Previous Air Force programs have proposed the use of cooperative tactics and intraflight datalinks to improve tactical performance and to engage advanced or numerically superior threats. For example, the Air-to-Air Attack Management (A3M) program considered a future avionics system which included an intraflight datalink and an internetted flight-level multiple target tracking system. Prior efforts to develop systems which enable cooperative operations through the use of distributed processing technology have encountered several difficulties. To date, no programs have addressed these issues within the context of a coherent conceptual architecture or solid theoretical framework, but instead have relied on "ad hoc" single point solutions. We propose to perform a detailed requirements analysis and architectural study. The proposed research and development effort will result in the development of a coherent architecture for a Cooperative Avionics Sensor Management System (CASM) as well as the design and prototyping of specific techniques that fit within the architecture.
