AUTOMATED TERCOM PLACEMENT AND EVALUATION

DETERMINING SITES TO BUILD NEW TERCOM MAPS HAVE PROVEN TO BE A VERY COMPLICATED AND TIME CONSUMING TASK, AS EVIDENCED IN BOTH SIOP CRUISE MISSILE PLANNING AND OPERATION DESERT STORM. THE CRUISE MISSILE PLANNER, WITH SOME DIFFICULTY, CAN DETERMINE NEEDED CANDIDATE TERCOM SITES, BUT ALL TOO OFTEN, BECAUSE OF INSUFFICIENT TERRAIN ROUGHNESS, THE DEFENSE MAPPING AGENCY (DMA) IS UNABLE TO CREATE A TERCOM AT THIS LOCATION. ACCORDING TO DMA, AS MANY AS 90% OF THE TERCOM REQUESTS THEY RECEIVE ARE INFEASIBLE OR REPEAT INFEASIBLE REQUESTS. AS A RESULT, THE PLANNER IS LEFT WITH UNSATISFIED TERCOM NEEDS, AND DMA'S TIME IS WASTED. SCT PROPOSES TO DEVELOP AN INTERACTIVE GRAPHICS PROGRAM WHICH INTEGRATES OUR OPERATIONALLY PROVEN CRUISE MISSILE ROUTING ALGORITHMS WITH DMA-ENDORSED TERCOM SITE VALIDATION CRITERIA. THIS PROGRAM WILL PROVIDE A WINDOW BASED USER INTERFACE WITH GRAPHICAL PLOTS, OPTIMAL PATH COMPUTATIONS, DATA MANAGEMENT OF PAST AND PRESENT TERCOM REQUEST, TERCOM SITE VALIDATION TESTS, REQUEST FORM PRODUCTION, AND MESSAGE HANDLING BETWEEN DMA AND THE JSTPS. THIS NUCLEAR PLANNING TOOL WILL RESULT IN TERCOM REQUESTS BEING SENT TO DMA WHICH ARE NOT ONLY FEASIBLE, BUT WHICH TRULY SATIFY THE CRUISE MISSILE ROUTING NEEDS.