Geolocation of RF Emitters

A need exists for lower-cost, more agile solutions for RF emitter geolocation, appropriate for certain operations not currently supported, and not requiring dedicated EW resources or highly specialized hardware. The ubiquity, maturity, reasonable cost, and extensibility of modern digital RWR systems make that an attractive class of receiver hardware to start from. However while these excel at detecting and identifying RF guided threats, direction finding and geolocalization capability is often a weak point. SSCI sees opportunity to improve this situation. The cornerstone is a statistical data fusion system that opportunistically utilizes any of a number of measurement types. With such a system in place, several advances become possible: 1) Information that isn''t used in current geolocation systems because taken by itself does not lend accurate position fixes, can now be taken advantage of in novel ways. This includes, notably, received signal strength (RSS) and doppler shift (DS). 2) Compatibility with a wide array of sensor capabilities, platforms, and mission configurations (including single-platform). 3) Natural handling of prior information on emitter type and location, extension to provide improved detection association to specific emitters, and tracking solutions for mobile emitters -- all due to the way information is represented and retained. SSCI will be the prime contractor on this project. There will be a subcontract to Raytheon Missile Systems (Dr. Richard Poisel) for expertise in RF receiver systems and practice, and future transition opportunities. BENEFIT: The program will produce a system for geolocating, associating, and tracking emitters associated with RF guided threats. The system opportunistically uses sensor measurements, enabling both improved geolocation, and applicability to a wide array of missions and sensor configurations. The system is designed to make use of existing and planned RWR hardware and as such, incremental costs are kept low, and there is a believable route to transition validated technology into practice.