Chapter 17
A Military Reserve in the Humboldt National Forest, Nevada
September 21, 2005, 0650 Pacific Standard Time
Soldiers in camouflage moved around the large forest clearing, checking their own and their buddies’ equipment. There was little banter. These were professionals getting ready to do a job. An hour earlier, their briefers had told them their communications were secure, and the red force couldn't listen in.
The three platoons participating in the exercise would move out at 0700 hours. First Platoon would be on the left side of the valley. Second Platoon would move up the center of the valley. Third Platoon with the attached Paras would move up the right-hand side of the broad valley. Each platoon comprised thirty men.
The plan required Second Platoon to move a little ahead of the other two platoons in the expectation it would make the first contact with the enemy. Whichever platoon had the first contact was to immediately disengage, and wait for elements of the other two platoons to maneuver around behind the enemy.
As the soldiers applied their camouflage paint and checked their equipment, no one paid attention to the two dark-colored birds circling over the forest, clearly visible from their position.
***
Charles called to the dispersed knots of people that the aerial vehicles had visual contact on the infiltrators, and they clustered around him, ready for the next part of the show. He was aware, these kinds of demonstration tests needed an element of theater and a degree of suspense, in order to leave the right impression.
Charles led the group back toward the screens and said, “This screen shows a visible wavelength image transmitted in real-time from one of the aerial vehicles. The screen over there shows an infrared image from the same aerial vehicle. The red spots here, here, and here, are people. Note how they stand out amongst the trees.”
“You mean, infrared works in the day time?”
“Yes. Even in full sunlight, people have a very distinctive infrared signature. Using infrared allows us to use the same technology to detect people at night and in the daytime. It also works well in fog, dust and smoke.“
Charles brought his audience's attention to a tactical robot that was redeploying in response to the aerial vehicle's data.
“The infiltrators in the center are approximately eight hundred meters from TMR3. If you look at the map, you will see that TMR4 is redeploying toward TMR3's position, because the C2 software has concluded the infiltrators could bypass TMR3, and it's moving TMR4 to a new position in response.”
“What does this screen show? I've just noticed an additional red dot appear.”
The man pointed to a screen that showed a map with a number of red dots scattered across it.
“That screen shows where the aerial vehicle 'thinks' all the targets are in its surveillance area. The aerial vehicle maintains a track of each person it detects based on the speed and direction the person is moving. It updates the track every time it finds the same target. The tracking software is not perfect, but every aerial vehicle has a reasonably accurate idea where all the people in its surveillance area are, based on the last location it detected them, and their direction and speed of movement.
“Each time the aerial vehicle's tracking software finds a target, it tries to determine if it is already tracking the target. If it is, the software updates its position in its memory. If the software determines it isn't already tracking it, then it adds a new target to its tracking list. The tracking software maintains a record of the direction and speed of movement of each target, and it uses that record to predict where any of the targets it's tracking are at any point in time.
“If people moved randomly, the software wouldn't work very well, but people don't move randomly. They normally move in purposeful ways, and consequently the tracking software works.
"We ran some tests comparing the number of people in the surveillance area against the number of people the aerial vehicle thought it was tracking, and while the results varied depending on the terrain and the size of the surveillance area, it was always more than 90 percent. So, the aerial vehicle knows the location of nine out of ten people in its surveillance area, even if it cannot currently detect them.
“Incidentally, the number of people the aerial vehicle needs to track doesn't significantly affect how well it performs. Although the size of the area it has to cover does. Once the area the aerial vehicle is patrolling goes over about four square kilometers, its tracking efficiency falls off sharply. We could increase the efficiency of searching and tracking as the surveillance area size increases, by biasing the search toward locations where it has already found targets ...”
Charles realized his explanation had become too detailed, and he was losing his audience, including the man who had asked the question, who was now talking to a woman in uniform. He cut his explanation short.
“Are there any more questions?”
There were no more questions.
Chapter 18
September 21, 2005, 0650 Pacific Standard Time
Soldiers in camouflage moved around the large forest clearing, checking their own and their buddies’ equipment. There was little banter. These were professionals getting ready to do a job. An hour earlier, their briefers had told them their communications were secure, and the red force couldn't listen in.
The three platoons participating in the exercise would move out at 0700 hours. First Platoon would be on the left side of the valley. Second Platoon would move up the center of the valley. Third Platoon with the attached Paras would move up the right-hand side of the broad valley. Each platoon comprised thirty men.
The plan required Second Platoon to move a little ahead of the other two platoons in the expectation it would make the first contact with the enemy. Whichever platoon had the first contact was to immediately disengage, and wait for elements of the other two platoons to maneuver around behind the enemy.
As the soldiers applied their camouflage paint and checked their equipment, no one paid attention to the two dark-colored birds circling over the forest, clearly visible from their position.
***
Charles called to the dispersed knots of people that the aerial vehicles had visual contact on the infiltrators, and they clustered around him, ready for the next part of the show. He was aware, these kinds of demonstration tests needed an element of theater and a degree of suspense, in order to leave the right impression.
Charles led the group back toward the screens and said, “This screen shows a visible wavelength image transmitted in real-time from one of the aerial vehicles. The screen over there shows an infrared image from the same aerial vehicle. The red spots here, here, and here, are people. Note how they stand out amongst the trees.”
“You mean, infrared works in the day time?”
“Yes. Even in full sunlight, people have a very distinctive infrared signature. Using infrared allows us to use the same technology to detect people at night and in the daytime. It also works well in fog, dust and smoke.“
Charles brought his audience's attention to a tactical robot that was redeploying in response to the aerial vehicle's data.
“The infiltrators in the center are approximately eight hundred meters from TMR3. If you look at the map, you will see that TMR4 is redeploying toward TMR3's position, because the C2 software has concluded the infiltrators could bypass TMR3, and it's moving TMR4 to a new position in response.”
“What does this screen show? I've just noticed an additional red dot appear.”
The man pointed to a screen that showed a map with a number of red dots scattered across it.
“That screen shows where the aerial vehicle 'thinks' all the targets are in its surveillance area. The aerial vehicle maintains a track of each person it detects based on the speed and direction the person is moving. It updates the track every time it finds the same target. The tracking software is not perfect, but every aerial vehicle has a reasonably accurate idea where all the people in its surveillance area are, based on the last location it detected them, and their direction and speed of movement.
“Each time the aerial vehicle's tracking software finds a target, it tries to determine if it is already tracking the target. If it is, the software updates its position in its memory. If the software determines it isn't already tracking it, then it adds a new target to its tracking list. The tracking software maintains a record of the direction and speed of movement of each target, and it uses that record to predict where any of the targets it's tracking are at any point in time.
“If people moved randomly, the software wouldn't work very well, but people don't move randomly. They normally move in purposeful ways, and consequently the tracking software works.
"We ran some tests comparing the number of people in the surveillance area against the number of people the aerial vehicle thought it was tracking, and while the results varied depending on the terrain and the size of the surveillance area, it was always more than 90 percent. So, the aerial vehicle knows the location of nine out of ten people in its surveillance area, even if it cannot currently detect them.
“Incidentally, the number of people the aerial vehicle needs to track doesn't significantly affect how well it performs. Although the size of the area it has to cover does. Once the area the aerial vehicle is patrolling goes over about four square kilometers, its tracking efficiency falls off sharply. We could increase the efficiency of searching and tracking as the surveillance area size increases, by biasing the search toward locations where it has already found targets ...”
Charles realized his explanation had become too detailed, and he was losing his audience, including the man who had asked the question, who was now talking to a woman in uniform. He cut his explanation short.
“Are there any more questions?”
There were no more questions.
Chapter 18
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home