Shock and Awe — Achieving Rapid DominanceUllman, Harlan
History
Shock and Awe — Achieving Rapid Dominance
Ullman, Harlan
Rapid dominance (Military science)
Other passive sensor technologies of note include hyperspectral
visible/NIR collection and processing and inexpensive, scatterable,
unattended ground sensors (acoustic, seismic, "hot spot," etc.).
Hyperspectral imaging allows target searches to be conducted in the
frequency domain, as opposed to the spatial domain as is the norm
today. This provides a powerful new input for automatic target
recognition (ATR) systems, is useful for addressing low observables
(LO), and is especially important for remote imaging assets.
Unattended ground sensors allow critical areas to be monitored
continually. For example, the actual area of operations for Scuds in
ODS was relatively small, but it was very difficult for then-current
sensing systems to oversee. Technologies being developed in the area
of microelectromechanical systems, in particular, hold promise for
enabling capable and inexpensive sensor fields.
_Imbedded sensors:_ Monitoring the position and status of Blue and
friendly forces and assets is of equal importance in tracking the
enemy. GPS presented a tremendous advantage to troops in ODS. This
capability needs to be extended down to the individual soldier, and
the status of all critical material and personnel needs to be tracked.
_Sensor signal processing:_ Finally, the signals from modern sensors
are of limited use without proper processing and presentation to the
user. This area will be developed further in the computational
technologies section. Technologies that are historically grouped with
sensor systems include automatic target recognition, imbedded
multisensor fusion and correlation, and displays.
Computational Technologies
The capabilities of the integrated circuit (IC), and in particular the
microprocessor, continue to increase unabated. Certainly, physical
limits must be approached at some point, but each looming barrier has
so far been met by technological innovation. Nevertheless, should the
march of IC improvements slow somewhat, the software and networking
technologies that are being developed at an accelerating pace will
permit the vision of Rapid Dominance to become of ever increasing
utility.
Rapid Dominance requires the collection, management, and fast access
of enormous quantities of information. Technologies that will enable
this include computational hardware advances such as increasingly
powerful workstations, reduced-cost image generators, massively
parallel machines, compact displays, reduced-cost memory devices
(i.e., DRAM, RAID, and optical jukeboxes) client/server-specific
database engines, reconfigurable simulation cells, "wearable" PCs,
advanced human-computer interface (HCI) techniques (i.e., voice
interfaces and those coming to define "virtual reality"), and PCMCIA
technology for peripherals (i.e., digital comms boards, miniaturized
hard drives, and modems).
Software advances will be even more critical for Rapid Dominance.
Areas of importance include:
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