilitate the command and control of sensor, weapon, countermeasure, and navigation systems. Essential platform behaviour is also simulated, examples of which are ship hydrodynamics and damage due to weapon detonations. The Virtual Ship interacts with simulated external entities, friendly and otherwise, just as in a real situation.

"The Virtual Ship provides a significant benefit to the ADF by providing an environment that enables learning about the use of technology to achieve military outcomes with the potential for application across many processes that support capability acquisition and ownership," said Dr Nandagopal.

Defence industry played a key role in the development of DSTO's Virtual Ship. Saab Systems, RLM Systems and Tenix Industries and others all provided essential systems to integrate into the Virtual Ship.

The primary focus of the program is to support real-time, human-in-the-loop simulation. The Virtual Ship creates a controlled environment where humans may interact with warship systems and the effectiveness of the system as a whole may be explored, taking account of the human component.

Manager, Defence Science Communications (Edinburgh)

Mr Steve Butler
Defence Science Communications

DSTO Edinburgh
PO BOX 1500
Edinburgh
South Australia 5111

Phone:

(08) 8259 6923

Fax:

08 8259 6191

Email:

stephen.butler@dsto.defence.gov.au

The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) is part of Australia's Department of Defence. DSTO's role is to ensure the expert, impartial and innovative application of science and technology to the defence of Australia and its national interests.

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