Modelling and implementation of a generic active protection system for entities in Virtual Battlespace (VBS)

Active protection systems (APSs) for combat vehicles have been under development for several decades. During the last few years this technology has matured, and several systems are currently being fielded. Examples of such systems are the Russian-made Arena, Raytheon's Quick Kill, as well as Iron Fist and Trophy used by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). In order to equip entities in our combat simulations with active protection systems, we have implemented a model of a generic hard-kill APS for entities in the simulation tool Virtual Battlespace (VBS). An APS using hard-kill measures generally means that the incoming projectiles are physically intercepted and destroyed or degraded. The modelled APS performs the same sequence of actions as a real APS. It detects, classifies and tracks, and intercepts incoming projectiles. Our generic APS model can easily be configured and calibrated to simulate most existing, and possible near-future, hard-kill APSs. The APS model has been implemented using the VBS scripting language. It can be used by both virtual and constructive entities in VBS. For virtual entities a graphical user interface (GUI) showing the status of the APS has been designed and implemented. This GUI has been implemented in VBSFusion, which is a C++-based application programming interface (API) for VBS.