The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for a new Watercraft and Ship Simulation Facility located next to its Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) in Vicksburg Thursday, March 27, at 10 a.m.

Developed by ERDC-CHL, the Watercraft and Ship Simulator addresses critical needs in harbor design and navigation safety and has become an indispensable tool for optimizing navigation channels, evaluating harbor modifications and enhancing maritime safety across the United States, ERDC officials said.

Officials said the technology can be applied in both civil and military maritime operations and played a crucial role in emergency response and recovery efforts of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse response in Baltimore in 2024.

According to the ERDC, the system precisely simulates ports, harbors, inland waterways and other maritime environments and
accurately portrays currents, wind and wave conditions, shallow water effects, bank forces, ship handling, ship-to-ship interaction, fender forces, anchor forces and tug assistance. The ship-bridge mockups, they said, can work independently or linked together as events occur in real-time with realistic sights, sounds and conditions.

The new 7,500-square foot building will expand on the laboratory’s current simulation capabilities to accommodate an expanding military mission. The new facility will support acquisitions and multi-domain operations through physics-based simulations in the littoral and inland environments and use augmented and virtual reality-based visualization for operational analysis of landing operations in synthetic training and operational environments.

“We’re thrilled to break ground on this project — it’s a major milestone in advancing the ERDC’s capabilities in maritime simulation and modeling,” ERDC-CHL Director Dr. Ty Wamsley said. “This cutting-edge facility will further enable us to support the warfighter in multi-domain operations and guide acquisitions for next generation ship-to-shore operations in a contested logistical environment.”

ERDC officials said that, through this new facility, the organization expects to grow the research and development areas of
autonomous/robotic water and gap crossings, watercraft and vehicle transition characteristics between hydraulic and terrestrial environments, ship-to-shore operations methods and the design and analysis of watercraft to aid acquisitions.

The ERDC is the research organization of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and helps solve the nation’s toughest challenges in civil and military engineering, geospatial sciences, water resources and environmental sciences. As one of the most diverse engineering and scientific research organizations in the world, the ERDC conducts research and development in support of the Soldier, military installations and the USACE civil works mission, as well as for other federal, state and municipal authorities. A part of the ERDC, the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory addresses an entire spectrum of water
resource challenges in groundwater, watersheds, rivers, reservoirs, estuaries, harbors, coastal inlets and wetlands.