Simulation & Wargaming

Every domain. Every threat class. One defense simulation engine.

Most wargaming tools model one slice; a missile threat, an air engagement, a naval scenario. Empyrean's defense simulation models all of them simultaneously, with physics-grounded engagement resolution running in Rust, an electronic warfare simulator that degrades sensors the way real jamming does, and AI adversaries that fight according to published doctrine. It all runs on the same COP, fusion pipeline, and policy engine your operators use in live operations; not a separate training system. Author a scenario in minutes and learn from the physics.

The Problem

Wargaming in defense falls into two buckets: tabletop exercises that lack physics, and purpose-built simulators that cost millions, model one domain, and are disconnected from the systems operators actually use. Neither teaches the right lessons. Tabletop exercises can't tell you whether your SHORAD battery has enough magazine depth to survive a 30-threat saturation attack. Single-domain simulators can't show you what happens when an EW jammer degrades your search radar while a salvo of cruise missiles approaches from a different azimuth. And when training happens on a different platform than operations, the muscle memory, interface familiarity, and trust operators build never transfers to the real fight. The threat environment demands better. Drone swarms, hypersonic missiles, electronic attack, subsurface threats, and coordinated multi-domain strikes don't respect the boundaries between simulation tools. Organizations need a way to rehearse realistic, multi-domain scenarios with real physics consequences; affordably, repeatedly, and on the tools they'll use when it matters.

Who Has This Problem

Mission planners and exercise designersAir defense, GBAD, and CUAS operatorsTraining and readiness commandsSensor and effector vendors validating integrationAcquisition teams evaluating force architecturesRed team and CTF organizers
Taiwan Strait joint all-domain operation with PLAN/PLAAF strike packages, shore-launched missiles, and EW against US GBAD on Taiwan with Arleigh Burke DDG and CG interceptors
Wargame mission briefing lobby with scenario selection and ORBAT
Visual Mission Editor with entity placement and waypoint drawing
Live wargame simulation with engagement arcs and sensor beams
Entity card compendium browser with sortable grid, SIDC symbology, and detailed card inspector

How It Works

01Author scenarios in a visual Mission Editor. Place entities; fighters, SAMs, radars, UAS, naval vessels, infrastructure; onto the map, draw flight paths, set activation times, and compose weapon systems from formation templates with fire-control dependency edges. A Patriot battery isn't one icon; it's a radar, ECS, and launchers wired together. Destroy the AN/MPQ-65 and the launchers lose guidance. Need a 30-drone swarm? Eight spatial dispersion patterns, staggered or ripple timing, and automatic target distribution across hostile infrastructure; compose a complex threat salvo in seconds, not hours. Scenarios range from a single GBAD site to a full joint all-domain operation with hundreds of entities across multiple factions.
02Run contested multi-domain engagements with physics that matter. Missile fly-outs use proportional navigation with lofted midcourse trajectories, seeker acquisition, and MaRV evasion. Six-mechanism warhead effects model blast, fragmentation, kinetic, shaped charge, penetration, and thermobaric damage against subsystem-level targets. Gun-based C-RAM with STANAG 4355 ballistics and AHEAD airburst. Directed energy with atmospheric extinction and thermal state management. Naval warfare with torpedo guidance, mine triggers, and sonar physics. Wind degrades sUAS stability, rain attenuates radar, and visibility affects EO/IR sensors; the environment is a participant, not a backdrop. All computed in Rust.
03Electronic warfare isn't a checkbox; it changes outcomes. Entity-bound jamming degrades sensor detection probability based on frequency, direction, range, and power. Decoys and false targets fool radar while EO/IR sensors see through them. Sub-munition separation spawns RVs and MALD-J decoys mid-flight. Electronic protection on defending sensors fights back with sidelobe blanking, frequency agility, and adaptive nulling. The EW model is the difference between a scenario where your defenses work and one where they don't.
04Exercise layered defense with real consequences. Infrastructure systems fail in cascades; destroy the generator and watch backup power exhaust, then comms go dark, then fire control degrades. Progressive structural weakening means repeated strikes soften hardened targets before penetrators breach them. Magazine management tracks every round across mixed batteries. Cooperative Engagement Capability lets a neighboring battery's sensor provide fire-control quality tracks when organic radar is destroyed; CEC fallback restores engagement capability. ROE modes gate engagement authority. Run out of interceptors and you learn Winchester the hard way.
05AI adversaries fight according to published doctrine; not omniscient game AI. PRC/PLAAF, Russian VKS, NATO, and insurgent behavior trees drive targeting priority, weapon selection, commit/abort logic, defensive reactions, and egress. Strike packages prosecute ground targets by strike value while CAP escorts protect the formation. DEAD aircraft commit through SAM zones with anti-radiation missiles. RWR-driven threat avoidance means aircraft only react when they're actually painted by a hostile sensor; no omniscient knowledge of effector ranges.
06The simulation runs inside the same platform operators use in live operations; same COP, same map, same overlays, same fusion pipeline, same policy engine. The only thing that changes between training and operations is the data source. The architecture supports ground truth and fusion-only modes; in fusion-only mode (coming soon), operators see only what their sensors detect through the real fusion pipeline, not god's-eye markers. Judgment built in simulation transfers directly because the tools and the interface are identical.

What's Under the Hood

Rust engagement engine with six-mechanism warhead effects: Kingery-Bulmash blast, Gurney fragmentation, kinetic hit-to-kill, Birkhoff shaped charge, Young's penetration, and thermobaric overpressure. Miss distance drives Pk; not lookup tables.
Doctrinally-aligned AI behavior trees for air combat: PRC/PLAAF, Russian VKS, US-NATO, and insurgent presets with per-faction weapon selection, commit ranges, defensive reactions, and RWR-driven threat avoidance.
Beam-gated sensor models with RCS and IR signature scaling, atmospheric attenuation, rain, clutter, and EW degradation. Rotating radars sweep their beam; they don't detect omnidirectionally with flat probability.
Full electronic warfare triad: entity-bound EA with frequency-selective jamming, decoys and false targets with sensor-type-dependent classification, sub-munition separation, and EP with sidelobe blanking, frequency agility, and adaptive nulling.
Surface and subsurface naval warfare: torpedo guidance (5 modes), mine triggers (7 types), USV ramming, and full sonar physics with sound speed profiles, convergence zones, thermocline modeling, and reverberation.
Directed energy weapons: HEL dwell-to-kill with Beer-Lambert atmospheric extinction and HPM pulse-to-fry with 3D area effect. Thermal and power magazine state machine. Engagement priority: HPM, HEL, Gun, Missile.
Gun-based C-RAM/SHORAD: STANAG 4355 ballistics with G5/G7 drag, 2D Gaussian dispersion, AHEAD sub-projectile airburst modeling, and dual-magazine tracking for systems like Pantsir and MADIS.
Formation templates with fire-control dependency edges and Cooperative Engagement Capability. Destroy a battery's organic radar and CEC fallback from a neighboring sensor restores launcher guidance. Sensor-to-shooter is modeled, not assumed.
Scenario environment model: wind with gusts and calm periods, rain rate, visibility factor, and time of day; all broadcast per-tick and affecting engagement outcomes. sUAS exceeding crosswind limits are killed by weather. The environment shapes the fight.
Infrastructure cascade failures with timed propagation, progressive structural degradation (power-law concrete weakening), and subsystem-level damage that compounds across repeated strikes.
Visual Mission Editor with batch threat generation (8 dispersion patterns, composable builder, auto-target distribution), formation templates, NLE-style timeline, and scenarios from a single CUAS site to full theater-level JADO.
Deterministic replay (same seed = identical results), headless CI mode for automated regression, three ROE modes with manual engagement, and LLM-narrated scoring analysis.

Not a Standalone Simulator

This is where Empyrean's simulation diverges from every other wargaming tool on the market. The simulation engine doesn't exist in isolation; it feeds synthetic detections through the same fusion pipeline, policy engine, and common operational picture used in live operations. Sensor data from the simulation stresses the fusion engine the same way real sensors do: noisy, intermittent, multi-modal, and contradictory. Operators train on the real interface. Vendors can validate their sensor and effector representations against the physics models and see their platforms represented in scenario demonstrations. Acquisition teams can evaluate force architectures before committing procurement dollars by building the scenario and running it. The entity card library is continuously expanding across air, ground, surface, subsurface, EW, and infrastructure domains. Faction equipment access enforces doctrinal realism; each operational faction resolves to the correct set of platforms, sensors, and weapons. New cards, weapon systems, and scenarios are added regularly as the research team and operational partnerships grow. Sensor and effector vendors: contact us to discuss validation partnerships. Have your platform represented in the entity card library with OSINT-derived or vendor-provided performance data for customer demonstrations and integration testing.

← All capabilities

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Empyrean Defense

See the simulation engine in action

From a single GBAD site defending against inbound missiles to a full joint all-domain operation with air combat, electronic warfare, naval engagements, and infrastructure targeting; see how physics-grounded wargaming changes the way your team plans, trains, and makes decisions.