Sea Technology

JAN 2018

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32 ST | January 2018 www.sea-technology.com where it is impacting the day-to-day work of the maritime analysts. Scientific Support to the NATO Naval Armaments Group's Above Water Warfare Capability Group. STO's Systems Concepts and Integration (SCI) panel is part of STO's multinational collaborative network of scientists, engineers and analysts. One of the research task groups (RTG) of the STO's SCI panel provided scientific support to improve the effectiveness, reliability and responsive- ness of NATO electronic warfare (EW) assets. Specific contributions included an assessment of EW capabilities, shortfalls and resolution paths leveraged from collabora- tive scientific study and exploitation of NATO's annual Naval Electro-Magnetic Operations (NEMO) trials. The SCI RTG informed NATO's Above Water Warfare Capability Group of its options to enhance the contribu- tions of EW to military advantage, both today and in the future. Robust controls are now in place to conduct fu- ture NEMO trials while using the scientific method. The multinational collaborative RTG produced fruitful joint analyses between the radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) domains. NATO's EW quality will be greatly im- proved when scientifically informed current and future EW needs will be aligned with activities in the operation- al and acquisition domains. Innovative Underwater Communications. Underwa- ter communication capabilities are currently manufactur- er specific, using proprietary digital coding technologies with no interoperable capability between modems from different manufacturers. To fill this gap, STO's CMRE has developed the JANUS (named after the Roman god of portals) modulation and coding scheme, with additional mechanisms to render it practical. It is a standard with a common format for announcing a presence, exchanging low volumes of data and creating an ad-hoc network. JA- NUS is in its final stages of becoming a NATO Standard- indication and warning (I&W;) of features of interest with the underwater battlespace. STO's CMRE has been conducting research toward developing autonomous capabilities to deliver persistent IPOE and I&W; for underwater ISR in high-risk and asym- metric domains. In sea trials, the Centre produced a persistent (two- month-long) environmental characterization, combining observations made by satellites and local robotic net- works (sea gliders). Local ocean acoustic observations were integrated, evaluated and interpreted to deliver knowledge and information at different tier levels. The major focus was on underwater sound speed characteri- zation. This work will allow for the production of high-fi- delity prediction maps of operating environments that can be leveraged and complement maritime ISR systems and NATO-C2 decision systems, suited for both opera- tional and tactical planning. Big Data Analytics for Maritime Traffic Intelligence. Huge amounts of data overwhelm maritime situational awareness (MSA) analysts and challenge workflows. The analysts rely on summary statistics and representative patterns of life (PoL) to understand the organic behavior of maritime traffic, infer trends and extract key indicators related to safety, security, trade, regulatory compliance and port operations. STO's CMRE developed a big maritime data analytics platform by adopting state-of-the-art big data, machine learning and information visualization techniques. The large-scale historical AIS vessel database at CMRE was leveraged to arrive at a prototype Maritime PoL informa- tion Service. Throughout the project, NATO Shipping Centre (NSC) staff were the end-user of the prototype, evaluating it and thereby ensuring the relevance for the operational community. The prototype has been accepted by NSC, AIS and METOC information being delivered to underwater assets using JANUS acoustic communication.

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