Determining Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) system effectiveness, and integration as part of force protection and system survivability

Abstract

Situation awareness plays a critical role in all battlefields. It monitors activities, and provides essential information about the battle. It is an operational requirement, high in demand, for the forces to fight the battle smartly and accomplishing the objectives set with minimal casualties. Situation awareness enhances survivability of the fighting forces by avoiding adversary detection and acquisition, achieved via the deployment of a variety of sensors that are part of an effective and integrated ISR system network. This thesis analyzes the impact of ISR system effectiveness and integration on unit survivability, in the context of a combined arms unit. The study was approached using the Nearly Orthogonal Latin Hypercube to generate design points for simulation study. Map Aware Non-uniform Automata (MANA) was used to simulate the behavior of the units in the combined arms unit. During simulation, the parameters are varied to create a changing situation picture, as perceived by the troops. This determines the impact on survivability, by measuring the force exchange ratio between the RED and BLUE force, once the simulation is completed. The sensor capabilities and level of integration between the ISR sensors in the combined arms unit are analyzed based on the simulation results.