Dynamic Operational Retasking of ISR Sensors

"It is widely recognized that improved real-time dynamic retasking of airborne Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance sensors is needed to enable rapid information gathering in support of tactical battlefield operations. Proposed Air Force modernizationplans feature a distributed C2 architecture composed of a confederation of airborne assets including: combat aircraft, multi-sensor command and control aircraft (MC2A), unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned combat aerial vehicles, overhead systems, and groundsensors integrated via radio frequency and laser datalinks. The tempo of modern battlespace operations demand improved capability for production and dissemination of tactical intelligence. This effort will develop planning and resource management toolsthat enable improved tactical intelligence processing through agile retasking control of a distributed confederation of ISR sensors. The tools will enable an improved, distributed operations control capability that will enable responsive cross cueing andexploitation of multi-INT sources through coordinated ISR sensor collection management. Core contributions in optimization-based algorithms for resource allocation and sensor collection scheduling will be extended to enable a rapid retasking capabilityconsistent with information requests typical of tactical ISR battlefield operations. A prototype retasking system featuring an operational console will be developed and interfaced to a