Multistatic Operator Target Search and Discrimination Aid

Signal Systems Corporation will develop a Multistatic Operator Target Search and Discrimination Aid (MOTSDA) that enables operators to exploit the increased search detection capabilities of future Air ASW designs without workload increases. Using MOTSDA, operators will focus on promising alerts and regions of high interest that are generated by new automatic target discrimination techniques and a new snippet to alert management operator aid. MOTSDA provides an automatic closed loop search and target alertment capability that works across wide geographic areas independent of operator fatigue and proficiency. MOSTDA will improve active sonar system target discrimination performance by using a new classification feature and display. These improvements promise to reduce operator workload and improve target discrimination performance of future Air ASW sonar systems.Key innovations include a confirmation tracklet detector that uses a short number of pings to confirm a target echos presence. A second innovation is a snippet to Bayesian hot spot association function that allows operators to select regions of high target probability and obtain the set of sonar contacts that are associated with this hot spot.