New intelligent network sensor system to improve situational awareness and troop safety

Citation

(2006), "New intelligent network sensor system to improve situational awareness and troop safety", Sensor Review, Vol. 26 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2006.08726aab.005

New intelligent network sensor system to improve situational awareness and troop safety

New intelligent network sensor system to improve situational awareness and troop safety

Keywords: Sensors, Military

Serco and five partners have won a £13m two-year contract to design, manufacture and supply the Ministry of Defence with an advanced network sensor management system able to intelligently fuse the output from a wide variety of sensors, including those detecting and identifying chemical, biological or radiological attacks. Serco will supply the nine integrated sensor management systems (including a quantity of network biological sensor systems) to the MoD's nuclear biological and chemical (NBC) integrated project team (IPT).

In the face of the possibility of an attack using NBC weapons, there is a need to quickly and accurately present local commanders with an integrated sensor picture, removing the man from the reporting loop. The challenge is to provide an intelligent and integrated network of CBRN sensors that will be able to feed fused data into the NBC battlefield information system application (BISA).

In addition to supplying the new systems, the contract also includes the supply of new bio-detectors. These will meet the challenge of reducing the number of biological false positive alarms, which prompt soldiers to take unnecessary precautions. Innovation is brought to the system by Serco's mathematical modelling work in data analysis, which considerably enhances the detector performance, enabling it to recognize “interferents” – such as pollen or diesel exhaust fumes – as benign and to screen them out from real threats.

“This new system represents a tremendous step forward in the protection of British troops against CBRN attack” says Tony Rowe, Serco Project Director. “It employs state of the art technology, which is specifically designed to accommodate future developments and is a fully British solution.”

Colonel Andy Pedder, Team Leader of the Defence Procurement Agency's NBC IPT said, “ISMS will be a real force multiplier, delivering a truly networked solution to the problem of limited sensor numbers. In particular, Serco's innovative data fusion and hazard prediction software, combined with Biral's cutting edge biological detection systems, will deliver near real time capability and enhanced situational awareness.”