Scalable Network Technologies Inc. (SNT), a leader in wireless network evaluation, and VT MÄK, a company of VT Systems Inc., announced the introduction of Network Centric Forces (NCF), a new toolkit for creating battlefield simulations where network communications are a central component. MÄK and SNT are exhibiting together and demonstrating NCF at the IDGA Network Centric Warfare conference January 28-30th in Washington, DC.

Network Centric Warfare (NCW), currently in development as a critical part of future US and Western allies’ military operations, depends on a wireless communications infrastructure that supports on-the-move communication. NCW has created the need for a new generation of simulation tools for training modern war fighters who depend on these on-the-move-communications.

Network Centric Forces is a comprehensive Network Centric Warfare simulation package that realistically models the interrelation of network conditions and human behavior to predict battle outcomes. NCF includes QualNet®, SNT’s simulation engine for predicting network performance, and VR-Forces®, MÄK’s toolkit for generating and executing battlefield scenarios - all the tools a customer needs to get their network-enabled battlefield simulation started quickly.

Through ultra high-fidelity simulation of the communications environment, NCF provides a new level of realism for mission planning and rehearsal readiness training. VR-Forces provides behavior and threat modeling in a user-friendly GUI environment that accurately determines and realistically displays entity movement. In combination with QualNet’s communication network modeling, NCF can determine how factors like urban terrain, dropped packets, traffic surges and weather conditions collectively impact overall battle outcomes.

“The biggest challenge in designing and deploying network-centric systems is building a network infrastructure that can handle a diverse range of traffic types, such as call for fire, situational awareness, etc., all over a shared infrastructure, and in a predictable manner. NCF models the lynchpin of network centric operations – how individual network factors and human behavior combine to determine the outcome of battle.”