Risk Assessment for Frontline Troops

Since the start of U.S. involvement in the Middle East following 9/11/2001, field missions in these far field theatres have proven to be extremely dangerous, from IED incidents at the top of the list of potential threats, to RPG and mortar attacks, small arms fire, and vehicle rollover incidents. The use of an effective decision-support mission planning tool that provides an interface for mission planners as to the risk associated with particular mission profiles would be invaluable for providing safer mission route planning. In considering this problem, Infoscitex applied the Phase I research into evaluating the feasibility of the RAFT (Risk Assessment of Frontline Troops) application, which has at its core a Bayesian Belief Network approach to risk assessment that is based on the input of, and interaction between, past and recent mission information and incident reports, field intelligence, and cultural factors that all play a role in determining the inherent risk to our troops while executing day to day missions. Infoscitex has established a distinguished team to address this problem, and have developed an innovative and novel approach to meet the needs of the United States military, that is both realistic and achievable in the scope of Phase II.