Red 6 Aerospace STRATFI - ATARS Integration AFSOC MC-130J
AFWERX · AFWERX STRATFI · AFWERX
Award
Description
Red Six Aerospace, Inc. (Red 6) is developing a revolutionary airborne augmented reality synthetic training ecosystem, Advanced Tactical Augmented Reality System (ATARS), that delivers mission planning, rehearsal, execution, and debriefing capabilities with the ability to rapidly transition to the operational arena. Red 6's Airborne Augmented Reality (AAR) technology empowers quicker, more efficient, cost-effective, safer, and more impactful training for both U.S. Air Force (USAF) and Allied Force pilots and personnel. In May 2022, Red 6 was awarded an AFWERX Direct to Phase II, SBIR contract to investigate integration into the open system architecture (OSA) of the F-22 simulator environment. The hardware mechanical packaging efforts for the military simulated environment/aircraft led to the optimization of the ATARS product. This contract effort is poised to scale the ATARS product to multiple USAF platforms (T-38 and MC-130J). Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) has established the Augmented Reality for Aircraft and Special Teams (ARfAST) Innovation Assessment & Evaluation (IA&E) project. The prototype integration capability requirements published on 19 Jan 23 are defined in the AFSOC General Requirements for Augmented Reality for Aircraft and Special Teams (GREQ-ARfAST) document that outlines specific Science, Systems, Technology, and Innovation (SST&I) development campaign areas to create new, or modify existing, capabilities. This contractual effort falls within the AFSOC Commander’s vision and direction for the Air Commando Extended Reality (XR) training program Line of Efforts (LOE 4 - “Future Fight”). The XR LOE 4 leverages Augmented Reality (AR) and other related technologies to train more realistically, operate more effectively, and make better, more timely decisions. Additionally, part of the vision is to improve situational awareness. This involves using AR to better present visual information for training and actual operations. This includes using AR to geo?spatially correlate information in three-dimensional (3D) space as an overlay on top of what one sees around them. This removes the clutter of information layered on top of the digital map. This is part of the Mission networking (MN) and Joint All Domain Control (JADC2) campaign. Implementing AR to improve training and situational awareness is to be done using a loosely couple interoperable system of systems (SoS). The SoS is to enable and support live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) training, modeling, and simulation (M&S), and MN capabilities and systems. This effort is fundamentally a systems engineering project aimed at validating commercial augmented reality technology for in-aircraft and specialized ground operator teams.