Application of Bayesian reasoning for Military identification and classification

During the last decade a notable change of the requirements concerning situational awareness and network centric warfare operations of Naval and Ground Based Air Defense Systems can be recognized. Induced by the ongoing transformation process of the military forces and the changing security policy a set of additional sensors and information sensors is required to contribute to the tactical picture compilation. In the field of military target identification and classification many publications are known describing a data fusion process for typical military sensors and sources. Classical sensor equipment like IFF and ESM and sources like Flight Plans, Airspace Control Procedures, Identification by Origin and Link16 are well known and standardized how to be integrated into a Bayesian fusion process. These standardized sources will continue to be important information sources of the information fusion process. However further sensor types and information sources will contribute in the future to the information fusion process and will complete the Situational Awareness, especially in the context of asymmetric situations and semi-military missions. This paper gives an overview of our solution for the extension of the Bayesian identification process in order to establish a tactical picture for air, surface (naval) and land targets.