Hello everyone! Today we are happy to announce that MACE 2019R2 is now available for download as an official release. Before we get into our summary of the new features, I would once again like to extend a sincere “thank you” to everyone who helps us continuously improve MACE. It is extremely fulfilling for us to see people using our software. If you are a MACE user and find yourself saying “if only these guys would add such and such a feature, it would make my life so much easier/help meet additional training objectives” – then please tell us! Many of the best ideas for MACE improvements come from you, our existing customers.

There are many improvements in this version of MACE; this document contains a summary of those improvements, but if you encounter any changes to the MACE user interface not mentioned in this document, please reference the MACE 2019R2 User’s Manual and the MACE 2019R2 Plug-In User’s Manual (both of which install with MACE). In general, as with every release, we have grouped our improvements into several main categories, including:

It’s quite common in large scenarios to have a battlespace that scales from large areas that encompass all players to small scale areas that cover a very small geographical area. When zoomed out, entity icons may overlap, making precise selection of an entity of interest more difficult. The “Proximity” context menu is meant to assist in these scenarios, allowing the user quick access to entities whose map icons lie under the currently selected icon.

It’s not uncommon for users to want to quickly change out or delete all entities of the same type within a particular scenario. From the entity context menu, users can now select any instance of the entity type they want to change and select all entities of the same type from the context menu. NOTE: You can also hold down SHIFT and double click on an entity to select all entities of that same type.

The threat library files and SGE have been updated to allow radar jamming by parameter matching (frequency, PRI, and PW). In addition, radar devices now accept jamming from both a jammer targeting the radar and a jammer whose signal band passes the radar receiver.

To specify that you want the jammer to ‘jam by parameter’, set the ‘Use Parameter Matching’ property to ‘True’ and enter the upper and lower limits for frequency, PRI and pulse width (PW), as shown below:

The purpose of this is to provide a framework that allows for unintended jamming consequences, where the jammer is responding to a signature and not an explicit system. This will allow the simulation of unintended ‘blue-on-blue’ (or red-on-red) jamming.

Even if not the target of jamming, MACE 2019R2 will now assess impacts of jamming on receivers who are not the target of the jamming, but who are geospatially positioned such that they are still receiving jamming transmissions. This is to further improve MACE’s ability to simulate unintended jamming consequences and saturated signal environments.

A new device type to assist in simulating radar receivers such as RWRs or ELINT receivers is now available. The new device type has modes and an associated UI in the Emitter Editor that are specifically targeted at RF receivers.

Indirect terrain masking is now calculated for radars not using MTI or Doppler to eliminate ground clutter. if the radar resolution cell includes both terrain and target, the target is considered obscured.

​You can now define a rotating RCS – for example, to characterize the RCS of helicopter blades. A single RCS value is specified but now the value for MTI or Doppler radars is varied. This value is based on a generic blade speed and length where only the RCS of the portion of the blade moving faster than the notch value is returned. The value takes into account blade orientation (assumed by entity orientation) relative to the threat radar. e.g. A Doppler radar looking directly down on a helicopter will get no return from the blades assuming the helicopter is in level flight.

You can set this value in the definition for a given Platform, using the Mission Object Configuration Tool (MOCT), as shown below.

ESA – (Electronically Scanned Array, includes PESA and AESA radars) is an emitter definition scheme where MACE will generate one new TTR beam per target. Each beam has its parameters modified to best track that target. ESA scheme emitters have ‘ESA = True’ in the device descriptors and reserve ModeGroup IDs starting from 100, for target tracking modes. ESA emitters will send and be updated by the RADARTrackReport messages in addition to the EE PDU.

The SGE code script editor has been changed to enhance script editing in the Emitter Editor. In addition, SGE mode scripts have been built for Low Probability of Intercept (LPI) radars to adjust power and PRI based on target distance and to turn on/off Doppler or MTI based on radial velocity of the target.

MACE 2019R2 includes some significant improvements to the 5-Line for our Joint Fires customers, including the ability to specify different targets and weapons during the approach, pop and dive phases of the attack.

• Support for Run-In (similar to 9-Line), Loiter, and Stand-off attacks
• Battle Position – new in 2019R2, you can now specify a ‘known point’ to use as your Battle Position.
• New in 2019R2, you can now control up to 4 Assets on the 5-Line (up from 2).

MACE now supports the tasking of rotary wing assets on the 9-Line as well as the 5-Line. Also new in 2019R2 is support for dynamic selection of different weapon fuse options on the 9-Line, as shown below:

The Tactical Display is designed to allow the user to view and control a MACE scenario without interacting with the MACE map. It can be toggled to show a ‘God’s Eye’ (white force) view showing all entities in the battlespace, or a sensor view based on what the ownship sensors are detecting. User input can be captured via either mouse or HOTAS input.

The Tactical Display will be provided free-of-charge to all MACE-EW license holders upon request.

Power and wavelength are now modified by MACE at runtime for specific IR sources. Most entities have a source defined for engine heat (adjusted for engine power level), engine exhaust plume (adjusted for afterburner), and aircraft skin heating (adjusted by Mach number).

• Dedicated datalink setting per platform; much easier handling multiple messages from multiple platforms.
• Auto group similar J3 entities.
• Full J12.0 receipt compliance and WILCO/CANTCO/HAVECO

The TDL form now allows displaying J3 Track, J12.0 Mission, J28.2 & K01.1 Chat messages for all entities in the mission. With the entity specific TDL form expanded, or from the Mission Settings view, select All Entities in the top left filter and TDL messages that can be displayed for all entities will be selectable.

Enabling network propagation modeling is now persisted with missions and when enabled, will display additional information about the networks signal strength between radios to include displaying information about the radio being powered off or affected by jamming.

MACE 2019R2 supports ‘auto-routing’ (navigation) for vehicles. You will need to be connected to BSI’s Worldwide OSM Road Vector database to enable this feature. All you need to do it place the vehicle into pathfinding mode, and then hold CTRL and right-click on your destination(s). MACE will automatically find a route to that destination. If the data for that area includes information such as one-way roads, the routes will be cognizant of these restrictions. EZ traffic generation now uses this feature as well.

RVO2 collision avoidance adds predictive logic to lifeforms causing them to avoid collisions with other platforms before collisions would occur.

Traffic Lights have been added to MACE to help manage road traffic. There is a new section in the MACE User’s Manual that covers this topic (‘Traffic Light Controls’).

NOTE: There is some content that we add to the main MACE application, and other content that we add to MACE using the plug-in API. This is to keep the user interface as clutter-free as possible while exposing capability to other those customers that want/need it.

As a result, we have decided not to cover the plug-in capabilities in the main MACE User’s Manual, but instead to create a separate document, the MACE Plug-in User’s Manual, where all plug-in capabilities are covered. Both of these documents install with MACE.

The Multi-Platform Property Viewer plug-in presents a summary of all entities in the mission and their key properties. You can select which properties are displayed or not displayed, filter the entity list, reorder columns, and sort by columns. The plug-in will also display equipment info for the selected entity and allows you to center the map on any entity. Note that the property grid is currently read-only.

The Ground Moving Target Indicator Format (GMTIF) message plug-in transmits and receives NATO STANAG 4607 messages from blue air platforms with ground search radars. The messages can be sent from any selected platforms to any number IP addresses required. The GMTIF plug-in is found in the MACE System Settings dialog under the tab “GMTIF”.

Full featured integration including HUD, camera, vehicle attachments, weapon effects and sounds.

Muzzle flashes illuminating the ground, variable intensity, duration, and color detonations.

Shapes created in MACE can now be viewed in ARMOR via the ARMOR plug-in.  Please see the ARMOR User’s Manual for more information on this topic. 

Overall, 2019R2 is capable of generating between 3,000 and 3,500 internal entities, depending on entity types and system hardware.  Even higher numbers of external entities are possible.  Overall, this represents a 25+% improvement over 2019R1 and a 300+% improvement over 2018R1.

We highly recommend MACE be run on a hex-core CPU or better, and on an nVidia 1060 card or better.

• Includes support for DIS Transfer of Ownership