Automation of Nuclear Arsenal Awareness

ABSTRACT: Situational Awareness (SA) for the country"s nuclear arsenal currently relies on manual processes for correlation and compilation of disparate data sources. The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center (AFNWC) Sustainment and Integration Center (STIC) needs automation in correlating data and compiling their SA reports. Net-centric technologies and proper application of state-of-the-art visualization frameworks have produced successful SA software solutions currently in use by AFRL/RV and other agencies. The STIC is a great candidate for the next success story, as it is involved in many organizations and its mission is critical to national security. TechFlow Scientific, a division of TechFlow, Inc., has developed proven interoperable, net-centric, enterprise tools that provide SA and decision support for battlespace awareness. TechFlow Scientific couples this expertise with an extensive background in nuclear and electromagnetic effects to offer a novel net-centric data fusion tool for SA that automates the process of data correlation and SA report compilation, exports to various reporting formats, includes a common/user defined operating picture (C/UDOP)"dashboard"display, and supports intelligent SA report dissemination and archiving. TechFlow will exploit its corporate expertise in successfully integrating emergent technologies into C/UDOP SA software solutions to ensure the proposed solution is both innovative and feasible. BENEFIT: The anticipated benefits of executing this SBIR program are: more efficient operations at the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center (AFNWC) Sustainment and Integration Center (STIC); a clearer situational analysis product; a faster response time to short-term requests; the capability for rapid action should crisis arise; improved data dissemination due to a persistent access location, elimination of version conflicts, and secure access; more manageable data archiving as a result of smaller file size and an open data format that eliminates dependence on specific software versions. Potential commercial applications of the solution include providing data fusion solutions to create actionable situational awareness for military, law enforcement, and industry. TechFlow"s proposed data fusion solution can be adapted to serve pressing needs in the Military, such as detecting the presence of a terrorist attack and quickly identifying its scope and severity in a highly populated urban environment. TechFlow"s solution will also benefit law enforcement agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and local police and fire fighters by applying these technologies in operations centers handling wildfires or other rapidly evolving emergencies. Industrial users could also benefit from data fusion tools in responding to industrial disasters such as the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon and the ensuing tragedy of the Gulf oil spill. These agencies all have a technical problem very similar to that addressed in this proposal: the need to fuse disparate information sources, with uncertain data integrity and currency, into a common SA dashboard suitable for C2 decisions. TechFlow anticipates developing such opportunities to broaden the applicability of this work into this and other markets.