ISR Manager Application

Challenges

To effectively deal with the increasing complexity of today's threats, decision makers need a high degree of situational awareness. Appropriate and timely information forms the basis for this. Meeting the demand for this information requires effective and efficient use of available ISR systems.

An increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of the use of ISR systems can be achieved through improved operational planning in the area of (Joint) ISR. An analysis of the relevant operational processes and discussions with ISR experts indicate the need for a computer-based assistance system to support ISR management personnel in resource-optimal sensor deployment planning.

This support must be provided in such a way that the process of selecting ISR resources and assigning them to reconnaissance targets is as automated as possible, but the assignment can be traced at any time. Decision-making authority must also remain explicitly with ISR management personnel.

Methods and solution

The combinatorial problem of selecting, allocating and optimizing the deployment plan of ISR resources requires a high computational effort. Therefore, a two-step approach for computer-aided sensor deployment planning was developed as a basis for the assistance system "ISR Manager Application". In the first step, the interactive pre-selection and suitability check of ISR resources for the reconnaissance of the respective targets is performed. The pre-selection is based on the temporal availability and capabilities of the resources such as lifetime, range, standoff capability, and supported IMINT disciplines. The pre-selection is implemented as a filter¬ chain. Within the chain, the individual filters operate independently on the set of available ISR resources. Each filter implements certain selection criteria with respect to the respective reconnaissance goal. The result is a list of suitable ISR resources for each target. This list also represents a preliminary assignment of resources to the respective targets and serves as the input data set for the next step. The second step involves the automatic assignment of ISR resources to targets and the scheduling of information acquisition based on optimization procedures from operations research. Specific constraints such as time windows, priorities, necessary capabilities of the resources with respect to the goals, etc. are taken into account.

In addition, cost factors such as minimizing the potential waiting time of all resources at target arrival, minimizing the total operating time of all deployed ISR resources, and maximizing the number of resolved targets are optimized.

The implemented planning procedure enables the solution of planning problems in the context of long-term planning »Deliberate Planning«, short-term planning »Ad-Hoc Planning« as well as in the context of »Dynamic Planning«.