As the number of sensors within the C4ISR space rapidly increases, the need to ensure that a precise COP is generated is essential. As a result, Systematic has developed and deployed a new AI-powered add-on, SitaWare Headquarters Fusion, to help the users of its SitaWare Headquarters software to ensure they can make rapid, critical decisions based on accurate intelligence.

“On the contemporary battlefield an ever-increasing number of sensors and tracking systems exist, such as radars, sonars, and ESM sensors, among others. Each detects and tracks objects within their range of operation. Many have over-lapping coverage areas, and the same track is detected multiple times. This causes a range of duplicated tracks to be reported to C4ISR systems, resulting in a cluttered and confused picture for commanders if presented in this ‘raw’ form. To avoid this situation, all duplicated tracks need to be identified and their information must be merged into a single track containing the most reliable and accurate information,” Henrik Sommer, Director, Defence at Systematic said.

“SitaWare Headquarters Fusion addresses this challenge by undertaking the automatic correlation and fusion of track information from multiple sources into a coherent operating picture– be it in the sea, air, or joint domains,” Morten Bødker, Lead Business Product Manager, Defence, said.

"SitaWare Headquarters Fusion will be a revolutionary game-changer for building recognised picture in the sea, air, and joint command-and-control environments. The role of AI in this application will enable significantly increased speed and accuracy for building a recognised picture, thereby allowing commanders to have a rapid decision-making capability reinforced by a comprehensive recognised domain picture,” Bødker added.

Data fusion and correlation

Drawing from a variety of sensor feed and communications standards, the Fusion add-on undertakes a rapid kinematic analysis of tracks to identify duplicates, before undertaking a correlation analysis of tracks to alert users to conflicting tracks. Combined with a manual override function, the software ensures that AI is working to augment human operators, thereby reducing workload and driving improvements in situational awareness and intelligence-led operations.

The technology has already been applied and proven in the Maritime domain in support of SitaWare Maritime. SitaWare Headquarters Fusion has worked with sensors and open-source data feeds to track civilian and military vessels as well as identify suspicious vessels or unusual behaviour.

Make your intelligence smarter

The integration of AI-supported sensor processing technology comes as Systematic continues to work on improving the flow of data provided to commanders to ensure that critical decisions are made with the highest level of confidence. This integration allows for improved planning, better analysis of the intent of targets, and the ability to strengthen interoperability across friendly forces.

Systematic’s SitaWare Insight platform also helps to integrate the intelligence cycle with the planning cycle, providing the complete management of the Intelligence Requirement Management & Collection Management (IRM & CM) processes. The platform’s utilisation of AI technology helps to reduce the workload on intelligence officers by performing a range of tasks that include machine translation, natural language analysis, document summarisation, and more.

With the improvement in track correlation through SitaWare Headquarters Fusion, the challenging and time-consuming task of identifying the correct potential targets for analysis and investigation is greatly reduced. The addition of this data to the recognised intelligence picture helps support other operations, with the overall data lake benefitting from the addition of processed, structured, intelligence being fed in. Intelligence artefacts can be quickly accessed and utilised to support the planning cycle.

For more information contact Charles Forrester, Communications Manager (Defence), at [email protected].