Air Defense Planning Aided by Simulations.

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Date: 01 November 2000
• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

War-planning software currently in development for Navy Aegis cruisers will give air defense planners at sea--via digital simulations--a capability to try to predict how their proposed layout of forces would affect the outcome of the battle.

The system is called the area air defense commander (AADC), a program that started in 1998. It automates air defense planning--a task that traditionally has been accomplished with paper and pencil. AADC produces a digital, 3-D picture of the battlefield, which expedites the process of conducting "what-if" scenarios for air defense.

AADC is a command and control system that uses data received from other sensors to develop alternative solutions for placing blue forces in the theater. The air defense commander tool allocates resources and does not manage individual engagements.

There are three prototypes being tested today. The Navy plans to install AADC on 12 ships by 2006, as part of an overall upgrade program for the Aegis cruisers.

One of the prototypes is at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, in...