Lessons learned from an evolutionary algorithm- based approach to impact assessment processing

The contemporary operating environment (COE) imposes significant challenges for military personnel and systems. The asymmetric nature of the threat and the proliferation of sophisticated weapon systems to rogue nations and trans-national terrorist organizations only further the need to ensure friendly forces maintain a high-level of warfighter readiness. As this threat evolves the importance of higher-level fusion processing and the associated development of automated fusion-based decision support systems is seen as a key enabler and facilitator for addressing the challenging requirements of the modern battlespace. Recent years has seen a focused emphasis placed on level 2 (situation assessment) and level 3 (impact assessment) data fusion processing. A key component of level 3 processing is the prediction and analysis of likely enemy courses of action (eCOAs). This prediction and evaluation of enemy actions, or impact or threat assessment, is a key element of the Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace (IPB) process.