REALIZING THE POTENTIAL OF TOTAL PLATFORM SENSOR DATA FUSION

TOTAL PLATFORM SENSOR DATA FUSION CONCEPTS CAN YIELD PERFORMANCE GAINS TO SHIPBOARD AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS THAT MITIGATE THE PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENTS FOR EXISTING AND PROJECTED ANTI-SHIP MISSILE AND AIRCRAFT THREATS. THE PERFORMANCE GAINS IN FUSION ARE IN ITS ABILITY TO PROVIDE A CONCISE, ACCURATE, AND TIMELY TACTICAL TARGET SCENE. THE ESSENCE OF THE DESIGN APPROACH IS TO PROCESS ALL OF THE INFORMATION GENERATED BY EACH OF THE SENSOR SYSTEMS (KINEMATIC AS WELL AS TARGET ATTRIBUTES) TO BUILD SINGLEOR MULTIPLE-HYPOTHESIS TACTICAL SCENES IN REAL TIME USING RULE-BASED INFERENCE AND CLASSIFICATION PRODUCT OUTPUTS TO CONTROL THE COMPUTATIONAL REQUIREMENTS, AND TO OPTIMIZE THE HYPOTHESIS SELECTION PROCESS FOR TIMELY PRESENTATION TO THE TACTICAL OPERATOR. PHASE I OF THIS EFFORT WILL BE A COMPLETE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE APPROPRIATE SENSOR SYSTEMS THAT FEED INTO THE CORRELATION AND FUSION ALGORITHMS. THE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE APPROPRIATE SENSOR SYSTEMS THAT FEED INTO THE CORRELATION AND FUSION ALGORITHMS. THE CHARACTERIZATION WILL LEAD TO A SET OF COMPUTER MODELS THAT RELATE THE SENSOR OBSERVABLES TO THE TARGET STATE. THE COORDINATE TRANSFORMATIONS BETWEEN SENSOR AND TARGET COORDINATES, THE NONLINEAR MATHEMATICAL EQUATIONS RELATING THE TWO SETS OF COORDINATES, THE STATISTICAL PROPERTIES OF SENSOR NOISE, CLUTTER, AND FALSE ALARM SPECIFICATION, AND SENSOR DEGRADATION DUE TO ADVERSE WEATHER AND TARGET JAMMING CHARACTERISTICS WILL ALL BE DEFINED AS PART OF THIS PHASE I EFFORT.