ISR to C2 and Sensor

The dynamic nature of recent conflicts has exposed shortfalls associated with tactical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) support to the warfighter. Solutions being pursued leverage recent advances in autonomy, advanced power efficient processors and communication protocols, automated translation of audio and shared ontologies. The Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) ISR to command and control (C2) and Sensor Planning and Management program seeks to improve the interface between a warfighter and a supporting network of sensors, data stores and analysis services. The program was started in FY2007 and will continue until FY2011. Increments of capability will be made available for field user evaluation starting in FY2009.

The ONR ISR to C2/Sensor Planning and Management program is an effort to build a better interface to the Warfighter by developing mission aware sensor fields that can respond to a Warfighter’s need for information; enabled by a shared ontology of missions and their information needs. The end system will also respond to spoken observations or requests for information through an automated interface with C2/ISR nodes. Distributed agents are used to connect information needs with information sources across an enterprise. This effort requires advances in technology such as smart sensors, the ability to structure information from a spoken observation, development of a shared distributed ontology and knowledge gap management.

The warfighter payoff is greatly enhanced ISR support to current operations. Developed capability will enable the warfighter to receive automated intelligence information from sensors or data stores that has been tailored to the mission, location and situation.