360 Degree Urban Sniper Warning System

In recent years, military engagements have moved from the traditional battlefield to urban or suburban settings. In this environment, security patrols are much more likely to encounter an IED or hidden gunman than an organized (or uniformed) squad of soldiers. The urban warfighter needs the capability to detect potential snipers, at a distance, before they shoot. The challenge is to find potential snipers in a cluttered environment where the sniper may be mostly hidden from view except their eyes, &/or a rifle scope, or gun barrel. Complicating this problem may be non-target glints from a wide variety of sources. SARA proposes a common-housing, Multi-sensor approach to Detection, Recognition and Identification of possible snipers, particularly for friendly units moving through an Urban environment. Some COTS elements will complement essential & unique multi-wavelength optical devices, based on SARA’s imaging and dazzling technologies. Other inventions include electronics and software for detection and cueing. The MSSF system provides an ever-vigilant 360 degree “coverage” such that when a possible sniper is suspected, the MSSF provides an alarm and an annotated image to the operator.