Improved Situational Awareness in the Cockpit

Improved situational awareness in the cockpit is only accomplished when the right information is available to the warfighter at the right time. Currently, Department of Defense (DoD) sensors and systems have useful information, but lack the capability to share that information with each other. The DoD Network-Centric Warfare (NCW) initiative has spurred the development of Sensor and Command and Control (C2) networks. As a result, the infrastructure for ubiquitous information sharing is quickly becoming a reality. What is lacking is 1) services to access this information in a timely and efficient manner and 2) services that allow emerging and future networks to operate with legacy networks. Within DoD aircraft, a Real-Time Information into the Cockpit (RTIC)-to-Avionics Gateway (RTAG) can provide these services. Lakota's solution is based on developing a comprehensive information model from which RTAG services will be derived. Our research and development will concentrate on leveraging information technologies developed to address similar problems encountered during the development of the Internet.