Sonalysts Working With Air Force on Satellite Defense Training

By Patricia Daddona, The Day, New London, Conn.

Apr. 7–WATERFORD — Sonalysts, Inc. is working with the U.S. Air Force to develop a training tool to protect the satellites operated by the U.S. and its allies.

Dan Bowdler, a Sonalysts’ vice president with more than 16 years of experience in the development of training, modeling and simulation products, is in charge of the project.

This week, the company won a $750,000 research grant for the second phase. The contract with the Air Force calls for turning a training simulator that works much like a video game into a prototype and adapting it for team use. The commander of a satellite system is typically part of a crew, Bowdler said.

Malicious acts like jamming or interfering with the operation of satellites are called “counterspace” actions in military parlance, said Bowdler. Satellites can also malfunction or be disrupted by weather and solar flares or by debris called “space junk.”

The final training system would simulate the monitoring of safe operations and disruptive events, and help users learn how to correctly identify the type of interference and what might be done to counteract it.

The training system, which is based on successful military gaming systems developed by Sonalysts over the past 12 years, is unclassified, but if the second phase is successful, the Air Force would contract for a third phase and buy the product for classified uses, Bowdler said.

The research grant was awarded through a Small Business Innovative Research contract through the U.S. Small Business Association, Bowdler said.

Aptima, Inc. of Woburn, Mass., which has been involved in the project from the start, will help develop a way to measure users’ performance that will ensure that training is effective.

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