Northrop Grumman [NOC] on Thursday unveiled its Immersive Interactive Information Environment (I3E) physics simulator that produces electronic warfare (EW) environment mission simulations that are both empirically-accurate and fully-rendered in game-quality visualization.
One of the best features of I3E is the ability to pause the simulation and turn questions and ideas into visualization, according to Northrop Grumman Sector Vice President of Business Development for Electronic Systems Steve Goldfein. Goldfein also said Northrop Grumman challenged itself to think beyond obvious visualizations like cockpits by thinking with an engineer’s perspective of how to understand and visualize physics.
At a demonstration for reporters at the company’s McLean, Va., information systems facility, Northrop Grumman Senior Intelligence Analyst James Stevens said I3E is a marriage across several departments. The company, he said, leveraged its pre-existing Virtual Immersive Portable Environment (VIPE) Holodeck, which was originally developed as a first-person shooter trainer, with physics-based analytics software, algorithm-based physics software and an existing game engine. The result, he said, is I3E–a fully-interactive battlefield environment simulator.
Stevens gave a demonstration where a F-15 was entering a battlespace. The I3E demonstrated an EW environment that showed the enemy’s notional radar waveform, their search patterns and how they transmit through the air. Stevens said I3E is different from Monte Carlo modeling in that I3E can be paused to evaluate the behaviors of adversary radars and how they would impact friendly aircraft as the enter battlespace. Monte Carlo modeling is used to accurately estimate the probabilities and assess risk of certain events. It uses a model based on statistical random sampling.
Stevens said although results generated with I3E aren’t as comprehensive and encyclopedic as ones generated with 12 or 24 hours of Monte Carlo-style algorithm modeling, he said several senior Northrop Grumman engineers like the ability to frame the domain before entering the Monte Carlo. Stevens called this the I3E force multiplier.
Stevens said Northrop Grumman is developing both a maritime and classified version of I3E. The classified version, he said, will have adversary systems that are empirically correct. He was unsure when the company would have either the classified or maritime versions available.
Stevens also said multiple potential customers have taken looks at I3E, including Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), but that no customers have been secured so far. Northrop Grumman Vice President of Business Development for Information Systems Ron Foudray said a number of foreign customers have also checked out I3E as it is fully exportable. Foudray said I3E is not sold individually but is packaged together with other items.