Small military maritime craft are responsible for the expedient delivery of personnel to an area(s) that will allow for the successful accomplishment of mission objectives. Often these craft are required to operate in littoral (shoreline) areas under various extreme conditions. It is therefore vital that an All-Weather Vision Enhancement / Situation Awareness System be designed and developed that will improve the performance of the craft by enhancing it's ability to collect, analyze, display, and distribute vital information to the crew. Such a system must be modular in size (<12"W x 12"L x 8"H total net package size) and weight (<201lbs net package weight) yet have the full capacity to significantly optimize the operator's awareness and ability to closely monitor the craft's sensors, processing and display elements. To address these issues, the proposed Phase I research will initially include a thorough investigation of the various technologies that can be used to integrate the bridge of small military maritime craft and further enhance the vision of existing navigational aids. Appropriate technologies will then be procured, and/or designed and develop, and integrated into a laboratory scale prototype to further illustrate and demonstrate the potential capabilities, limitations, and opportunities for future development of a modular All-Weather vision Enhancement/Situation Awareness System.
Keywords: Vision Enhancement, Situation Awareness, Military Maritime Craft, Initial Design Specifications
