DARPA SAFE-SiM contractors focus on modeling and simulation for scenario construction, technology insertion

ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. military researchers are asking two modeling and simulation companies to develop a faster-than-real time system to enable senior military commanders to practice developing concepts of operations (CONOPS), composing force structures, allocating resources, and planning for technology insertion.

Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., awarded contracts worth a collective $19.3 million for the Secure Advanced Framework for Simulation and Modeling (SAFE-SiM) program. The SAFE-SiM modeling and simulation architecture should enable military commanders to conduct theater-wide, multi-domain, mission-level modeling and simulation, from seafloor to space, including cyber and electromagnetic spectrum capabilities. DARPA awarded SAFE-SiM contracts to Radiance Technologies Inc. in Huntsville, Ala.; and to Cole Engineering Services Inc. in Orlando, Fla. Radiance won a $10.1 million contract, and Cole Engineering won a $9.1 million contract.

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Over the past few decades, projecting military power has relied on complex capabilities to achieve results that separate weapon systems or segments of military power cannot handle. U.S. military and intelligence modeling, furthermore, cannot provide the necessary support. Existing simulations typically are limited to specific mission areas, and are not well suited for interactions across the cyber, space, air, ground, and sea domains. Creating mission-level scenarios, moreover, is time consuming and requires specialized training. The SAFE-SiM project will create an intuitive modeling and simulation user interface for rapid scenario construction, advanced visualization capabilities, and analytical tools that enable broad analysis of simulated data. Radiance Technologies and to Cole Engineering experts will develop theater-wide, multi-domain, mission level modeling; user interface; analytic and visual tools; and hardware and software solutions with multi-level security.

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These information security tools should enable the system to ingest modeling and simulation data up to and including SECRET, TOP SECRET, SCI, and Special Access (SAP) classification levels through external network connections, rapid reconfigure the classification level of the modeling and simulation environment, and dynamically tailor analytical results several kinds of end users. Radiance will do its SAFE-SiM work in Huntsville, Ala.; Cambridge, Mass.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Chantilly, Va.; San Diego; and Rome, N.Y., while Cole Engineering will do its work in Orlando, Fla., and Austin, Texas. Both companies should be finished by August 2021. For more information contact Radiance Technologies online at www.radiancetech.com, Cole Engineering Services at https://coleengineering.com, or DARPA at www.darpa.mil.