Deux Ex Machina: Sensor Fusion in Network-Centric Warfare

Description

With the rapid growth of communication and computational capacity, one area of the military that is an obvious candidate for transformation is command and control (C2). Network Centric Warfare (NCW) advocates believe that linked sensors, shooters, and decision makers will be able to plan and execute combat action more rapidly and more effectively than non-linked units. Skeptics of NCW believe it has the potential to place too much emphasis on the technical and tactical aspects of warfare. Another potential weakness of the NCW concept is information overload at all levels of command. Sensor fusion is a method of using computer algorithms to combine information from various sensors into one track to reduce information overload. Sensor fusion algorithms may combine discrete tracks or may combine measurements from two or more sensors. Sensor fusion may involve input from similar sensors, such as two radars, or dissimilar sensors such as a radar and a forward looking infrared (FLIR).