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Technology Investment Strategy
R&D Activities
Platform Performance and Life Cycle Management (LCM)
Definition
This Activity involves the enhancement of performance, safety and LCM of military platforms. “Performance” has a broad scope: the ability to move and manoeuvre in operational environments, the requirements for powering and propulsion and efficiency. “Safety” is restricted to those basic platform attributes not otherwise linked to warfare-related R&D activities.
Trends, Threats and Opportunities
Canadian military fleets are made of limited numbers of platform types or classes, with anticipated service lives of about 35 years. The modern pace of technology change in embarked systems is at odds with such long service lives. R&D is critical to mitigating the effects of operating obsolescent platforms for terms longer than would be acceptable in civil practice.
A corollary of LCM is that of safety. Canada operates some unique fleets and cannot always rely on other nations for management of operational safety. In this area, on-demand consultation with operators and life cycle managers provides critical in-service support, and identifies R&D opportunities to extend the operational serviceability of platforms and equipment.
Fluid dynamic flows directly affect the powering, signatures and dynamics of air and marine platforms, and they form the principal environmental loads on their structures. Understanding of structural mechanics is necessary to ensure platform structural integrity, both to establish operational limits of new platforms, and to manage their safe and economic use throughout the life cycle. Materials science provides support to structural integrity, propulsive machinery and systems operations. Platform and systems life cycles demand insertion of new materials and innovative management of existing ones. Given the anticipated service lives of our platforms, opportunities to exploit whole-platform innovations are rare. In this environment, the CF must focus its efforts on integration of new technologies and systems (e.g., weapons systems) into existing platforms and on ensuring that the process of procuring new vehicles results in robust choices that have long-term flexibility and growth potential. Multi-disciplinary design optimization tools are essential to achieve this goal.
Simulation for training operators is well established, and it is becoming more common for training of maintenance personnel. When new equipment is introduced or LCM processes are changed, simulations are used to analyze LCM issues to meet current or anticipated CF resource availability, conduct “what if” studies, develop minimum cost/scheduled downtime approaches and examine personnel and training requirements. Although appropriate simulation technology already exists, work needs to be done to generate simulations with acceptable fidelity for LCM applications.
Strategic Objectives
(A) Reliable computational fluid dynamics for complex vehicle configurations and extreme flows: Exploit current computational fluid dynamics methods to increase our understanding of extreme flows found in military applications. Investigate new methods to overcome the limitations of current methods. As computational technology improves, use it to provide solutions to the demanding requirements of complex geometric configurations. Explore the development of simpler methods that will provide fast, partial solutions to problem classes of interest.
(B) Structural modelling for the insertion of advanced materials technology and LCM of military platforms: Extend existing structural analysis models and numerical prediction capabilities to admit novel structural materials with their new or modified failure modes. Integrate discipline-related models into multi-disciplinary design and optimization processes that ensure appropriate weighting of performance and costs during the initial and modification/repair design phases. Additionally, extend structural analysis methods and in-service health monitoring methods to treat in-service structures efficiently and to enable future LCM based on validated simulation models. Develop analytical processes to fully understand degradation mechanisms caused by platform extension beyond design life and develop strategies and technologies, such as material substitution and coatings, to overcome them.
(C) Advanced materials technology and modelling for improved LCM of military propulsion systems: Develop cost-effective LCM techniques, new approaches to damage disposition and structural or high-temperature materials and coatings to address unique military requirements for propulsion system and propulsor performance. Integrate discipline-related propulsion performance, hardware design and advanced control systems into multi-disciplinary system design and optimization processes that ensure appropriate weighting of performance and cost during the initial and modification design phases to satisfy unique performance goals (efficiency and signature management) under LCM constraints.
(D) Modelling of operational limits and safety for military platforms to enhance operational effectiveness and survivability: Evaluate the integration of new systems into existing vehicles to enhance operational effectiveness and understand platform dynamics and stability as well as structural integrity, and also to provide the physical basis for simulation of platform systems and predictions of human performance.
Multi-Environment Life Support Technologies (LST)
Definition
LST sustains or enhances the effectiveness and individual protection of personnel operating from specialized combat platforms/systems, such as aircrew, submariners and divers, or soldiers operating in harsh environments. These operational environments preclude optimal exploitation of the platforms/systems capabilities, or endanger life, without the protection of LST.
Trends, Threats and Opportunities
There is a revolution in materials sciences, which offers the potential for the development of materials and fabrics with novel and unique characteristics to improve protection and optimize individual performance and comfort. The challenge will be to capitalize on such advances and those in related technology areas such as sensors and computer processing power, and to integrate them into life support equipment/ system concepts.
The diverse battlespace and lethality of weapons inherent in the RMA concept of operations, the growing requirements for compatibility and interoperability with allies and current projections for CF roles and combat platforms for the next two decades, all indicate that the CF will require a broader range and greater sophistication of LST – both individual and collective – in aerospace, land and underwater operational environments.
For example, the technological capabilities of current combat aircraft will continue to challenge human physiological tolerances of acceleration forces. If there is a decision to replace the current combat aircraft then the next generation of G-agile aircraft, some of which may operate at space equivalent altitudes, will demand novel LST. For divers, there is a continuing progressive evolution from SCUBA air to modern mixed-gas and oxygen re-breathers, surface supplied systems, remotely operated vehicles and submersibles. Planning related to the recent submarine acquisition includes escape and rescue contingencies, which will require supporting new LST.
The challenges extend beyond the realm of simply developing LST to cope with the limitations to human survival in such environments. These platforms, and those planned for the future land force, will incorporate sensor and information display technologies, which will provide enhanced situational awareness. This enhanced situational awareness can only be maintained if the LST are developed in a manner that preserves both physiological and cognitive capabilities.
Advances in other research domains will likely facilitate remote monitoring of vital physiological, cognitive and behavioural responses during LST-supported operations. Such monitoring will not only be useful in developing adaptive LST equipment, but it can also be exploited to enhance situational awareness for command and control purposes and for modelling and simulation.
Strategic Objectives
(A) Adaptive LST for improved protection against operational and environmental challenges: Incorporate nanotechnology, sensor technology and biotechnology in integrated biological sensors and signal processors which could be applied to the development of “smart”, reactive and “sacrificial” materials. This will lead to improved individual protective ensembles and engineering controls against environmental and operational threats. Such advances, when exploited together with knowledge of physiological and behavioural limitations and ergonomics, should also lead to markedly improved design and integration of LST.
(B) Countermeasures to sustain and enhance human performance in adverse environments: Characterise the impact of adverse environmental factors on individual physiological and cognitive performance. Develop related physiological and cognitive countermeasures and protective systems and techniques to maintain comfort and performance under adverse conditions.
(C) Remotely monitor, register and transmit vital physiological, cognitive and behavioural signals for “anticipatory” life support control systems: Develop systems to remotely monitor, register and transmit vital physiological, cognitive and behavioural signals for use in LST, C2 systems and for M&S. Integrate these systems with neural networks for “anticipatory” life support control systems and removal of the human from otherwise hazardous environments.
Operational Medicine
Definition
Operational Medicine R&D addresses knowledge, procedures and materiel needed to maintain physical and psychological health, to preserve operational capacity and to facilitate the early return to duty of affected military personnel. The R&D includes: adequate prophylactic measures to prevent injury and loss of operational effectiveness; materials, devices and procedures to rapidly and precisely identify, manage and treat trauma, and to treat infection and acute injury from operational hazards and weapons. The objective is to reduce or to eliminate injury or the operational impact of injury through the provision of early warning indicators, and diagnostic and triage aids to confirm injury status in the field, and to facilitate medical management in clinical settings behind the operational area.
Trends, Threats and Opportunities
The requirements for preventing, diagnosing and treating combat casualties need to be in line with the emerging battlespace and future weapon effects, as well as the contingency operations that will occupy CF personnel. New asymmetric threats and the increasing emphasis on interoperability with the US and other highly capable allies in coalition actions and in contingency operations will require integrated medical countermeasures (such as approved devices, drugs and vaccines) and rapid diagnostic technologies. The requirement for regulatory approval of drugs and devices places additional procedural, cost and time burdens which begin in the research phases and extend through to development and deployment.
Military leaders are increasingly recognising the importance of CF health protection initiatives, not only for the battlefield, but also in humanitarian and peacekeeping missions. The availability of suitable medical countermeasures to endemic disease and to potential CB, occupational and environmental hazards has become a critical element in determining readiness, deployability and sustainment of operational capability. This is resulting in more requirements to provide protection and detection for a widening range of injury sources (e.g. accident, conventional weapons, CB hazards, non-lethal and newer weapons, combined injury and Toxic Industrial Materials (TIMs)) to reduce their operational impact.
The development of a non-invasive medical diagnostic aid system is of paramount importance in ensuring rapid and timely treatment of injuries, particularly those caused by blunt and blast trauma, and toxic hazards. Developments in biomedical engineering will provide advances in biosensors, imaging, information processing, miniaturization and biotechnology. This will result in new opportunities such as real-time monitoring of health status indicators, automated treatment delivery, field-tolerant diagnostic devices and triage aids for traumatic and other injuries.
Relevant technologies developed with private industry and academia are required to assure the development and application of products and capabilities required by the CF. In-house capabilities and expertise are essential to assure that solutions developed for clinical/civilian application are recognized, selected and developed to protect force health and to preserve operational capability. Medical management of injuries likely in operational environments will require knowledge of the mechanisms of CB agents and other toxic materials, psychological and physical injuries.
Strategic Objectives
(A) Devices, procedures and treatments for casualty management and diagnostics: Develop devices, procedures and treatments to preserve life (physical and psychological), to stabilize injuries and to facilitate recovery. Diagnostics relate to robust, field-deployable methods and devices to identify indicators of trauma, disease or exposure to toxic threats, increasingly automated and linked to resource centres through telemedicine. Technologies include biomolecular engineering, M&S, embedded sensors, miniaturization, advanced materials and microelectronic components.
(B) Produce new therapies, personal health monitoring systems and diagnostic aids: Model specific therapies and exploit advances in biotechnology and computational chemistry/ CAD to produce new therapies. Recommend or develop personal health monitoring systems and diagnostic aids. Exploit advances in pharmacology to develop knowledge of the reactive components and actions of toxins and hazardous chemicals, detection and monitoring capabilities, as well as new specific treatments to prevent adverse actions of hazards and threats.
(C) Prevention and treatment of both endemic and weaponized disease: Develop procedures and barriers to prevent infection, vaccines (conventional, vectored and DNA-based vaccines) and non-vaccine methods such as antibodies or immune system modifiers. Develop treatments that include next generation antibiotics and antivirals. Develop improved devices to deliver therapies to sites of infection. Exploit advances in biotechnology to achieve required defensive / protective capabilities.
Chemical / Biological / Radiological (CBR) Hazard Assessment, Identification and Protection
Definition
Chemical, Biological and Radiological Defence (CBRD) involves the detection, identification, protection and consequence management of the CBRD threat agent spectrum. This spectrum ranges from “traditional” CBR weapons to novel, improvised or emerging threats including new nerve agents, radiological dispersion weapons and genetically engineered biological weapons agents and toxins.
Trends, Threats and Opportunities
CBR hazards represent the original, most operationally significant and expanding asymmetric threats to the CF. The threat agent spectrum is increasing at a dramatic rate as a result of proliferation, new agent development, biotechnology and failures in appropriate infrastructure and control in states where contingency operations are required. To provide timely and accurate threat assessment and to develop effective countermeasures to protect the CF, an active and defensive research program in core scientific disciplines is required.
Asymmetric CBR threats provide an adversary with significant political and force multiplier advantages, such as disruption of operational tempo, interruption/denial of access to critical infrastructure and the promulgation of fear and uncertainty in military and civilian populations.
The trend towards increased development, deployment, applications and their proliferation will continue. The military use of toxic industrial materials is an increasing threat, which is readily available to any adversary. Genetically engineered or modified diseases and toxins have the potential for producing maximum casualties with minimal effort. Proliferation will continue to dramatically increase the threat from the use of CBR agents by states or terrorist organizations against unprotected civilian populations. Proliferation also poses an asymmetric threat against non-combatants outside the immediate theatre of conflict, including Canadians at home. As well, CBR agents will be developed against materials or weapons systems themselves. New threats of the future will be agents that attack rubber, advanced composites or electronic components.
Advances in biotechnology and biological sciences will result in much shorter development times for novel threat agents. As well, traditional threat indicators (research infrastructure, testing, production, weaponization and political will) may be hidden within legitimate research programs and not be visible to intelligence communities.
Development of effective countermeasures will have to be tied to realistic assessments of the threat. As the threat spectrum expands, it will not be possible to determine probable threat agents in advance. This will place an increased emphasis on rapid identification after first use. CBR detection will have to become more broad-based and accurate, and identification methods more rapid and disseminated. Networks of sensors and standoff detection capability will become increasingly available. Together, these capabilities will facilitate consequence management and reduce the operational and personnel impact of CBR hazards and asymmetric threats.
Strategic Objectives
(A) Hazard assessment and consequence management for enhanced decision- making: Develop high fidelity model-based threat assessment to provide first responders, operational commanders and political leadership with increased situational awareness, accuracy and decision-aiding technologies. This includes modelling, simulation and field trial validation, fusing intelligence data, virtual reality and advanced computer techniques.
(B) Detection, identification and diagnostics to overcome asymmetric threats: Fuse nanotechnologies and biotechnologies to create new sensors to facilitate the development of remote, standoff detection systems and sensor platforms and packages. The integration of these with CBR hazard identification technologies will be a significant long-term challenge.
(C) Individual and systems protection for advanced CBR countermeasures: Develop systems level protection including, where possible, integrated commercial subsystems and technologies. Use biotechnology and advanced materials to develop or exploit integrated coatings and sensors. Electronics protection and the survival of other critical technological infrastructure must also be assured. Develop procedures and materials for safe and adequate decontamination of personnel, infrastructure and assets.
Simulation and Modelling for Acquisition, Requirements, Rehearsal and Training (SMARRT)
Definition
SMARRT is concerned with M&S for examining future force concepts, for modern, affordable acquisition and for effective training and rehearsal of the future force. SMARRT R&D includes concept development and design, implementation, validation, verification and accreditation of models and simulations at all levels and for all classes (live, virtual and constructive) of simulation. Individual models or simulations can be linked together in virtual scenarios to provide a total analysis of the battlespace and provide for an analysis and choice of operational alternatives and the ability for operational crews to practice missions out of harm’s way.
Trends, Threats and Opportunities
M&S is an essential component behind Concept Development and Experimentation (CDE). Interactive synthetic environments are increasingly being used to examine future concepts and to identify future capabilities. They provide users with the opportunity to ‘fight‘ a system in alternative (including future) scenarios and to develop doctrine for the future CF. This method can be used to assess technical feasibility and operational utility, the effectiveness of the human-machine interface, and procedures for exploiting technology. It will enable the evaluation of the effectiveness of proposed equipment or software in the environment in which they will be used and can provide an assessment of the effect of the specific equipment or capability on battle outcomes. Key tools behind this specific use of M&S in experimentation include, for example, High Level Architecture (HLA) and the Federation Development and Execution Process (FEDEP) model.
Cutting edge R&D will assist DND/CF in exploiting advanced acquisition concepts such as systems-of-systems methodologies, simulation based acquisition, integrated digital environments, life cycle planning and evolutionary acquisition. In this way, the time, resources and risks involved in the acquisition and LCM of new capabilities can be significantly reduced.
In training, simulations can enhance readiness by providing operators with the knowledge, skills, abilities and the confidence that they need to perform their military tasks. These are behavioural objectives requiring an appreciation of the psychological issues and human factors that govern the design and use of a simulator for effective transfer-of-training. Technology push from the education and entertainment industries affords opportunities for the exploitation of COTS products as a means of reducing the cost and improving M&S in synthetic environments. Future international operations will demand the ability to plan, train and rehearse in a virtual, interoperable environment. M&S provides the ability to prepare forces for specific operations by allowing practice and the selection of options in a life-like context.
Strategic Objectives
(A) M&S enablers for developing future force concepts and identifying future capabilities: Develop the next generation of synthetic environments for use in CDE. These will identify and define the capabilities required by the future CF. R&D will include component reuse, conceptualization and symbology, and the representation of future technologies in synthetic environments. Current tools such as HLA, FEDEP and Synthetic Environment Data Representation & Interchange Specification (SEDRIS) will be applied and extended to identify and define future capabilities for specific CF initiatives.
(B) Systems engineering and advanced acquisition concepts to modernize defence processes: Develop and use advanced systems engineering methodologies, including systems-of-systems approaches, simulation-based acquisition, integrated digital environments, life cycle planning and evolutionary acquisition, to support the CF’s defence modernization initiatives.
(C) Human factors of SMARRT for human-in-the-loop and representation of human behaviour: Exploit networking, virtual reality, human factors, visualisation and the latest advances in live, virtual and constructive simulations. The development, validation, verification and accreditation of models of human behaviour will be carried out to determine and enhance the usefulness and predictive validity of core models of individual and organization behaviours. This will involve drawing on human factors, M&S, HSI and software engineering to make better, early decisions. Artificial intelligence and advances in software engineering will be used to derive a greater understanding and better representation of human performance in simulations.
D) Virtual models for optimization of platforms as integrated weapons systems: Combine platform performance models with combat system models to produce virtual platforms capable of simulating all aspects of performance, especially in complex environments for which live exercises are difficult to arrange. This will facilitate the optimization of platforms as integrated weapon systems. This is expected to result in greater benefits than advances in individual technologies alone. The full benefit of collaboration with other nations and organizations will be facilitated by imposing compliance with HLA standards.
