6 Ways System-Level Digital Twins Support Multi-Domain Defence Operations

Secure and continuous communication, situational awareness, and robust interoperability across systems are all mission-critical for defence operations. Modern defence missions span multi-domain environments across land, sea, air, and space. Countless moving assets must work together seamlessly.

Today, increased geopolitical tensions, electronic warfare, and the growing use of non-terrestrial platforms – such as satellites, UAVs and HAPS – add even more layers of complexity that must be prepared for.

The critical nature of defence operations makes advanced simulation and planning tools indispensable. Here, we explore six ways that system-level digital twins empower defence stakeholders to plan, test, and optimize missions before implementation.

1. Tactical Network Design & Optimization 

 
Secure communication is the backbone of defence operations. Networks must remain robust across contested environments, jamming attempts, and rapid vehicle maneuvers. In addition, spectrum availability can be limited due to the sheer number of networks operating simultaneously.  

With 20 years of experience in wireless network optimization, Magister’s system-level digital twins are ideal for the realistic testing of network performance and resilience strategies. You can simulate the complete communications chain for end-to-end performance analysis.

This includes the physical layer, protocol stack, link budget calculations, and Quality of Service mechanisms.

Our tools make it possible to model, for example, signal propagation, interference, and atmospheric effects. You can also simulate flexible traffic profiles from ISR videos to C2 messages and multi-sensor telemetry.

Through these detailed simulations across diverse environments, you can identify communication bottlenecks and vulnerabilities in the network architecture. This allows you to optimize connectivity between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks – such as 5G and satellite systems – and aerial, ground, and maritime devices.  

2. Cybersecurity & Interference Analysis 

Defence networks operate in contested environments where adversaries actively attempt to disrupt communication. These systems must remain resilient under attack to ensure command and control – also during electronic warfare.

Simulation offers a controlled, scalable environment for safely testing these situations. This makes it possible to replicate electronic warfare scenarios with configurable threat parameters. You can test resilience against various denial-of-service, jamming, and spoofing attacks. Explore spectrum management under jamming conditions. 

In uncertain conditions, you can simulate compromised network integrity including aspects such as node loss, isolation, and network self-healing. You can, for example, evaluate whether networks are capable of autonomous reconfiguration in loss-of-service situations.

Predict communication reliability for high-risk zones and evaluate signal degradation caused by overlapping frequencies. Evaluate how diverse terrains and operational conditions affect network reliability and communication continuity.  

3. Satellite Constellation Planning

 
Satellites are vital for defence communication, navigation, and surveillance. With the growing number of satellites and constellations in orbit, precise planning is essential to avoid interference, collisions, and costly redesigns. 

With system-level digital twins enabled by C-DReAM, you can design LEO, MEO, and GEO satellite constellations tailored to diverse defence mission requirements. Potential use cases can include secure communications, Earth observation, navigation, and other critical applications. These constellations can range in size from tens to even thousands of satellites.

In constellation planning, you can assess spatial and temporal satellite constellation coverage across space, air, land, and sea. This includes satellite visibility analysis for ground and aerial receivers. You can also explore satellite swaths, revisit time, and access window estimations. 

Contested conditions demand careful optimization of satellite networks. Simulation allows you to evaluate performance and resilience under duress, including beam switching and satellite handover strategies, and redundant path utilization across multiple satellites. 

Simulate and mitigate the coexistence and interference of satellite and terrestrial systems, such as 5G. Explore satellite connectivity for military vehicles, aircraft, naval ships, and devices. 

4. Optimizing Aerial Platforms 

Defence applications rely on aerial platforms for a variety of purposes. These platforms typically include airplanes, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) –  commonly known as drones – and High-Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS), which are usually airships.

Similarly to satellites, UAVs and HAPS can act as airborne nodes to extend connectivity in remote and contested environments. However, compared to satellites, they offer more flexibility in positioning and lower deployment costs. Airplanes serve multiple roles in defence, including transport, air superiority, surveillance, and search and rescue. 

Magister’s simulators enable the recreation of complex aerial platform dynamics for airplanes, UAVs, and HAPS. This includes modeling movement patterns, trajectories, speed, and altitude, and communication with satellites, ground and maritime units. You can simulate diverse use cases, such as intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and communication relay. 

Another crucial advantage of simulation is being able to explore patterns for the line-of-sight, overlap, mutual localization, and information exchange of these platforms. This is relevant, for example, for stealth or detection purposes.  

5. Battlefield Mobility

Battlefield mobility refers to the ability of military forces, such as troops, vehicles, and equipment, to effectively move toward a mission objective. Mobility depends on strategic positioning, reliable connectivity, and risk mitigation while adapting to diverse terrains and environments. 

Simulation allows commanders to model troop movements, vehicle mobility, and positioning under changing conditions. For example, they can assess how different distances between network infrastructure and devices impact connectivity and latency. 

In simulation, it’s also possible to optimize resource allocation across units – such as network spectrum and energy usage – to sustain mobility over extended missions.

Being able to explore scenarios virtually helps evaluate the mutual visibility and audibility of sub-units, for example, for stealth operations. By modeling these scenarios in advance, situational awareness can be improved for all key stakeholders. You can also stress-test communication links to remain intact under rapidly evolving scenarios, ensuring information relay.