Compensating for Latency Variations in Air-to-Air Missile T&E Using Live Aircraft Linked to a Missile HWIL Simulation

摘要

The Live Fly Phase (LFP) of the Systems Integration Test (SIT) was executed by the Joint Advanced Distributed Simulation (JADS) Joint Test Force (JTF) and the 46th Test Wing at Eglin AFB, FL during 1997. The purpose of the SIT was to evaluate the utility of using advanced distributed simulation (ADS) to support cost-effective testing of an integrated missile weapon/launch aircraft system in an operationally realistic scenario. The SIT missions simulated a single shooter aircraft launching an air-to-air missile against a single target aircraft. In the LFP, the shooter and target were represented by live aircraft and the missile by a simulator. ADS techniques were used to link two live F-16 fighter aircraft flying over the Eglin Gulf Test Range to the AMRAAM AIM-120 hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) simulation facility at Eglin. In order for this linking to have utility for the T&E of the AMRAAM missile under test, the latency variations between the live aircraft and the missile HWIL simulation facility had to be removed so that the aircraft entity state and missile launch data could be properly synchronized to the missile simulation. This paper presents the techniques used to synchronize inputs to the missile HWIL simulation and their effectiveness at achieving the required degree of synchronization. Also, the resulting latency is characterized, and conclusions on T&E applications of the LFP ADS configuration are given.