Multisource/multireceiver Tactical Decision Aid

It is proposed to design and build a Tactical Decision Aid for multisource/ multireceiver active sonar systems, as used operationally, and addressing all environmental, tactical and system parameters. These systems and the environment in which they are immersed bring new kinds of complexities that require new methods to analyze. Traditional tactics do not address the issues involved with multiple bistatic sources and receivers. The environment can no longer be idealized as a homogeneous isotropic medium. Sound speed profiles vary dramatically across space, creating transmission loss functions which vary as we move from point to point as well as radially. This level of complexity causes human intuition to function poorly, unless supported by well-designed information displays. These problems are all the more significant in the light of the kinds of military conflict we are liable to encounter in today's world. Regional conflicts with potential adversaries will tend to occur in shallow waters where there is a great deal of inhomogeneity and where background noise is dominated by reverberation. The latter presents difficulties in estimating detection performance, and operational constraints on active ping scheduling to avoid interference.