An analysis of sensor data path as a "game changer" at the operational level of war

Abstract

This project describes a Systems Engineering approach to validate that variation of the sensor data path at the Operational Level of War (OLW) represents a "game changing" concept to improve Fleet Battle Management through the Naval Planning Process (NPP) in the Maritime Operations Center. The team used Vitech's CORE Model Based Systems Engineering tool to model and simulate the baseline and hypothesized data paths and information processes derived from two mission threads: Counter-Piracy and Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief. Considerations for time-sensitive sensor data included key decisions on tasking, collection, processing, exploitation, fusion, analysis, and dissemination. Modeling and simulation results show that Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) at the OLW provides only a minor improvement to the overall performance of the NPP and a moderate improvement to the number of information requests the Maritime Intelligence Operations Center can fulfill. The results are significant in that they appear to validate an Operational Commander's decision not to directly use UAS to support the OLW. Future research should be directed towards the determination of the capacity of such "game changing" technology to effectively support mature operational environments or be the linkage for other sources of information for mission achievement.