Cirrus Awarded GCS Upgrade Contract

Sydney-based SME Cirrus Real Time Processing Systems has been awarded a contract to upgrade the functionality of the RAN’s Generic COMCEN System (“GCS”) simulation training system.

The GCS provides a synthetic environment within which Navy’s Communications and Information Systems (CIS) personnel learn to operate the communications and networking equipment within a modern naval Communications Centre (COMCEN), with the interactions of the equipment types with each other and the physical environment simulated to enable the creation of end to end communications circuits and tactical networks.

Cirrus’s managing director Peter Freed said, “Under the contract award, Cirrus will upgrade the GCS to extend the range and fidelity of communications systems represented within the GCS and provide additional instructor workstation capacity for the development and refinement of courseware in parallel with training activities.”

The GCS allows instructors to easily reconfigure the system to represent the COMCEN’s of different vessels and incorporates an Integrated Learning Management System (ILMS) which manages training data and simplifies administrative functions, freeing instructors to focus on knowledge transfer. Cirrus delivered the GCS to the Defence Force School of Signals (DFSS) Maritime Communications and Information Systems Wing (MCISW) at HMAS Cerberus in 2018, and the GCS has been in operational use since that time.

“A key element in the success of the GCS development has been Cirrus’ close collaboration with the DFSS MCISW instructors, and I’m very pleased that the work under this contract will continue this collaboration,” Mr Freed added.

Cirrus is Australia’s leading developer of advanced simulation training systems addressing the operation of complex military systems and the development of mission skills.