Topic POCs:

• Mr. Jay Hodge, Naval Air Warfare Center/Weapons Division

• Mr. Russ Neu, Boeing

• Mr. Bruce Norris, Lockheed Martin

• Mr. Mark Trainoff, Raytheon

Time-sensitive targets require rapid execution of kill chain functions in the face of ever-higher tasking levels for those functions:  (1) mobile and asymmetric target engagements compress decision times; (2) advanced sensors provide high volumes of raw data that must be processed to extract target information; and (3) expectations of precision targeting with little or no collateral damage extend kill chain execution times.

“Accelerating the Kill Chain” will explore all aspects of the kill chain, from new technologies to near-term operational lessons learned, to the legal decisions and processes involved in target selection.  All aspects of the kill chain are open for discussion and technological improvements: combat identification; multi-target tracking and geolocation for rapid target recognition and location; command and control improvements to reduce decision timelines; closing the loop with bomb damage assessment; countering the effects on kill chain speed of camouflage, concealment, and deception; pushing engagement decisions forward to the platform; and the legal and ethical aspects of targeting decision making and how these decisions can be improved to reduce kill chain execution times.

Topic POCs:

• Dr. David Corman, Boeing

• Mr. James Moore, Air Force Research Laboratory

• Dr. Katherine Rink, MIT Lincoln Laboratory

• Mrs. Gisele Wilson, U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense Command

Emerging concepts and technologies will be part of the warighters’ future arsenal and fire control capabilities.  These are the seed-corn for advanced fire control technologies giving tomorrow’s military forces an overwhelming advantage in future conflicts.  This topic will focus on new and emerging technologies (both offensive and defensive) and key initiatives that will help maintain the U.S. warfighters’ edge against an increasingly sophisticated enemy within unconventional military environments. This topic will cover concepts including lethal and non-lethal antipersonnel weapons, emerging weapons and weapon system platforms and their impact on the entire kill chain for various missions and threats.  It will also include human factors considerations, decision and navigation aids, data links, new and novel devices and algorithms, and compelling new techniques that hold great promise for improved military effectiveness.

Topic POCs:

• Mr. Daniel Misch, Naval Surface Warfare Center

• Mr. Douglas Ousborne, Johns Hopkins University/APL

We are witnessing dramatic changes in the strategic environment caused by an enemy who is choosing asymmetric means to attack U.S. and Allied power.  The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) states that “the Nation is involved in a long war - a global war against violent extremists who use terrorism as their weapon of choice and who seek to destroy our free way of life.”  This topic focuses on the fire control implications of asymmetric attack which are unique to the diverse environments (urban, littoral, open ocean, desert, mountainous, trees) where our military must operate, as well as the type of threat (IEDs, WMD, RPGs, UAVs, cheap cruise missiles, and rogue nation ballistic missiles).

Responding to these types of threats presents challenges in situational awareness, threat identification (including determination of hostile intent), rapid engagement response, rules of engagement, endgame guidance and control, countermeasures, and limiting collateral damage.

Abstracts/presentations should address the fire control issues, technologies, and solutions to respond to the challenges of asymmetric warfare.

Topic POCs:

• Mr. Russ Neu, Boeing

• Mr. John Robinson, U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense Command

• Mr. David Rowe, Rockwell Collins

As demonstrated during recent engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, the demands for quick response Close-in Fire Support continues to increase as threats quickly emerge from within urban areas or from extremely rugged terrain.   The response is often complicated by the enemy locating themselves close to or even among civilians.  Forward patrols and observers are given little time to coordinate effective responses to ensure the threat is neutralized while at the same time avoiding friendly forces and minimizing civilian casualties.

This session will explore all aspects of the kill-chain during Close-in Fire Support engagements, including Target Acquisition, Command and Control, and Weapon Systems.  Presentations covering any aspect of CIFS including coordinated response from air, ground or sea are welcome.  Of particular interest are presentations discussing the communication and integration between systems enabling the warfighter to provide a more timely and accurate response to active ground threats.

Topic POCs:

• Mr. Jay Hodge, Naval Air Warfare Center/Weapons Division

• Dr. Katherine Rink, MIT Lincoln Laboratory

• Mr. Roger (Kip) Turner, Air Force Research Laboratory

Target detection, tracking and combat identification are essential components for any fire control system.  Accuracy and timeliness of the fire control solution can be seriously challenged and compromised by difficult battlefield and environmental conditions. Our adversaries will use mobility, deception, decoys, urban clutter, littoral regions, adverse weather, extreme ground topology and sea surface conditions, and asymmetric threats to minimize U.S. targeting system effectiveness.

The fire control problem is further exacerbated by adverse weather conditions and extreme ground/surface conditions.

This topic seeks presentations addressing technological and systemic solutions for detecting, tracking and identifying air, surface, and littoral targets under these adverse conditions.  The topic will attempt to present a balanced overview of current capabilities and also describe developmental efforts which can lead to the desired detection, tracking and combat identification performance in the future.  Presentations are invited which address algorithms and architectures, hardware, software, and system integration solutions to the air, ground, and surface target detection, tracking and combat ID needs.

Topic POCs:

• Mr. Robert Hintz, Naval Air Systems Command

• Mr. Daniel Misch, Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren

• Mr. Patrick Sisson, General Dynamics Information Technology

• Mrs. Gisele Wilson, U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense Command

Advances in directed energy weapons have brought a new capability to the brink of deployment. They have the inherent ability for quick, highly accurate engagement of threats with little or no collateral damage for a hard kill solution. The very nature of the weapon that allows for the highly accurate engagement also presents a new challenge to traditional methods of fire control. The accuracy required can range from a few feet to a few inches depending on the application and relies solely on the host platform’s tracking and aiming capability.

This topic explores the new challenges to fire control for directed energy weapons and their impact on the fire control process.

Topic POCs:

• Mr. James Cech, CACI, Inc.

• Mr. Stanley Schroeder, Lockheed Martin

The emergence of the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense ICD and the JIAMD Roadmap have placed new emphasis on engagement of the multi-mission threats, at home and abroad.  Historical stove pipe cruise and ballistic missile defense systems are giving way to multi-mission systems of systems that are designed to counter the proliferation of the emerging cruise and ballistic missile threats.  Although most of the ongoing acquisitions remain service mission specific, there is a need for force multiplication that will benefit from interoperability (planned and unplanned).  Additionally, there is an expectation that these same DoD systems must integrate in a seamless manner with their civilian Homeland Defense (HD) counterparts.  Key enablers to effective defense against these challenging, multi-mission threats will be the integration of capabilities and information management across the combined (DoD and HD) services.  Power projection abroad will require integration and training with coalition partners to affect interoperability, manage scarce resources, provide multiple engagement opportunities and extend the battlefield. This topic will address current issues, mandates and challenges facing the development, acquisition, integration, testing, training and deployment of integrated fire control initiatives. Areas of interest include combat systems netting, open architecture contributions, combined service (DoD and HD) and coalition command and control structures, concepts of operation, multi-source data fusion and integration (real and non-real time), mission de-confliction, combat identification and composite track management and engagement, automated battle management aids including planning tools, resource management and mission execution, integrated and cooperative weapon and fire control systems and distributed weapons and sensor coordination. Issues, challenges, solutions and demonstrations that demonstrate the commonality with homeland defense and asymmetric warfare are of significant interest.

Topic POCs:

• Mr. James Cech, CACI, Inc.

• Mr. Russ Neu, Boeing

• Mr. Murray Roe, USMC

• Mr. Robert Strider, Missile Defense Agency

Funding for extensive use of “Live Fire” events, that validated the parallel efforts of modeling and simulation, is no longer a given.  Risk mitigation efforts must still be executed; however, costly live fire events must focus on the absolute critical elements required for operator confidence.  As efforts begin to focus on “capabilities based acquisition,” to counter the emerging Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) threats, both at home and abroad, extensive reliance is being placed upon simulation based engineering and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HWIL) testing to reduce cost and accelerate the delivery of the systems.

Demand exists for not only innovation, but concurrency with Homeland Defense initiatives in the integration and testing for emerging IFC systems.  This applies equally to the challenges to match the proliferation of emerging cruise and ballistic missile threats.  The battle space (capability) of the emerging IAMD systems, coupled with the complexity of the threats we now face, forces reliance upon a simulation and HWIL environments that can properly describe the new combat capability.

Exercises, demonstrations and experiments are limited by the costs and paucity of Live Fire range opportunities, especially overland, which will severely limit Live Fire data collections and the testing of concepts of operations.  In the case of Homeland Defense, few opportunities exist to fully test operational systems in a realistic urban environment. Infrequent Live Fire events must provide broad data collection opportunities to justify their costs. At the same time test ranges are making innovative improvements to their capability to reduce cost, improve data collection, and provide concurrent test support to make maximum use of limited Live Fire opportunities.

This topic will address current and planned simulation, HWIL, and live fire activities.  The topic will capture the issues and challenges facing the integration and testing of integrated fire control component Systems of Systems (SoS) and Family of Systems (FoS). Of particular interest will be the opportunities and challenges facing the integration and demonstration activities with Homeland Defense FoS.  Included in this discussion will be the opportunities for at-sea and land-based range utilization, range activities that expand and improve testing efforts, contributions to integration and testing requirements through open architecture, testing of sensor and combat systems netting in a joint environment, integration of joint service command and control structures, concepts of operations for joint/coalition testing, multi-source data fusion for modeling & simulation validation, HWIL testing, operational and technical planning of Live Fire opportunities, and recent, planed IFC exercises and test events. Symmetry with integration and test events associated with homeland defense and asymmetric warfare are of exceptional interest.

Topic POCs:

• Mr. Bryant Centofanti, Northrop Grumman

• Mr. Daniel Misch, Naval Surface Warfare Center

• Mr. Douglas Ousborne, Johns Hopkins University/APL

• Mr. Neeraj Pujara, Air Force Research Laboratory

• Dr. Katherine Rink, MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Modern-day fire control can be achieved from many different platforms, including stand-alone manned platforms (soldier, aircraft, ground vehicle, ship), unmanned systems, as well as cooperative platforms operating across a number of domains and “net-enabled” via high-speed data links. Due to the need for low collateral damage – especially in urban environments - the desired effects from the weapon, whether it be kinetic or non-kinetic, must be surgically-precise and localized.

Since it is well-known that fire control capabilities can degrade in the presence of enemy Electronic Attack (EA), all radars - to some degree or another – include an inherent Electronic Protection (EP) capability against enemy RF jamming.  Similarly, electro-optical/infra-red (EO/IR) targeting systems can be adversely affected in the presence of EO/IRCM. Additionally, EA against the Global Positioning System (GPS), and its ability to provide the necessary Precision Navigation and Timing inputs required of most modern-day weapon systems, also can have a negative effect on fire control efficacy.

This topic invites presentations addressing any aspect of these two broad areas, including:

1. Recent developments in RF or EO/IR targeting systems to mitigate enemy countermeasures,
2. CONOPS/technologies for Fire Control in GPS-denied or communications-denied environments,
3. RF electronic warfare systems (Navy’s Next-Gen Jammer (NGJ), etc.) threat to RF sensors,
4. EO/IR Countermeasures Systems (DIRCM, ATIRCM, LAIRCM, etc.) threat to EO/IR sensors,
5. Information Operations (IO)/Cyber Warfare systems/concepts,

   Spectrum management for effective sensor or communications operations in jamming environments,

• Open Architecture and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) concepts for fire control or electronic warfare,

• Results from field tests, experiments, or deployments.

Topic POCs:

• Dr. Tony Pandiscio, Raytheon

• Dr. Katherine Rink, MIT Lincoln Laboratory

• Mr. Stanley Schroeder, Lockheed Martin

• Mr. John Warnke, Lockheed Martin

Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD), with particular focus on defense against aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles (BMs), continues to evolve from organic sensor-shooter systems to networked sensing and effector elements that support, as appropriate, integrated fire control concepts using non-organic sensors. These net-centric capabilities can expand the defended battlespace, better handle multiple engagement conditions, improve defense against a full spectrum of threats to include ballistic missiles, fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, rockets, artillery and mortars, and improve radar horizon limitations.  But as these fire control options are realized, new IAMD command and control challenges must be addressed. In-force operations’ capabilities must be developed to properly plan for these capabilities, and in engagement operations, capabilities are needed to ensure appropriate contracting between sensors and effectors.  Enablers such as a common air picture, combat identification (CID) and BM discrimination are also required.  Topic papers covering any technical aspect of IAMD are encouraged.  Of particular interest are papers discussing IAMD system architectures and critical integrated fire control enablers such as the generation and use of a SIAP, timely and assured CID and BM discrimination, Counter Rocket Artillery and Mortars (CRAM) capabilities, and automated battle management aides (ABMA).  Topic presentations on integrated fire control testing and resulting lessons learned are also being solicited.

Topic POCs:

• Dr. David Corman, Boeing

• Dr. Gary McCown, SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific

• Dr. Tony Pandiscio, Raytheon

• Mr. Murray Roe, USMC

• Mr. David Rowe, Rockwell Collins, Inc.

Joint warfare relies on systems and services that must interoperate transferring data and information over networks to enhance the ability of the fire control system to successfully complete the mission.  Organic weapon systems are effective, but when integrated with other sensors and weapons, they can become even more capable and efficient. As joint systems leverage shared information to create capabilities that would otherwise not be possible, the true value of joint operations can be achieved.

Numerous Integrated Fire Control Systems of Systems and Family of Systems are currently in various stages of development.  Although most of the ongoing acquisitions are service mission specific, there is an expectation and need for force multiplication that will benefit from interoperability (planned and unplanned).  Key enablers will be the integration of capabilities across the joint services and, as appropriate, coalition partners to affect interoperability, manage scarce resources, provide multiple engagement opportunities and extend the battlefield.

This topic will address current issues, mandates and challenges facing the development and deployment of integrated fire control initiatives including: sensor and combat systems netting, open architecture contributions, joint service and coalition command and control structures, concepts of operation, multi-source data fusion and integration (real and non-real time), mission de-confliction, combat identification and composite track management, automated battle management aids including planning tools, resource management and mission execution, integrated and cooperative weapon and fire control systems and distributed weapons and sensor coordination.  Issues, challenges, and solutions that demonstrate the commonality with homeland defense and asymmetric warfare are also of significant interest.

Topic POCs:

• Mr. James Cech, CACI, Inc.

• Dr. Gary McCown, SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific

• Dr. Tony Pandiscio, Raytheon

• Dr. Katherine Rink, MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Modeling & Simulation (M&S) activities and Wargaming exercises, including the development and execution of highly interacting system models representing weapon systems and tactical scenarios, play an increasingly important role in the development and assessment of integrated fire control capabilities. These efforts are especially critical as traditional single-mission sensors and effectors evolve to support multiple missions and as sensor-effector-target engagement options span multiple services via joint-service tracking and command and control networks. As the number and diversity of these interconnected fire control systems grow, field testing of the resulting “integrated” capability becomes increasingly expensive and logistically demanding, requiring the coordination of assets from across all the services.  A key goal of M&S and Wargaming is to supplement early field testing with cost-effective high fidelity integration and test in a controlled environment that can identify and resolve problems prior to actual field test events.

Topic presentations covering any technical aspect of M&S or Wargaming Exercises are encouraged.  Of particular interest are presentations discussing existing M&S and Wargaming capabilities and lessons learned, trade-offs and limitations of different distributed simulation methodologies, technologies for storing, analyzing and visualizing large amounts of simulation output data, efficient computer processing architectures, and unique verification and validation challenges.

Topic POCs:

• Mr. Norven Goddard, U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense  Command

• Mr. William Moore, Air Force Research Laboratory

• Mr. Douglas Ousborne, Johns Hopkins University/APL

The Cyber arena is quickly becoming the future battleground in which military commanders must operate.  Services have established functional elements within their infrastructure to address various aspects of the cyber environment and increasingly rely on networked solutions and net-centric operations in all aspects of military systems. Presentations should center on critical technical issues and potential technical solutions across the total spectrum of exploitation, information assurance, attack, and defense and their impact on the Fire Control Kill Chain.

Topic POCs:

• Mr. Bryant Centofanti, Northrop Grumman

• Mr. Robert Hintz, Naval Air Systems Command

• Mr. William Moore, Air Force Research Laboratory

Unmanned Systems have emerged from their status twenty years ago as mere curiosities to their status today as a necessary and vital part of the fabric of the modern-day battlefield. Whether we are talking about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Unmanned Ground Vehicles/Systems (UGV/Ss), Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), or Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), all play a significant role in many of today’s combat and non-combat missions and all are becoming more and more ubiquitous.
While many unmanned systems serve to carry intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) sensors or communications relay payloads of some type, several UAV types also have been selected to be weaponized. And now, with the continuance of the Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System CV Demonstration (UCAS-D) program, a larger, dedicated weaponized UAV platform is still being planned for. For all of these reasons, unmanned systems have become and will continue to be an integral part of modern-day fire control.

This topic invites presentations that focus on any fire control-related aspect of these platforms (whether in the air, on the ground, on the surface, or underwater) and will include, but not be limited to, such key topics as:

1. Capabilities and characteristics of the unmanned platforms themselves,
2. Descriptions and capabilities of their current/planned sensor payloads,
3. Networks/architectures/data links for passing sensor data to ground stations and/or to other platforms as part of network-centric operations,
4. Proposed new CONOPS leveraging unmanned systems capabilities,
5. Kill Chain for use with unmanned platforms operating autonomously or in support of manned platforms to support precision weaponry,
6. Tools for timely exploitation/dissemination of data coming back from unmanned systems, and
7. Results of actual field tests/experiments/deployments involving them.

Topic POCs:

• Mr. James Moore, Air Force Research Laboratory

• Mr. Bruce Norris, Lockheed Martin

• Mr. Mark Trainoff, Raytheon

With the future of netted systems coming more into focus with time and with a broadening array of weapons, the options for weapon engagement alternatives increases.  Also, the cognitive aspects of target engagement continue to be of paramount interest and increasing importance as engagement options and limitations, such as minimizing or eliminating collateral damage expand.  As weapons continue to get smaller, one benefit will be the ability for large numbers of them to be carried and employed from various platforms to include Unmanned Autonomous Systems (UASs).  A second benefit of these smaller weapons will be decreasing collateral damage in urban scenarios.  A potential key element of using these smaller weapons in various engagement alternatives will be the need for precise engagement in order to achieve the desired engagement effects.  Also, if the need arises for employing these weapons in urban environments, these small weapons will need to be very agile in order to traverse the complex flight environments in the “urban canyons”.  These engagement alternatives might include the need for these weapons to operate indoors, that will entail the ability to perform obstacle avoidance as well as operating in a GPS-obstructed environment.  “Weapons & Engagement Alternatives” will explore all aspects of weapon engagement alternatives and the cognitive aspects of target engagement.