The Command and Control program focuses on developing new approaches to support tactical decision makers and information superiority. This is performed by producing distributed situation assessment of a commander's environment through:
- Development of a common tactical picture
- Developing collaborative, distributed mission plans
- Monitoring and dynamically re-planning mission execution as required
- Understanding the environment by being able to access distributed heterogeneous enterprise information stores intelligently through use of autonomic software
- Effectively using sensor information and making resource allocation decisions and information operations
Specific research involves:
- Real-time computing
- Decision aids and collaborative workspaces
- Secure distributed architectures
- Information warfare methods to protect secure information
Research Concentration Areas
- Management of Coordinated Electronic Surveillance - focuses on representing sensor fusion, optimized resource allocation of sensors and their platforms, and correlating information on naval battlespace objects (surface, subsurface, air and land) as basic applied services within a service-oriented architecture (SOA) or cloud-based enterprise information environment.
- Considerations involve how to automatically adapt fusion and optimized resource management algorithms to take advantage of and leverage existing net-centric services such as additional multiple modality sensors, data and targeting models as well as information constructs to provide fusion-based, track-level services on naval battlespace objects.
- Technical research involves formulation of disparate information integration and sensor resource management algorithms to decompose key sensor, target and clutter models and automatically adapt new models discovered over the network, including integration of multi-INT sources, discovery of smart management of organic sensors and fusion with intel sources.
- Additionally, more effective use of tactical sensors and algorithms in net-centric operations focuses on enterprise services for synchronizing with changing conditions.
- Automated Information Integration Across Enterprise Sensors and Information Stores - focuses on context-based representations of sensor and data fusion to provide autonomic techniques to understand and interpret relationships among objects and entities in the maritime environment.
- Statistical methods — involving adaptation of multivariate spatial-temporal data conditioning and context-aided inferencing for anomaly detection — enable dynamic model validation and knowledge discovery within changing environments and provide quality situation alerts and behavior understanding.
- Technical research involves adapting statistical approaches to develop estimates of threat and impact in the context of maritime domain awareness. This offers higher level situational awareness and knowledge-based services to provide dynamic model discovery, validating anomalies not readily interpretable.
- Mathematical methods focus on uncertainty management for automated situation and threat awareness; automated capability to recognize anomalies and indications of threat intent; and automation for timely, accurate estimation of adversary relations, intent, and speed.
- Automated Information Workflow Management Across Maritime Operations Centers - focuses on autonomic adaptive multi-variate information workflow within a service-oriented architecture, hybrid cloud and legacy distributed information enterprise to support multiple parallel processing algorithms (e.g., forecasters) as well as diverse requirements for multiple users to anticipate future battlespace outcomes.
- Specific approaches in information sciences are requested to handle the volume, variety and veracity of information available to warfighters in operational battlespaces.
- Research in dynamic distributed information management and workflows automating the information gathering process are desired in addition to role-relevant representation and visualization to provide management across multiple users for complex situations.
- Technical approaches involve adaptive software development for tactical (real-time) systems and near real-time command and control systems to share time-critical information across networked information stores over intermittent or disconnected communication challenged environments.
- Dynamic Management Across Wide Variety of Networks - focuses on adapting data workflow over disadvantaged communications-challenged environments.
- Concepts involve developing techniques for increased awareness of relevant data, activities and enterprise status, taking advantage of off-line distributed cloud computing.
- Methods are needed to consider automated support for synchronized planning, coordination and execution of network enterprise resources to meet evolving needs, as well as visualization of performance indicators to manage complex problem spaces.
- Decision-making techniques are used to handle uncertain information, out of sequence information and latent information from disadvantaged networked systems.
Research Challenges and Opportunities
- Forecasting and optimization models to predict red force course of actions
- Enhancing group modeling capabilities to support real-time battle management
- Eliminate manual entry of data by machine to machine exchange of data
- Incorporating warfighter shaping and decision making directly into the optimization loop
- Adapting multi-objective optimization technologies to the complexities of the Carrier Strike Group planning problem
How to Submit
For detailed application and submission information for this research topic, please refer to our broad agency announcement (BAA) No. N0001425SB001.
Contracts: All white papers and full proposals for contracts must be submitted through FedConnect; instructions are included in the BAA.
Grants: All white papers for grants must be submitted through FedConnect, and full proposals for grants must be submitted through grants.gov; instructions are included in the BAA.
PROGRAM CONTACT INFORMATION
Name
Dr. William Krebs
Title
Program Officer
Department
Code 311