The U.S. Air Force Guided Weapons Evaluation Facility ordered a BroadSim Wavefront advanced GNSS simulator from Orolia Defense & Security for weapons testing under electronic warfare — jamming — environments, among a wide range of other conditions.
The Broadsim Wavefront simulator will be integrated into a test environment for networked, collaborative and autonomous weapon systems developed under the Golden Horde program, designed to rapidly advance emerging weapons systems and warfighting concepts through prototype and experimentation.
The GWEF provides laboratory testing and simulation tools for developing precision-guided weapon technology, including a comprehensive scope of GPS/INS systems and integrated components like sensors, signals of opportunity and controlled reception pattern antennas. CRPAs are fundamental in many platforms due to their resistance to GPS jamming.
GWEF requirements included low-latency hardware-in-the-loop, automated calibration, and the flexibility to quickly integrate future signals. The BroadSim Wavefront will also be capable of testing eight-element CRPA systems, eight simultaneous Fixed Radiation Pattern Antenna (FRPA) systems, or a combination of CRPA and FRPA systems.
“Though the GWEF’s Wavefront unit contains eight nodes, corresponding to each antenna element),” said Tyler Hohman, director of products for Orolia Defense & Security, “it can be scaled from four to 16 antenna elements. Our continuous phase monitoring and compensation technique automatically monitors, aligns and adjusts the phase of each RF output continuously throughout the duration of a scenario.”
“Gone are the days of re-calibrating each frequency on your system, limiting your scenario duration or re-calibration every time you power cycle your system,” added Hohman. “Simply turn the system on, start the scenario, and your Wavefront system phase aligns and remains aligned for the entirety of the test.”
Leveraging the Skydel Simulation Engine, BroadSim Wavefront also supports high-dynamics, MNSA M-Code, alternative RF navigation, open-source IMU plug-in and 1000Hz iteration update rate.
“Because of the software-defined architecture, many upgrades don’t require additional hardware, which has been a crucial advantage for customers who are already using this solution,” Hohman said.
