The Missile Defense Agency has adopted a Phased Adaptive Approach (PAA) to build up the BMDS system by incorporating existing and newly developed radars, EO/IR sensors, and interceptors to counter new threats, including sensors that are not owned by the MDA. Optimally utilizing these next generation of high fidelity Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) and Airborne Infrared (ABIR) systems will include enhancing their capabilities to perform characterization and discrimination functions, in addition to precision tracking. SciTec, Inc. has extensive experience developing robust, signature based autonomous exploitation capabilities for data collected from EO/IR systems plus an understanding of the evolving BMDS infrastructure through our work with MDAs Enterprise Sensors Laboratory. These capabilities are typically robust because they exploit features with a known causal relationship to the threats and the algorithms have been constructed using rigorous mathematical frameworks. We propose researching robust, signature based characterization and discrimination capabilities, identifying a viable concept for deploying these capabilities into the right combination of sensor and fusion processing systems to demonstrate how these systems can further enhance defense against complex raids.
Keywords: Overhead Persistent Infrared (Opir), Airborne Infrared (Abir), Ballistic Missile Exhaust Plumes, Characterization And Discrimination, Signature Features, Automated Exploitatio
