I
INSIDE INDUSTRY
12 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015 www.vanguardcanada.com
It sounds – and looks – like a tremendous
amount of work, but the Navy doesn't
want to install new systems onboard its
ships only to discover that they don't ac-
tually work, and the government isn't too
keen on paying to repeatedly install and
remove them. Copeland explains that, as
Combat Systems Integrator for the Hali-
fax-class frigates, 85% of the requirements
Lockheed Martin Canada is expected to
deliver are proven at the MATTS facility.
"You'll see antennas on the roof, we have
radiation capability … and we float aircraft
to prove it for the radars," he says.
Certain things, like firing missiles, are
difficult to launch from a crowded business
park in Dartmouth, but that doesn't mean
that Lockheed Martin can't test those sys-
tems. Using sophisticated simulation soft-
ware, the building becomes a ship with
a course and speed, and equipment can
be run through any number of possible
(including highly improbable) real-world
scenarios to evaluate performance and
check for glitches.
Copeland points behind me. "That's
what these cabinets do. They are actu-
ally simulation, stimulation and emula-
tion cabinets," he says. "What they do is
provide the various points in the system to
really find out how it will react in a real en-
vironment. You can put 5000, 6000 tracks
on a system and really try and see how it
handles and manages it."
It's definitely – to put things into non-
academic terms – cool, but Copeland isn't
done. "Geospatially, part of the proving of
our system is to have the operators come
in and work in here," he begins. "This can
MATTS Seawolf Operations
Trainer, where RCN officers
sweat it out under challenging
simulated conditions.
One view of MATTS'
expansive Production
Test Facility.
The MATTS facility houses a
Seacot Trainer Classroom.
Photos: Lockheed Martin
Canada.
"I stare around the room, taking in the range
of shipboard systems that have been tricked
into thinking they're blip-bleeping away on
one of Canada's warships."
