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Finding Difficult Targets

For many intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) tasks, the challenge has moved from data collection to data exploitation. However, there remain challenging sets of targets and signals that have eluded traditional detection methods and that will not be readily exploitable. This is either because targets of interest do not present readily detectable or interpretable signatures, as is the case with detecting activity underground or inside buildings, or because remote detection techniques cannot discern between a threat and the natural environment, as is the case with biological materials. The Finding Difficult Targets thrust will develop new sensors, algorithms and processing techniques as well as new approaches that measure secondary signatures (active and passive) to find difficult targets. This thrust will also develop new approaches for the design of low cost, adaptable sensors that leverage commercial technologies and processes to reduce the development time and cost, and to increase the adaptability and technology refresh rate of sensor systems.

Effective ISR will leave nowhere to hide, eliminating the ability of U.S. adversaries to escape detection in the open, within crowds, inside of buildings, underground, or in cyberspace. It will combine wide area search, target identification, and persistent tracking to enable action at a time and place of our choosing. A focus of this thrust is the creation of advanced capabilities through the synergistic integration of ISR, communications, and cyber technologies.