ACES Display - Warlock

The Air Combat Engagement Summary (ACES) Display is intended to provide an integrated display that provides several sets of air combat data for a platform that contains a WSF_SA_PROCESSOR in a single, reconfigurable display.

Note

For all available data to be shown, a platform with a Situation Awareness Processor is necessary.

Note

The ACES Display plugin is a prototype capability and is not complete. As a result of this, it is disabled by default and must be enabled through the Plugin Manager.

To open a display, open the context menu for a platform (right click) in the map display or the platform browser and select ‘ACES View’.

Display Sync

The Tactical Situation Display (TSD) and the Situation Awareness Displays (SAD) zoom and centering can be synchronized by clicking the ‘Display Sync’ button in the center. When enabled, the left regions zoom and centering will be used as the reference for syncing the displays.

Display Swapping

The four circle display regions may be swapped by clicking on the left or right side of either the top or bottom display:

Setting a Center Point

A center point may be set to allow the user to zoom and get more information about a particular region on either the TSD or SAD display. This option is available in the context menu (right clicking). Resetting the center point will return the ownship to the center. Below is an example of setting a new center point:

A new center has now been set:

Settings

The Tactical Situation Display (TSD), Situation Awareness Display (SAD), and Engagement regions of the ACES Display have settings tabs that can be opened to toggle various settings. Explanations of settings are given in the description of each display region below.

Display Regions

The ACES Display has various regions with particular types of data. These are detailed below.

Platform Data

At the top left of the display, general platform data is shown. From left to right:

Data	Description
Engine Thrust and Throttle	Shows normalized thrust and throttle settings, including the use of afterburner.
Weight/Mass	Shows gross weight, total fuel weight, internal fuel weight, and external fuel weight (all in thousands of lbs).
Weapons	Shows quantity and type of weapons, with the selected weapon shown in white.
Fuel	Shows current fuel flow (lbs/hr), joker/bingo fuel states (lbs), and G-load.
Altitude and Speed	Shows altitude (ft), calibrated airspeed (kts), true airspeed (kts), and Mach.

Situation Awareness Display

The Situation Awareness Display(SAD) provides the user with a graphical summary of the tactical perceptions using WSF_SA_PROCESSOR data from the platform.

Perceptions

Perceived entities are drawn using their perceived identification. Entities may also include additional information, such as altitude (thousands of feet) to the right of the entity icon, as well as priority threat number (at the upper left of the icon) and priority target number (at the lower left of the icon). Entities are oriented to their heading. Entities that are marked as important by the SAP are shown with a white outline. Coasting entities are shown as transparent, and thus appear dimmer. If eyes_track_processor is set, then an eye-shaped icon will appear to the left of the entity’s icon.

Symbol	Identification	Description
	Bogie/Unknown	Yellow square
	Neutral	White square
	Bandit/Threat	Red triangle
	Friendly	Green circle w/ optional id
	Flight	Blue circle w/ flight id
	Missile	Arrow with circle/square/triangle

As an example, the perception shown below is a threat traveling at a relative bearing of 0 degrees at an altitude of 35,000 feet. It has been assessed as the second highest priority threat and the highest priority target. It is marked as important, and is visible to the pilot.

Groups

Groups are displayed using circles that are large enough to contain all members of the group. A minimum group radius may be specified in the WSF_SA_PROCESSOR. This is often useful to aid in visualization. Each group contains a unique id, which is displayed to the top-right of the group circle. Groups are drawn in red if all perceptions belonging to it are perceived as bandit/hostile – otherwise, the group will be yellow (bogie/unknown). If a group contains only coasting perceptions, it will coast – this is shown using a faded (ghost) color. If a group is set as “important”, then it will be surrounded by a white outline. If it is unfocused, then none of its entities will appear. Instead, it will have a transparent fill, with the number of entities written in the center.

All perceived entities are members of a group. However, unless “Show Perceptions” is turned off in the SAD settings, groups that contain only one entity are not shown.

Truth

Truth data can be shown, which is often useful to compare with perceived data. Truth is drawn in magenta, since no other symbol uses that color – this makes truth icons easy to see. Truth entity icons are aligned with their current heading. A chevron shape is used for air domain icons (both aircraft and weapons) – all other domains use a square shape. This allows easy distinction between aircraft/weapons and other platform types.

Situation Awareness Display Settings

The following settings may be set for the SAD:

Option	Description
Ownship Position	Sets the offset position of the ownship on the compass (Centered, Offset, Bottom)
Show Perception	Toggles visibility of Perception entities
Show Truth (Air)	Toggles visibility of Truth entities in the air domain
Show Truth (Other, Non-Air)	Toggles visibility of Truth entities in the non-air domain
Show Friendlies	Toggles visibility of Friendlies (non-flight)
Show Flight Members	Toggles visibility of Flight members
Show Priority Threats	Toggles visibility of Priority threat numbers (Top left of perception entity)
Show Priority Targets	Toggles visibility of Priority target numbers (Bottom left of perception entity)
Show Altitude	Toggles visibility of Altitude in thousands of feet (Middle right of perception entity)
Show Importance	Toggles visibility of Importance as a white outline around entities and groups marked as important
Show Visibility	Toggles visibility of Visual Tally Indicator (Middle left of perception entity)
Show ESM/RWR Tracks	Toggles visibility of ESM/RWR tracks (Large triangle on the inside edge of the compass)
Show Angle Only Tracks	Toggles visibility of angle only tracks (Small triangle on the outside edge of the compass)
Show Route	Toggles visibility of Route/Waypoints
Show FOV	Toggles visibility of FOV lines extending from the ownship
Show Groups	Toggles visibility of Group perceptions (circles)
Show Entity Select Mode	Sets whether entity info is shown on hover or click

Tactical Situation Display

The Tactical Situation Display(TSD) provides the user with a graphical summary of the current ‘Tactical Situation’ using track data.

Tracks

Track entities are drawn using their received identification.

Image	Identification	Symbol
	Bogie/Unknown	Yellow square
	Neutral	White square
	Bandit/Threat	Red triangle
	Friendly	Green circle
	Flight	Blue circle
	Missile	Arrow with circle/square/triangle

Tactical Situation Display Settings

The following settings may be set for the TSD:

Option	Description
Show Air	Toggles visibility of entities in the air domain
Show Ground	Toggles visibility of entities in the ground domain
Show Route	Toggles visibility of Route/Waypoints
Show FOV	Toggles visibility of FOV lines extending from the ownship
Show Entity Select Mode	Sets whether entity info is shown on hover or click

Threat Warning Display

The Threat Warning Display(TWD) displays ESM/RWR tracks along with a possible identification id. To get data into this display, an esm_track_processor must be specified. Depending on the track identification, different symbolism and coloring will be drawn (see below).

Symbol	Identification	Shape	ID
	Default/Unknown	Square	‘U’
	Missile	Diamond	‘M’

Primary Flight Display

The Primary Flight Display(PFD) provides HUD-type data. This includes Pitch, Roll, KCAS, Altitude, Angle of Attack, Vertical Speed, and G-Load. Regions for the data are shown in the table below:

Data	Region
KCAS	Top Left
Altitude (ft)	Top Right
Angle of Attack (deg)	Middle Left
Vertical Speed (ft/min)	Middle Right
G-Load	Bottom Center

Engagements

The Engagements region shows engagement data for target and threat platforms of the source platform.

Data is shown for the platform to the target and target to the platform, as follows:

Data	Description
Range	The range from the platform to the target in nm.
Aspect/AngleOff	The aspect and angle off from the platform to the target in degrees.
Det	The detection range from the platform to the target in nm.
Rmin/Rne/Rmax	The Rmin, Rne, and Rmax WEZ ranges from the platform to the target.
DETECTION bar	Shows a normalized view of the detection ranges for the platform and target, normalized to the higher detection range. Slant range may be shown here as a vertical yellow bar.
WEZ bar	Shows a normalized view of WEZ ranges for the platform and target, normalized to the higher Rmax. Slant range may be shown here as a vertical yellow bar.

Engagements Settings

The following settings may be set for the Engagements region:

Option	Description
Engagement Select Type	Sets how the engagement list is populated. This can be Manual, Threats, or Targets
Units	Sets whether units are displayed in nm or km

There are three ways targets are populated for the engagement region. By default the targeting method is set to manual:

Targeting method	Description
Manual	The engagement list is populated with platforms the user has selected in the Platform Browser.
Prioritized Threats	The engagement list is populated with the prioritized threats list provided by the platforms WSF_SA_PROCESSOR.
Prioritized Targets	The engagement list is populated with the prioritized targets list provided by the platforms WSF_SA_PROCESSOR.

Platform Selection (Non-Functional)

Note

This feature is currently non-functional and will be implemented in a future release.

At the top left of the display a dropdown box is shown allowing for the selection of the current ownship. This may also be cycled through using the previous and next buttons.

Platform Comments

At the bottom right of the display any comments made by the source platform (using WsfPlatform.Comment) will be displayed.

Behavior History

At the bottom right of the display below Platform Comments the behavior history for the source platform is displayed. This will show up to the last 10 behaviors executed by the platforms Advanced Behavior Tree if available (newest behavior executed shown in white).

Countermeasures

At the bottom left of the display, countermeasures are shown. This includes quantity for chaff, flares, and decoys, as well as the current weapon selected.

TSD and SAD Common Features/Settings

Heading

The heading of the ownship in degrees is shown at the top of both the TSD and SAD displays.

Route

The platform route is shown using light gray circles containing the number of each waypoint.

Ownship Position

There are three options that control the offset of the platform and compass within the displays. These include Center, Offset, and Bottom. By default, the Center display option is selected. This provides the most complete and unbiased perspective of the environment.

However, to provide increased resolution of the forward region, the Offset and Bottom options may be selected. These trade off space behind the ownship for greater space and detail ahead of the ownship platform.

Examples are shown below:

Offset	Bottom

Range

The range(nm) for the both displays may be changed by scrolling the mouse wheel up and down in their region. The default range is 160 nm. Scrolling increases/decreases in increments of 5 nm.

Entity Select Mode

More information on an entity in either the TSD or SAD can be obtained by hovering or clicking on it (depending on the mode selected). This additional information will be shown in a window at the bottom, if available.

TSD	SAD