NATO
Research & Technology Organisation
Targeting Tomorrow’s Challenges
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www.rto.nato.int
Published January 2009
1998 - 2008
TARGETING TOMORROW’S CHALLENGES
Foreword
by IGA Jacques Bongrand
Chairman, Research and Technology Board
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
IGA Bongrand
RTB Chairman
It is my pleasure to introduce to you this booklet on the NATO Research and Technology Organisation
(RTO). Inside it you will find an overview of the RTO and information on some of the many activities
in which we are involved. The RTO continues to be the largest organisation of its type in the world,
offering dozens of forums annually to the 26 NATO Nations. In addition, we invite the Partnership for
Peace (PfP) Nations to participate in most of our activities and open an increasing number of activities to
the Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) Nations for their participation. Thousands of scientists, engineers,
administrators and managers from NATO and Partner Nations have taken advantage of these opportunities
during the past year and I have every expectation that this level of involvement will continue.
Presenting this Organisation, I would like to emphasise the three main features that make the RTO utterly
relevant in facing the challenges of our complex world.
Firstly, we all know that we need to belong to a number of networks if we want to better understand and influence our
environment, to carry out our projects efficiently and to contribute to the progress of our civilisation. In this regard, RTO is a
highly valuable network of technologists from Allied Nations, dedicated to sharing their knowledge and ideas outside of
commercial competition, for the benefit of all.
Secondly, I hope that you will agree that technology is a mighty tool that transforms dreams and wishes into reality.
Man wanted to fly like birds, so he designed aircraft; he wanted to communicate all around the world, so he developed a
plethora of devices such as satellites, television and mobile phones. Let us not forget that the investment we make in the RTO
represents both security for our Nations and the assurance of a more peaceful world.
Lastly, we know that science and technology progress at such a tremendous rate that non-technologists need continuous advice
to make the best use of the entire spectrum of knowledge that is available. It is the task of the RTO to provide such advice,
both within the Nations and within the Alliance, liaising with the entire NATO Research and Technology (R&T) community that
collaborated to make the first R&T Day in October 2008 an overwhelming success.
Our outstanding Research and Technology Agency (RTA), headquartered near Paris, has prepared this booklet for you. It is an
excellent example of their work, so please contact them at any time should you have comments, questions and/or concerns.
The small, professional staff of this Agency is eager to provide any assistance needed.
IGA Jacques Bongrand, Mr. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Secretary General of NATO,
and RAdm Christian Canova at the NATO R&T Symposium on 23 October 2008.
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Introduction
by Dr. Greg Schneider
Director, NATO Research and Technology Agency
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
NATO will mark its 60th Anniversary in 2009. Remarkably, the heritage of the NATO Research and
Technology Organisation (RTO) extends nearly as long, thanks to the visionary leadership of Dr. Theodore
von Kármán. As the RTO enters its second decade in its current form, its continued vibrant existence
testifies to the value that Nations and NATO place on the co-operative research and network of experts that
comprise the RTO. As a forum where Nations can pursue their common defence research interests,
the RTO enables Nations to effectively leverage their separate investments to stay abreast of rapidly
changing technologies and ahead of innovative and dynamic threats.
The Research and Technology Agency (RTA) continues to adapt to the needs and opportunities of the
times to improve our ability to support the RTO network, as well as the other Alliance bodies needing
assistance from the RTO. We are testing an improved collaborative working environment that should
simplify the use of the on-line workspaces provided to our Panels and Technical Teams. As well, we have recently modified
some of our publication policies and processes that have dramatically reduced the time to release Meeting Proceedings.
Dr. Schneider
RTA Director
Under the auspices of the Research and Technology Co-ordination Group (RTCG), and with the support of the Defence
Investment Division and the Public Diplomacy Division of the International Staff, the NATO R&T Day Exhibition and
Symposium were held at NATO HQ in October 2008, in conjunction with the Fall meeting of the Conference of National
Armaments Directors (CNAD). This landmark event, highlighting the co-ordination of all of the NATO R&T bodies, enjoyed
participation by the CNAD Main Armament Groups (MAGs), Allied Command Transformation (ACT), NATO Undersea
Research Centre (NURC), NATO Consultation, Command, and Control Agency (NC3A), NATO Industrial Advisory Group
(NIAG), the Science for Peace and Security Committee (SPSC), and the RTO. The two-day Exhibition and one-day
Symposium drew hundreds of interested visitors from the Nations and from across NATO HQ, and illustrated the breadth of
R&T work being conducted under the NATO umbrella. In addition, the CNAD dedicated a portion of its agenda to address
the strategic role of R&T in NATO and its value to the Alliance and its Member Nations.
The RTO continues to promote and foster not only a vast network of scientists and engineers from NATO Nations, but also an
ever-growing collection of experts from Partner Nations. Given the universal language of science and the rapid globalisation of
threats, the RTO provides an excellent forum for engaging the defence research communities of peace-seeking Nations to
improve our mutual understanding of not just technologies, but of our cultures and values. With over 130 activities on-going at
any time, the RTO covers a wide swath of military and dual-use technologies. However, all of this relies on the contributions
of NATO and the Nations to identify and support the participation of their experts.
In this booklet, you will find an outline of the role and organisation of the RTO and its supporting agency, the RTA. You will
also find some excellent examples of the current work and recent accomplishments of the RTO. The RTO has a proud history
and a bright future. I invite you to learn more about our work in the following pages and at our website www.rto.nato.int.
The Organisation
Formed in 1998 by the merger of the Advisory Group for
Aerospace Research and Development (AGARD) and the
Defence Research Group (DRG), the RTO is the primary
NATO organisation for defence science and technology.
The RTO reports to both the CNAD and the Military
Committee (MC); it has both a governing board and
technical panels, and it integrates the research and
technical missions of its predecessors.
The RTO promotes and conducts co-operative research
and information exchange, develops and maintains a longterm NATO research and technology strategy, and
provides advice to all elements of NATO on research and
technology issues. In pursuit of this mission, the RTO
operates at three levels – the Research and Technology
Board, Technical Panels and Technical Teams – and is
supported in its efforts by an executive agency, the RTA.
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Fig. 1 illustrates the hierarchy of these three levels, along
with the role of the RTA.
Figure 1: RTO Organisation.
The following paragraphs explain, in more detail, the role of
the Technical Panels (AVT, HFM and so on), the NATO
Modelling and Simulation Group (NMSG) and the
Information Management Committee (IMC).
These bodies are made up of national representatives as well
as generally recognised world-class scientists, engineers and
information specialists. They also provide a communication
link to military users and other NATO bodies.
The Research and Technology Board (RTB) constitutes
the highest authority in RTO. It is the policy body tasked
by the North Atlantic Council, through the CNAD and MC
(see Fig. 2), to serve as the single integrating body within
NATO for the direction and/or co-ordination of defence
research and technology. Its membership comprises up to
three leading personalities in defence research and
technology from each NATO Nation. The members are
chosen by the Nations and may be from government,
academia or industry. Typically, Board members are
senior science and technology executives at the deputy
under-secretary, deputy assistant secretary or deputy
administrator level.
The scientific and technological work of the RTO is carried
out by Technical Teams, created under one or more of these
eight bodies, for specific activities which have a defined
duration. Such teams are typically formed as focus groups
performing dedicated research activities in their area of
scientific expertise. Research activities often involve Task
Groups, Workshops, Symposia, Lecture Series and
Technical Courses. In all cases, these activities result in the
publication of highly valued scientific literature, published
by the RTO. The results of the RTO’s research can also be
found in some specific peer-review journals.
Figure 2: RTO in the NATO Structure.
The RTB also has ex-officio members from Allied
Command Transformation (ACT), NATO C3 Agency
(NC3A), Main Armaments Groups (MAGs), NATO
Industrial Advisory Group (NIAG), NATO Undersea
Research Centre (NURC) and Science for Peace and
Security Committee (SPSC).
An abstract of every publication can be viewed on the
RTO website (www.rto.nato.int). Depending on their
classification, the full text of many of these reports can be
downloaded. CD-ROM copies may also be obtained from
one of the National Distribution Centres or can be
purchased from one of the RTA Sales Agencies, details of
which can be found on the website.
The RTO actively supports NATO’s Partnership for Peace
(PfP) and Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) initiatives, and is
proceeding with improving relations with Russia and
Ukraine. Each year, the RTO seeks to increase the number
of activities open to PfP Nations and sponsors PfP-specific
Board and Panel Meetings.
Research and Technology Agency (RTA) – The supporting
agency has approximately 30 NATO civilian staff and a
further twenty, both military and civilian, provided
voluntarily by Member Nations for limited periods.
Its headquarters are in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris (Fig. 3).
The Chairman of the RTB is a senior member of the Board,
elected by the national members for a three-year term.
Each Nation also appoints a National Co-ordinator to
administer its RTO activities.
Technical Panels and Group – The total spectrum of
R&T activities is addressed by six Technical Panels
covering a wide range of scientific research activities,
a Group specialising in modelling and simulation, and a
Committee dedicated to supporting the information
management needs of the organisation:
AVT
Applied Vehicle Technology Panel
HFM
Human Factors and Medicine Panel
IST
Information Systems Technology Panel
SAS
System Analysis and Studies Panel
NATO R&T Strategy
SCI
Systems Concepts and Integration Panel
SET
Sensors and Electronics Technology Panel
NMSG
NATO Modelling and Simulation Group
IMC
Information Management Committee
‘The Research and Technology Strategy for NATO’
(formally approved by the North Atlantic Council in
November 2005) is a top-level strategy document which
identifies goals and objectives for the NATO organisations
involved in R&T. This document applies globally to all
NATO R&T organisations and provides basic guidance
Figure 3: RTA Headquarters near Paris, France.
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on how they should function in support of the Member
Nations and the Alliance. The five goals of this strategy
are:
1) Align NATO R&T to the NATO priorities of
transformation and the security environment, in
co-operation with MC and CNAD;
2) Establish effective NATO R&T co-ordination
through clear and evident leadership;
3) Provide best advice on present and future needs;
4) Improve the exploitation and dissemination of R&T;
5) Create the most effective and enabling R&T
collaborative environment.
Starting the cycle at the Spring Panel meetings, the Rolling
Plan, along with conclusions from the recently completed
Strategic Planning Session (SPS), provides each Panel
with ‘top-down’ guidance from the RTB. This guidance,
alongside the traditional ‘bottom-up’ process whereby
research requirements are developed at the scientific level,
is then used to help Panels develop planning documents
for new activities.
These goals, as well as the supporting actions identified in
the strategy, provide top-level direction for the RTO’s
Rolling Plan.
During the winter, this input is considered by the RTB
Chairman as the agenda is prepared for the next Strategic
Planning Session.
NATO Guidance
At the Spring SPS, the Rolling Plan is reviewed by the
RTB and recommended changes are submitted to the
Spring Executive Session for RTB review and approval.
The RTO objectives are determined by assessing input
and/or guidance from the NATO Nations (via the RTB),
the NATO R&T Strategy, the CNAD, the Military
Committee and the NATO Strategic Commands.
NATO’s Strategic Vision provides a long-term view of
the way that future Alliance military operations will be
conducted. In support of this strategic vision, Allied
Command Transformation (ACT) has developed LongTerm Capability Requirements (LTCRs) identifying
capabilities that NATO foresees as necessary over the
next 10 – 15 years, such as improved networking and
capabilities that can enhance the effectiveness of the
NATO Response Force (NRF). In many cases, the
development of solutions to meet these capabilities will
rely significantly on R&T. In addition, the RTO is
addressing long-term technology needs in support of
NATO Defence Against Terrorism (DAT) efforts.
Over the summer, the Rolling Plan is updated and presented
at the Fall RTB meeting for approval. At the follow-on Fall
Panel meetings, Panels further refine the planning
documents previously developed and discuss the proposed
input for the next draft of the Rolling Plan.
After the Executive Session, the cycle begins again, with
the Panels once more considering new activities based on
RTB guidance and ‘bottom-up’ input from Panel
members.
Fig. 4 shows how the RTO Rolling Plan is developed in a
nominal yearly cycle and can be used to support Panel
Programme of Work (PoW) development.
The RTO’s programme guidance – that is, the RTO
Rolling Plan – is therefore a synthesis of the guidance
provided by NATO with the priorities of the Member
Nations for relevant R&T collaboration within NATO.
RTO Rolling Plan
One of the responsibilities of the RTB is to establish a
long-term R&T Rolling Plan, based upon the operational
requirements of the NATO Commanders and the demands
of the Nations. This Rolling Plan describes the priorities
and projected actions required for the formulation of the
R&T programme.
The ‘rolling’ nature of the plan refers to the periodic
revision of RTO objectives based on changing
requirements and new developments in technology. Each
year, the R&T Rolling Plan will be updated to reflect
current critical requirements and RTB decisions.
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Figure 4: RTO Rolling Plan Cycle.
The Work of the RTO Panels and the
NATO Modelling and Simulation Group
As outlined above, the scientific work of the RTO is
carried out under the auspices of the six Technical Panels
and the NATO Modelling and Simulation Group.
The following pages review the mission areas of each
Panel and Group, along with some examples of the most
important work they have undertaken recently, and also
offer a brief insight into some of the major activities in
2008 and beyond.
The Applied Vehicle Technology Panel (AVT)
The AVT Mission
The Applied Vehicle Technology Panel strives to improve the performance, affordability and safety of vehicles
through advancement of appropriate technologies. The Panel addresses vehicle platforms, propulsion and power
systems operating in all environments (land, sea, air and space), for both ageing as well as future vehicle systems.
In fulfilling this mission, the Panel is focused on three disciplines: mechanical systems, structures and materials;
performance, stability and control, fluid physics; and propulsion and power systems. The Panel carefully reviews
proposed future activities to ensure the coherence and balance as well as the relevance of its programme. In this
process, specific emphasis is placed on NATO’s long-term requirements and on-going programmes, such as
Defence Against Terrorism (DAT). This way, the members of this strong community of researchers are
constantly aware of NATO’s current and future needs when they provide their contributions to NATO’s
capabilities.
The trend of addressing subject areas common to all theatres of military operations as well as applicationoriented technology has thus been successfully adopted. It encompasses an intense consideration of NATO’s
needs and works in close co-operation with the Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and all relevant elements
of the structure under the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD).
Activities of the AVT Panel
To accomplish their mission, AVT Panel members exploit
their joint expertise in:
• Mechanical systems, structures and materials;
• Propulsion and power systems; and
• Performance, stability and control, and fluid physics.
Figure 5: Nanowire Sensor.
The technical activities AVT performs within and across
these three disciplines may be grouped into two broad
technology areas:
1) Vehicle and platform technologies, including: vehicle
and platform design – configurational fluid dynamics
and fluid mechanics – stability and control – noise
and vibration control – structural loads and dynamics
– smart structures – structural materials and
manufacturing processes – affordability, availability,
survivability and supportability – reliability,
maintenance and repair – environmental impact –
testing.
2) Propulsion and power technologies, including: airbreathing engine design (piston, gas turbine, ramjet/
scramjet) – rocket motors and rocket-based combined
cycles – electric propulsion including hybrid systems –
engine control and thrust vectoring – power generation
and storage – fuels and combustion – power-plant
materials and structures – propellants and explosives –
operation, health monitoring, reliability, maintenance
and affordability – environmental impact – testing.
Figure 6: Test of a Rocket Motor.
The challenges NATO faces today require innovative
technologies in vehicle design in order to achieve larger
payload, wider range, higher speed, improved deployability
and increased versatility, to name only a few. The AVT
Panel is dedicated to investigating and providing suitable
technologies, such as:
• Health management/monitoring of propulsion systems;
• Compact high-power density prime movers, energy
generation and storage;
• Drag reduction for sea and air vehicles;
• Morphing aircraft;
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• Design for disposal of munitions;
• Self-healing materials, damage repair in the field; and
• Lightweight armour for both vehicles and personnel.
Figure 7: Computation of Vortex Flow around Unmanned
Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) Flying Wing Configuration.
A substantial amount of research is done on
nanotechnology for applications in military vehicles (such
as stronger/stiffer materials, coatings), and power systems
for military applications (reduced fuel-consumption,
lightweight and man-portable alternative sources such as
fuel cells). Presently, the most visible application of a
large number of these new technologies is unmanned
vehicles for air, sea and land (covering all aspects of their
aerodynamic and structural design, control and power
supply, including Micro-unmanned Aerial Vehicles
(MAVs)) and the design and application of greener
munition technology.
Examples of Recent Work
carried out by the AVT Panel
MEMS Technology and Application –
Support Project
The Applied Vehicle Technology Panel (AVT) has been
very active in advocating for and securing funding from
the RTO Support Programme (SP) to ‘provide assistance
to NATO Nations for the purpose of increasing
their scientific and technical potential’. This has been
accomplished in a variety of ways, ranging from travel
assistance for AVT meetings and technical activities,
to financial support for individual research projects
conducted through a teaming arrangement between a
‘supported’ Nation and one or more ‘supporting’ Nations.
AVT uses the RTO Support Programme to foster a true
collaborative integration of supported Nations into the
AVT technical activities. There are currently eight active
‘Support Projects’ within the AVT Panel.
electronics on a common substrate through microfabrication technology. MEMS are an enabling technology
that may potentially offer improved vehicle performance
and reliability to increase the capability of NATO forces.
Some specific vehicle MEMS applications encounter
unique challenges due to both demanding operational and
environmental standards and stringent reliability and
performance degradation requirements. With the parallel
development of new technologies and new device
configurations, and new applications for micro-sensors,
micro-actuators and micro-systems, a growing need has
arisen for research in order to achieve maximum MEMS
performance.
The LTU-AVT-05/1 Support Project focused on both
the development of new modelling and simulation tools
and validation techniques/methodologies for MEMS
performance assessment in a vibration environment and
the demonstration of MEMS applications under these
conditions.
Novel computational models and software tools were
developed and applied to analyse the dynamic behaviour of
MEMS resonators. A new methodology was recommended
to derive an approximation of the thermal-elastic damping
in resonator structures, which involved the integration of
modelling, analysis and evaluation for MEMS devices.
The methodology was validated and its efficiency was
proved numerically and experimentally at the research
establishments of ‘supported’ and ‘supporting’ Nations.
In addition to the network which has been established
through the Support Project, several peer-reviewed
technical papers have been presented in international
journals and also at the NATO Military Sensing
Symposium in Orlando, Florida, USA, in 2008.
Projects like these help shape the technical foundation for
the seamless application of advanced technologies like
MEMS into future NATO land, sea and air vehicles. In the
not too distant future, MEMS devices will become
essential elements in a variety of platforms that support the
NATO warfighter.
An example of one such support project is the LTU-AVT05/1 project on “MEMS Technology and Applications”.
This project was conducted in Lithuania and was actively
supported by researchers in the United States and Belgium.
Micro-Electrical-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) is the
integration of mechanical elements, sensors, actuators and
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Figure 8: Temperature Prediction of Vibrating MEMS.
Environmental Impact of Munitions and
Propellant Disposal
All Nations have a requirement to ensure that munitions are
designed, manufactured, used and managed effectively,
including the disposal of them in a safe, environmentally
acceptable and cost-effective manner. It is essential to
ensure that the environmental impact during and after use is
dealt with effectively. The NATO RTO has supported the
AVT-115 study on “Environmental Impact of Munition and
Propellant Disposal” which has looked at the problems,
needs and capabilities within NATO and PfP Nations.
This Task Group brought together knowledge of the
environmental impact of munitions within their life cycle,
as well as insight into the training and particulars of the
demilitarisation process at the end of their service life.
The NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA),
one of whose roles is to manage the disposal of munitions
for NATO Nations, actively participated in this study.
One goal of the AVT-115 Task Group was to organise a
meeting that would invite discussions and presentations on
these two topics, to bring together knowledge of these
issues, and to discuss old and new needs, technology and
problems.
In September 2007, the Task Group met at the Ministry of
Defence (MoD) Information Centre in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The meeting was attended by over 42 scientists, users and
representatives from 18 NATO/PfP Nations. The Meeting
took place over two and a half days.
The main topics covered were:
• Policy and problems;
• Critical problems of utilisation;
• Ways of dealing with sea dumping;
• Contaminated land;
• Demilitarisation/disposal and counter terrorism;
• What must be done now and in the future; and
• What technology gaps exist.
Overall the Group agreed that many of the problems of
dealing with yesterday’s munitions had been solved, but that
often the technology was not readily available where it was
needed, and that future munitions pose new problems.
The meeting brought about many useful and animated
debates and the discussions clearly demonstrated that there
is a need for far more effective communication between
NATO and PfP Nations in the field of munitions and their
environmental impact.
Of special note was the participation of the NATO
Defence Against Terrorism (DAT) team for whom this
study filled a necessary gap in awareness and activity.
The AVT-115 team has already proposed a follow-on
AVT activity which will deal with priority gaps. This Task
Group will work hand-in-hand with the NIAG and with the
CNAD Ammunition Safety Group (CASG) in order to
incorporate the industrial and safety perspective.
Figure 9: Field Ammunition Disposal in Iraq.
Enhanced Aircraft Platform Availability
The change from the static disposition of armed forces
during the Cold War era, to an expeditionary posture
for the foreseeable future, has provided important
impetus in many NATO Nations for a major review of
the maintenance/support of military equipment, including
aircraft. Maintenance/support concepts and technologies
that will promote equipment availability are being sought,
as well as smaller logistic footprints and effective
expeditionary operations such as the NATO operations in
the Balkans and Afghanistan. There has also been a trend
to concentrate more capability in fewer aircraft. This trend
has heightened the importance of aircraft availability
(readiness), while making it more difficult to achieve.
The AVT-144 Technical Team on “Enhanced Aircraft
Platform Availability Through Advanced Maintenance
Concepts and Technologies” was established to identify
advanced maintenance concepts and technologies that
could be used to improve aircraft availability, and to help
NATO forces in selecting the ones which will produce the
desired return on investment. To address this diverse and
complex subject, a highly successful Workshop was held
in Vilnius, Lithuania. More than 80 specialists from
13 NATO Member Nations, along with participants
from Australia and Sweden, brought their experience and
views on aircraft availability and related managerial and
technical issues.
The management of aircraft acquisition and support is
complex, but the work of optimising aircraft platform
availability can be expressed simply by the following set
of goals:
• Minimise any loss of inherent reliability in service;
• Avoid unnecessary preventive maintenance;
• Minimise the net aircraft downtime for necessary
preventive maintenance; and
• Minimise the net downtime for corrective maintenance,
i.e., diagnosis and repair.
To focus on the real drivers of aircraft availability and lifecycle cost, it is essential to use a systems engineering
framework, including the Integrated Logistics Support (ILS)
process for the management of acquisition and support.
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The engineering and managerial disciplines implicit in
such an approach ensure that aircraft requirements are
properly defined and are met at the lowest life-cycle
cost. The approach also allows maintenance/support to be
reorganised quickly and easily to meet new operational
requirements.
This flexibility has facilitated the adaptation of NATO air
forces to the changed operational posture mentioned
earlier. The transformation programmes include aggressive
initiatives to reduce the downtime for maintenance at
organic depots and innovative long-term public/private
partnerships to give contractors the incentives to improve
aircraft availability.
Significant advances are also being made in equipment
technologies to reduce the downtime for preventive and
corrective maintenance. For example, advanced groundbased inspection techniques and automatic test systems
making use of artificial intelligence are available to reduce
aircraft downtime for ground-based inspections and
fault diagnosis. In an effort to eliminate this downtime
altogether, elaborate Integrated Vehicle Health Management
(IVHM) systems are currently under development. A wide
range of technologies is now available to manage the
serious problem of corrosion. Finally, the effectiveness of
maintenance and supply personnel can be greatly enhanced
through advanced communications and information
technologies.
The major conclusion that can be drawn from the AVT-144
Workshop is that there is a wide range of promising
technologies for application to both new and legacy aircraft.
It is important that these technologies be introduced
selectively and carefully integrated with the maintenance/
support management concept for the aircraft. This approach
will help NATO improve aircraft availability costeffectively in the future.
a joint Symposium in Florence, Italy. The objective of the
Symposium was to focus on the key technologies which
permit the increased performance potential offered by
autonomous or semi-autonomous systems to be fully
exploited throughout the battlespace. A broad consideration
of technologies was presented with sessions addressing
platform mobility, autonomous control, platforms and
control, multi-vehicle control, mobility and control, vision
and platforms, as well as advanced concepts for Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
Presentations during the AVT-146 Symposium, titled
“Platform Innovations and System Integration for
Unmanned Air, Land and Sea Vehicles”, addressed air,
land and sea applications, allowing the different
communities to exchange experiences. Keynote lectures
focused on, for example, current experience in military
UAV operations, unmanned naval operations and on
technologies on autonomous navigation and multi-platform
co-operation. The overall programme effectively covered
the broad range of platform as well as systems issues of
unmanned vehicles, including biologically inspired designs
and morphing, sensing and actuation, platform autonomy,
human-machine decision sharing including multi-vehicle
control by a single operator, and the challenges to and
advantages of unmanned vehicles.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that unmanned
vehicles are producing revolutions in military capability.
Although unmanned vehicles were initially accepted very
slowly by the military operations, they are now being
widely used. As a result of this increase in usage, there are
common problems being addressed across all systems.
The cross-fertilisation of the AVT and SCI communities
sparked excellent and fruitful technical discussions.
It led to an interaction of platform technology experts with
systems integration experts. Overall, the good balance
between established programmes and emergent
technologies generated numerous ideas and initiatives
for future co-operative research work to investigate the
critical technology areas in greater detail.
Figure 10: Eurofighter Undergoing Maintenance.
Unmanned Vehicles State-of-the-Art
In May 2007, the Applied Vehicle Technology Panel (AVT)
and the Systems Concepts and Integration Panel (SCI) held
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Figure 11: Predator UAV Mission Preparation.
The Human Factors and Medicine Panel (HFM)
The HFM Mission
The mission of the Human Factors and Medicine Panel is to provide the science and technology base for
optimising health, human protection, well being and performance of the human in operational environments with
consideration of affordability. This involves understanding and ensuring physical, physiological, psychological and
cognitive compatibility among military personnel, technological systems, missions and environments. This is
accomplished by the exchange of information, collaborative experiments and shared field trials.
Scope of the HFM Four
‘Area’ Committees
The scope of the HFM Panel is multi-disciplinary and
encompasses a wide range of theory, data, models,
knowledge and practice pertaining to Operational Medicine
(OM), Human Protection, Human Effectiveness and Human
System Integration. These four domains are complementary
and represent the four ‘Area’ Committees of the HFM
Panel:
1) The Operational Medicine Area encompasses the
aerospace, hyperbaric and military medicine
necessary to ensure sustenance, physical and mental
health, as well as the safety and survival of military
personnel. Areas of interest include epidemiology,
diagnosis, hygiene, fitness, nutrition, medical
problems, pharmacology (e.g., drugs, vaccines and
countermeasures), medical treatment and evacuation.
2) The Human Protection Area encompasses humancentred research for optimising human physiological
tolerance, protection and survivability in adverse
mission environments (e.g., cold, heat, hypobaric,
hyperbaric, undersea, noise, vibration, motion,
nuclear, biological, chemical, acceleration, ionising
and non-ionising radiation).
3) The Human Effectiveness Area optimises individual
readiness and organisational effectiveness by
addressing psycho-social, organisational, cultural and
cognitive aspects in military action. Contributions
on individual readiness cover values and ethics,
leadership, multi-national operations and coping with
new demands on the individual. Contributions on
organisational effectiveness encompass human
resource management, training, interoperability, shared
decision-making, synchronised situational awareness,
understanding terrorism, psychological operations and
coping with new demands on military organisations.
4) The Human System Integration Area optimises the
performance of human-operated technical systems
by addressing the human-machine interactions,
processes, tools and measures of effectiveness.
Specific contributions cover complexity, total
life-cycle affordability, human error and fatigue
management, intelligent agent, human-system
communication, human cognitive and physical
resources management, anthropometry, interface,
design of information displays and controls, humanhuman communication and teamwork, performance
enhancement and aiding, training and function
allocation in automated systems.
Co-operation within NATO
and with Partners
The HFM Panel fosters co-operative research in behavioural
sciences and medicine among NATO Nations. The HFM
Panel reaches these goals by setting up co-operative
demonstrations of technology and shared experiments,
based upon international co-operation between, for example,
the NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and
the NATO Committee of Chiefs of Military Medical
Services (COMEDS) on behavioural sciences and medicine.
Ex-officio members of ACT and COMEDS join the Panel
business meetings of the HFM Panel.
Within NATO, the Joint Medical Committee (JMC)
advises the Senior Civil Emergency Planning Committee
(SCEPC) on civil matters affecting NATO. JMC also acts
as the co-ordinating body for the SCEPC regarding all
medical policies, procedures and techniques.
On 10 September 2008, the RTA Director – Dr. Schneider,
and the Vice-Chairman of JMC – Dr. Lecarpentier, signed
a Letter of Intent for co-operation between the RTO and
the JMC.
Figure 12: Dr. Schneider and Dr. Lecarpentier
Sign the Letter of Intent.
9
As a result of the open approach taken by the RTB and the
HFM Panel, HFM Symposia are open for participants of
Partnership for Peace (PfP) Nations and Mediterranean
Dialogue (MD) countries.
In 2009, the Symposia taking place are HFM-168 on
“Soldiers in Cold Environments”, to be held in Helsinki,
Finland, in the Spring and HFM-181 on ‘“Human
Performance Enhancement for NATO Military Operations”,
to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, in the Fall.
Examples of On-Going and
Planned Activities of
the HFM Panel
Nutrition Science and Food Standards for
Military
Advanced technologies in food science, food processing,
preservation and packaging systems, as well as significant
innovation in military ration development, combat feeding
systems and food safety development, are widely seen as
being beneficial to commanders in multi-national operations
in a field setting. Unfortunately, adoption of any particular
technology or product for Alliance support is hindered by
the lack of standards which need to be uniquely tailored to
support the NATO Response Force (NRF) concept.
It is in the context of this evolving, dynamic operational
concept that an assessment of such critical, leading-edge
sustainment technologies be conducted for technical
maturity, functionality and operational utility for enhanced
mission capability and combatant performance, providing
proper nutrition and the right ration, at the right place at
the right time.
Identification of supporting technologies and platforms
providing a positive impact on NRF mission performance
will support the development of targeted nutrition and
food standards for NRF military operations. Information
and technology assessment for the development of standards
could lead to increased deployment of such advanced
food and nutrition technologies, as well as increased
interoperability during combined and joint operations.
flexibility to ensure nutrition, combat feeding and
performance are optimised as a combat force multiplier.
Impact of Gender Differences on Conducting
Operational Activities
For many years, Nations have observed an increase in
the number of female personnel in their armed forces,
employed in a wide range of operational and support roles.
This has resulted in the need to modify the organisation of
the relationships in the military community. The presence
of women in the military is not a temporary phenomenon,
therefore it is necessary to reflect on a totally mixed
military population, adapting the rules and the environment
to this new situation, with the goal to maintain optimal
performance of the forces and security of the personnel.
In October 2008, the HFM Panel organised the HFM-158
Symposium on “Impact of Gender Differences on
Conducting Operational Activities”. The objectives of this
Symposium were to investigate appropriate adaptation
requirements for the military environment and demonstrate
that it is possible for women to occupy all military positions.
Presentations were given and discussions were held on the
differences in anthropometry, in physical qualification,
in physical capabilities, in military relevant capabilities,
in nutrition needs, in psychophysiology and in psychosociology.
Some of the observations of the Symposium were:
• Through historical examples or through current
benefits reported by the speakers of this RTO HFM
Symposium on Gender Differences, there is no doubt
that the integration of women in the military is
strengthening its operational capability, however the
pace of this integration varies between countries.
• All participants perceived that the right approach within
the RTO is to focus on science and not on similarities
or differences.
• Managing diversity is a comprehensive process that
takes time – the Symposium has been considered a
facilitator for this process.
• In managing the differences between our soldiers,
based upon individual performance as opposed to
gender, the military will become stronger.
Ultimately, the vision for a specific, nutritionally tailored,
cost-effective combat ration designed for all NATO forces,
seamlessly aligned and strategically designed to meet the
operational requirements of the NATO Response Force
(NRF) concept, could be realised.
The objective of the HFM Task Group 154 is to identify
emerging technologies, products and innovations for combat
feeding, nutrition and performance enhancing components
across various ration platforms (individual, group and
special purpose/assault rations) matched to the operational
mission requirements of the deployed NRF.
This Task Group is also attempting to develop standards
for nutrition, packaging and combat rations that support the
NRF deployment doctrine, mission profile and operational
10
Figure 13: Shooting Simulation Training.
Impact of Lifestyle and Health Status on
Military Fitness
Military fitness is influenced by lifestyle and health status.
In the past two decades there have been massive lifestyle
changes and changes in health status due to technical
progress, changes in leisure time activities, nutritional
status, as well as social and economic development. It is
expected that these changes will affect military recruitment,
retention and readiness in the near future. Unfortunately,
databases either do not exist or are not well designed
to support the research required to address these issues.
• To open up the channels of communication and improve
understanding by disseminating the latest information,
and by discussing and comparing the solutions adopted
in different countries;
• To maintain the knowledge of soldier performance in
the cold;
• To compare the results and experiences of present
cold-protective garments and their compatibility with
ballistic protection, other garments and equipment;
• To evaluate the solutions in field medicine and the
evacuation of patients in the cold; and
• To synchronise research towards common goals.
Within the armed forces, the effective interventions to
counteract the negative impact of these trends will lead to
a higher state of military readiness and lower health-care
costs.
Human Performance Enhancement for NATO
Military Operations
The objectives of the HFM Task Group 178 are:
• To scrutinise the underlying negative trends;
• To identify and evaluate relevant data sources;
• To develop a template database (e.g., combined
physiological, anthropometrical and lifestyle data) and
tools for pre-employment screening, personnel planning
and design of equipment and workplaces; and
• To identify effective interventions (e.g., strategies for
education and training).
Human Performance Enhancement (HPE) through
physiological, psychological, perception and physical
capability augmentation has the potential to improve
the ability of the human component of future military forces
to complete mission essential tasks. For example, HPE
technologies could be used to extend physical and mental
endurance, and enhance physiological and psychological
resilience to reduce injury and illness in the context of all
factors which contribute to sustained performance under
stress in military operations.
Soldiers in Cold Environments
In all countries with cold seasons, soldiers are faced with the
challenges of functioning in a cold environment – from
carrying out fine motor tasks with low physical activity and
the difficulties in keeping warm and dry, to the dangers of
immobilisation. Moreover, international missions in cold
locations may require an even higher level of preparedness
if troops are unfamiliar with working in the cold.
For optimal performance in all military activities carried
out in cold conditions, special skills in logistics, leadership
and field medicine are required at the individual level.
Protective garments, weapons and vehicles also need to be
appropriate for the cold. Many of the problems caused
by cold can be minimised by adequate training, optimal
planning of military tasks, monitoring and systematic
development of cold-protective garments and shelters.
It is important to maintain a comprehensive knowledge
of soldier performance in the cold, as the focus nowadays
is on performance in the heat. There is new and applicable
information available on soldiers operating in cold
environments which should be disseminated and discussed
amongst researchers and military personnel.
From 20-22 April 2009, the HFM Panel will hold a
Symposium entitled “Soldiers in Cold Environments”,
the objective of which is to bring together the people
responsible for research, development and training in the
different fields of military activities in the cold, with the
aim of sharing and consolidating the information on soldiers
operating in cold conditions.
The detailed aims of this Symposium are:
HPE techniques can improve the success of military
personnel within an accepted mental and ethical
behaviour domain, both on the battlefield and between
deployments. A variety of approaches to HPE are possible:
• Natural (e.g., training, diet);
• Synthetic (e.g., drugs); and
• Through advanced technologies (e.g., exoskeletons for
enhancing physical capability, augmented perception,
adaptive intelligent interfaces).
Public and individual perception of the appropriateness
of the various approaches is of legitimate concern. Thus,
moral, ethical and legal constraints in the utilisation of
HPE techniques must be considered.
There is concern that other military forces will discover and
use HPE technologies that provide a significant advantage,
irrespective of health risks or ethical concerns. NATO
forces need to be aware of the emerging technologies that
could be applied to these purposes, and the public requires
transparency in this potentially sensitive area.
The objective of the HFM-181 Task Group will be to
organise a research Symposium designed to evaluate new
and emerging technologies that could be applied to HPE.
The specific goal of the Symposium will be to facilitate a
broader understanding of the advantages and pitfalls of HPE
technologies in NATO military settings. The Symposium
should lead to the identification of areas in which
co-ordinated research efforts are required to expand
understanding of these technologies, their effectiveness and
the potential health risks. It should also inform the
NATO Military Committee, its COMEDS and CNAD of the
current options for HPE that could be applied to current
NATO operations.
11
The Information Systems Technology Panel (IST)
The IST Mission
Our society is becoming a networked community and we are increasingly dependent on these interconnections.
This is true of NATO as an organisation as well as its Member Nations. Further, Allied and Coalition operations
depend on reliable and timely communication and information. The Information Systems Technology Panel is
concerned with both the quality and integrity of the information exchanged and the quality and integrity of the paths
through which communication passes.
The mission of the IST Panel is to advance and exchange the techniques and technologies of information systems
so as to provide timely, affordable, dependable, secure and relevant information to military personnel, planners and
strategists.
Scope of the IST Panel
The IST Panel works in four wide-ranging areas:
• Information warfare and information assurance;
• Information and knowledge management;
• Communications and networks; and
• Architectures and enabling technologies.
• To investigate the possibilities of sharing waveforms
and waveform components; and
• To report on portability and interoperability.
During recent years, the IST Panel has focused its work on
emerging technologies such as:
• Visualisation of military data with respect to situational
awareness;
• Data and information fusion;
• Speech-processing technologies;
• Use of commercial off-the-shelf products;
• IT security;
• Tactical communications for urban operations; and
• Software define radio.
Also, in response to the NATO DAT efforts, the Panel
continues to investigate topics such as:
• Adaptive network defence;
• Urban operations;
• Coalition architectures;
• Semantic interoperability;
• Dual use of high-assurance technology; and
• Decision support in Command and Control (C2)
systems.
Examples of On-Going
IST Activities
Figure 14: Diagram of a Software Defined Radio.
The technical objectives of this Task Group are to achieve
a common SDR demonstrator based on the HF4285
STANAG and on the national assets of the participating
Nations. The Task Group will then use this experience to
report on the pros and cons of using SDR technology in
the NATO environment. In addition, the Task Group aims
at giving maximum exposure to lessons learned from
the use of the demonstrator to all NATO Nations involved
in the introduction of SDR technology in their military and
to NATO groups like the SDR User Group.
Software Defined Radio
The subject of SDR is complex and at the moment baseband
samples are being exchanged as a first step towards
achieving interoperability between implementations.
The main objectives of the Task Group (IST-080) on
“Software Defined Radio (SDR)” are the following:
• To share the knowledge and experience of multinational Software Defined Radio / Software
Communications Architecture (SCA) developments;
Four Nations are presently porting the waveform to
their respective hardware platforms. Other Nations are
contributing and sharing their own experiences on SDR
without being involved with the HF4285 project. These
Nations do their porting separately, using their own set of
12
SDR tools (Spectra, SCARI, etc.). By exchanging the
findings from these porting efforts, the Task Group will
get a feel for the level of portability that exists from one
hardware platform to the other.
• Co-operative Routing
Cognitive radio nodes may co-operate with one another
to build routes that minimise radio interference, while
meeting the QoS requirements of the traffic.
The Task Group aims at having a demonstration ready by
mid 2009 to show at the SDR Forum Technical Conference.
• Spectrum Monitoring
It is difficult to detect and classify the radio signals
in the environment. By building and maintaining a
spectrum usage knowledgebase, the cognitive radio
would be able to understand the radio activities in its
vicinity and adopt the best approach in its transmission.
Cognitive Radio
Cognitive Radio is a futuristic radio system able to survey
its radio environment, understand the radio propagation
conditions and adaptively transmit according to user
demands in momentarily free spectrum gaps. Essentially,
a cognitive radio node must be capable of locating itself,
sniff its surroundings, analyse the usage of the captured
spectrum through a cognitive process, and transmit data
without interfering other transmissions, while satisfying the
user’s Quality of Service (QoS) requirements.
To ensure non-interference, the cognitive radio node must
exploit holes in the frequency, time, spatial and/or code
dimensions where no transmission is detected. In the
simplest case, the node may just identify a particular free
frequency channel / time slot / spatial direction for its
transmission to the destination. In the extreme case,
the node may transmit to its destination by relaying its data
through a network of cognitive radio nodes, where each
hop may consume a different frequency channel / time slot
/ spatial direction.
The IST-077 Task Group will attempt to build a cognitive
radio on the basis of Software Defined Radio (SDR),
considering each of the following:
• Agile Radio Frequency (RF) Front-End
For a cognitive radio to be spectrum aware, the RF
front-end must be capable of providing quick switching
between radio transmission and spectrum sensing.
Ideally, the cognitive radio node should be capable of
immediately switching out of a frequency channel
when it detects an active primary transmitter in the
same channel.
• Channel Aware Physical (PHY) Layer
Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) would be
useful for fitting the data transmission into the available
bandwidth, considering the prevailing signal noise
ratio. To realise this adaptation, channel sounding and
estimation must be performed in the PHY to permit the
measurement of the channel condition and the selection
of the right modulation and coding schemes. Flexible
usage of the spectrum can be achieved by performing
dynamic frequency selection.
• Adaptive Media Access Control (MAC)
With the PHY layer providing adaptive data rate,
the MAC must be capable of exploiting the spectrum
awareness by mapping the user data traffic to the
appropriate sub-carriers and activating the appropriate
data rates. Further, it can size the time slot duration to
ensure that the node transmits only in the period that is
time coherent within the propagation channel and free
of interference.
• Localisation
The spectrum usage knowledge is normally correlated
with the location where it is collected. Hence, accurate
self-localisation is important to position stamp the
information in the knowledgebase.
• Spectrum Usage Policies
The way in which spectrums can be used by the users
may be represented in the form of policies taking into
account the current spectrum usage, the user QoS
requirements and the location specific regulations.
These policies may be static or dynamic in nature.
• Cognitive Manager
This is the heart of the cognitive radio. A cognitive
model must be created to analyse the spectrum usage
policies and the inputs coming from the spectrum
monitor and localisation before deciding the adaptation
procedures required to transmit traffic (in co-operative
routing, adaptive MAC, channel aware PHY).
The objectives of the Task Group (IST-077) are:
• To make a review and synthesis of the cognitive radio
technologies explored within the military fields of
NATO Nations;
• To make a review of the civilian technologies for
military cognitive radio that are presently available and
those foreseen in the not too distant future;
• To investigate the techniques and technologies which
could be implemented in a cognitive radio, and provide
technology roadmap planning;
• To analyse the benefits of cognitive radio integration
in NATO Network-Enabled Capability (NNEC) NII
architecture; and
• To propose relevant programmes of work related to
cognitive radios to the NATO community.
Machine Translation for Coalition Operations
Most NATO operations are carried out by coalition forces,
and it is a fact that the efficiency of multi-national operations
remains, to a large extent, based on communication.
Language is a major obstacle for the integration of people
coming from various Nations. Personnel must be able to
communicate clearly, as the use of incorrect or inappropriate
language can result in the message being misinterpreted or
misunderstood. For multi-national operations, this can result
in reduced performance or even mission failure in extreme
circumstances.
13
NATO forces must be capable of working successfully in a
multitude of situations and environments – nation building,
defence against terrorism, peace-keeping, humanitarian
actions and situation awareness. This success could be
achieved in part by integrating machine translation with
other related communications technologies, such as speaker
and language identification, and speech recognition and
synthesis.
The IST-079 Task Group aims at formulating how to best
support and improve the decision-making process by
focussing on the following activities:
• A survey of the most relevant NATO research activities
conducted on situation awareness and decision making
after the events of September 11, 2001;
• A high-level description of the problem-domain
characteristics (current and anticipated) and their
associated performance factors; and
• The definition of decision support concepts aiding
military experts working together with other civil
authorities at all levels, in order to improve and share
situation awareness, collaborative planning and
scheduling, and to synchronise a diverse set of plans
and actions.
Coalition Network Defence Common
Operating Picture (CNet-D COP)
Figure 15: Coalitions and Multi-National Operations.
In this respect, the Task Group on “Machine Translation
for Coalition Operations” (IST-078), will assess and
investigate the impact of machine translation technology
on military data (speech and text). For this investigation,
the Task Group will resort to standardised assessment
methods using realistic operational data and specifications
for both Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products and
for development of new technology. For the investigation,
a representative, multi-lingual database of dialogues
(both text and speech) will be required. One way too obtain
this would be to collect these dialogues in a simulation or
during a NATO exercise for example. One or more
prototype systems would be developed and evaluated
collaboratively within the Research Task Group.
The IST-081 Task Group has been created to advance
research and technology in Computer Network Defence
(CND) situational awareness as a step towards defining a
common information model for multi-national CND
information sharing. This will enhance the understanding
and awareness of network and security management within
the coalition network operations environment. In addition
to the common information model, this Task Group will
produce a CNet-D COP concept document and plan for
potential follow-on interoperability demonstrations.
Ultimately, the results could be used to influence future
standards in this area.
In order to meet these challenges, the Task Group will
identify a common set of definitions that are necessary to
achieve an agreed understanding and interpretation of
CNet-D SA, and will integrate the Defence R&D Canada
(DRDC) MulVal/AssetRank system (attack graph engine)
into the NC3A Dynamic Risk Assessment system to
demonstrate an automated CND risk assessment.
The Task Group will focus on the following objectives:
• To investigate the benefits and maturity of Statistical
Machine Translation (SMT) to support NATO
operations in one or more domains;
• To investigate integrating machine translation with
other related communications technologies, such as
speech recognition and synthesis;
• To develop standardised assessment methods using
realistic operational data and specifications for both
Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products and for
development of new technology; and
• To develop a representative, multi-lingual database of
dialogues (both text and speech).
Figure 16: Common Operation Picture Principle.
Decision Support in the Context of an
Integrated C2
The decision-making process in complex, dynamic and
uncertain environments (coalition, joint or mixed civilianmilitary operations) remains a prime factor of the success
of the operation.
14
Domain-Based Approach for Coalition-Wide
Information Exchange
Today, coalition has become a keyword in terms of peacekeeping and peace-building operations, and as such, the
exchange of information is becoming a major challenge.
• Disruption Tolerant Communications
• Objectives: Managing communication disruptions by
deploying the network so as to avoid disruptions,
and by accepting disruptions as ‘normal’ behaviour of
the network and offering services capable of providing
end-to-end information exchange independent from
the disruptions.
• Topics to be covered: Fault Tolerance due to
equipment failure; Resistant communications to
interferences and jamming; Adaptive, self-healing
and self-configuring technologies; Security issues of
Disruptive Tolerant Network (DTN) technologies,
including key management in disconnected
environment; Routing strategies and protocols
for disconnected networks / Congestion handling
techniques; and Transport layer protocols for
disruption tolerant communications.
Figure 17: View of Wide Information Exchange.
The scope of the activity of the IST-084 Task Group
is to enable and improve NATO-wide interoperability,
preferably focused on Multi-lateral Interoperability
Programmes (MIPs) and adjacent areas; therefore,
its purpose will be to validate the domain-based approach,
to demonstrate the expected benefits and to make
recommendations on its usage in a NATO context.
Within this framework, the Task Group will carry out an
in-depth investigation of the approach and associated
issues, and conduct a proof-of-concept experiment.
• Smart Filtering
• Topics to be covered: Information management;
Semantic networks; Ranking techniques; Agent
technology; and Semantic search technologies.
• Predicting and Managing Risk
• Topics to be covered: Definition of risk used in
military environment; Types of risks (from operational
level to system design); Criteria used to identify
acceptable levels of risk; Tools, methods and
techniques used for managing risk; and Technology
used to store risk information and to facilitate
reporting.
It is anticipated that the experiment will answer some basic
questions regarding the best way to:
• Organise the domain-based approach;
• Find a workable sub-division of domains;
• Develop efficiently the domain of Information Exchange
Data Models (IEDMs); and
• Exchange information efficiently and effectively based
upon multiple IEDMs.
New Activities to be carried
out by the IST Panel
The IST Panel’s 2009 Programme of Work will explore
new fields in various domains, including activities such as:
• System-of-Systems (SoS) Architecture
• Topics to be covered: Process and method for system
engineering of SoS; Tools for modelling and
experimentation; SoS prototyping for architecture
execution; and Reverse modelling of legacy systems.
• Interconnected Networks and Security
• Objectives: To arrive at a better understanding of
network and information connections and their
functional security requirements in the context of
interconnected networks.
• Topics to be covered: Interconnected network
security; and Control mechanisms for information
sharing.
Figure 18: System-of-Systems Architecture.
Other activities include:
• Interoperability and autonomy for military unmanned
systems;
• Service-oriented architecture challenges;
• Dynamic spectrum allocation management; and
• Cyber defence.
Also noteworthy for 2009 will be a Lecture Series on
“Interoperability Issues” (IST-088), as well as Symposia on
“C3I in Crisis Management” (IST-086) and “Information
Management Exploitation” (IST-087). Please refer to the
RTO website for further details about these events.
15
The NATO Modelling and Simulation Group (NMSG)
The NMSG Mission
The mission of the NATO Modelling and Simulation Group is to promote co-operation among Alliance bodies,
NATO Member and Partner Nations to maximise the efficiency with which Modelling and Simulation (M&S) is
used. Primary mission areas include M&S standardisation, education and associated science and technology.
The activities of the Group are governed by a Strategy and Business Plan derived from the NATO M&S Master
Plan. The Group provides M&S expertise in support of the tasks and projects within the RTO and from other
NATO bodies.
Standardisation Activity in the NMSG – MS3
MS3 is actively involved in the standards development
process, linking the NMSG with external Standard
Development Organisations (SDOs). As an example,
a Technical Co-operation Agreement was signed with the
Simulation Interoperability Standards Organisation (SISO)
in 2007.
NMSG has been officially named as the Delegated
Tasking Authority for NATO M&S Standards by CNAD.
In this role, the NMSG is responsible for the development
of STANAGs and other standardisation documents in
support of NATO M&S activities.
Coalition Battle Management Language
(C-BML), Technological Demonstration
during I/ITSEC 2008
Examples of Recent Work
carried out by the NMSG
Standardisation documents developed by the NMSG
include: STANAG 4603 on “M&S Architecture Standards
for Technical Interoperability: High Level Architecture
(HLA)” – promulgated 2 July 2008; and STANAG
4662, 4663, 4664 on “Synthetic Environmental Data
Representation and Interchange Specification (SEDRIS)”
– currently under the ratification process.
Another important activity of the NMSG in the
standardisation domain is the first Allied M&S Publication,
AMSP-01, entitled “NATO M&S Standards Profile”, which
is due to be published by the NATO Standardisation
Agency (NSA) early in 2009. This publication has been
developed by the recently created MS3 Group (Modelling &
Simulation Standards sub-group), under the umbrella of the
NMSG.
A Battle Management Language (BML) is an unambiguous
language used by command and control forces and systems
conducting military operations. BML is being developed as
an extension of standardised representations. It digitises
Command and Control (C2) information such as orders and
plans, to be understandable for military personnel, simulated
forces and future robotic forces. In addition, BML provides
the capability to exchange the required context through
digitised reports and returns for situational awareness
and a shared common operational picture.
BML is particularly relevant in a network-centric
environment for enabling mutual understanding. BML
must also facilitate C2-simulation interoperability in an
environment where multi-national distributed and
integrated capabilities are becoming more common and
more important. BML is a way of representing doctrine,
while not standardising doctrine; the vocabulary must be
well defined, in the context of the respective application
domain, to unambiguously generate executable tasks at the
end of the process.
BML must model these aspects so that underlying
information systems (M&S or C2 Systems) can exchange
information and make sense of the results. BML must
specify the underlying protocols for transferring BML
information. National studies have shown that BML
representation can be transferred using Internet/Web-based
open standards such as eXtensible Markup Language
(XML).
Figure 19: Examples of Technical Activities and
Standardisation Efforts Undertaken by the NMSG.
16
The primary objective for this Task Group (MSG-048)
is to provide a NATO C-BML specification by
analysing and adapting the available specifications and
implementations from either the Simulation Interoperability
Standards Organisation (SISO) or other NATO Nations.
The technical activity will assess the operational benefits
for NATO C2 and M&S communities by conducting
experiments and a final demonstration with existing systems
that have been made compliant with this specification.
MSG-048 has organised several BML demonstrations,
notably during ITEC 07 and I/ITSEC 07, and more recently
at I/ITSEC 08 (1-4 December 2008) to show the potential
of this language by communicating amongst different
actors. They provided a series of technical demonstrations
presenting some of the Group’s findings and results.
Figure 21: Mr. Lionel Khimeche (MSG-048 Co-Chair) during
a Live Demonstration of C-BML at I/ITSEC 08.
Exploiting Commercial Games for
Military Use
Figure 20: MSG-048 – I/ITSEC 08 Demonstration Architecture.
NATO’s Coalition Battle Management Language (C-BML)
provides an unambiguous language used to command and
control forces conducting military operations. C-BML is
particularly relevant in a network-centric environment for
enabling mutual understanding.
The need for C2-simulation interoperability in coalition
operations is even greater than that of national service and
joint operations, as coalitions must be able to function
despite greater complexity due to significant differences
among doctrine and human language barriers.
Ten Nations contributed voluntarily to C-BML, with six
demonstrations scheduled at different times during the
exhibition and conference. There was much interest and
attendance from the show visitors during these
demonstrations.
The main goals for NATO’s C-BML are:
• To standardise and improve M&S C2 interoperability
for automatic, rapid and unambiguous command and
control;
• To develop a standard representation of digitised
C2 information, such as orders and plans, to be
understandable for military personnel, simulated
forces and future robotics forces; and
• To provide a situational awareness common operational
picture through digitised reports and returns.
Many NATO/PfP Nations are now exploiting or planning to
exploit commercial games technology and techniques for
military training and analysis. There are clear advantages to
this approach in that such games are very accessible and
relatively cheap compared to more traditional military
simulations. However, there are obstacles to exploitation in
that commercial games may not be sufficiently fit for the
purpose, and the economics of the military market are quite
different from those of the commercial market.
A successful series of six Workshops have already been
organised as RTO activities, with the last one taking place
in Stockholm, Sweden, in May 2008, in conjunction
with ITEC 08. Preparations have already being made to
continue the series during 2009, with a follow-on activity
being planned that will address “Commercial Games and
Commercial Technology for Military Use”, which will be
co-chaired by ACT and GBR.
The objectives of these Workshops include the
establishment of a common forum for sharing national
experiences and best practices, and also the identification
of barriers to further exploitation and the ways that these
might be overcome.
Opportunities will also be sought for further NATO/PfP
collaboration, if it is considered beneficial. Specific aspects
that may be covered include, but not be limited to:
• Current applications;
• Future technological opportunities and challenges;
• Cost effectiveness;
• Industrial/economic issues;
• Impact of commercial games on new entrants to the
military;
• Establishing military requirements;
• Cultural issues within existing military organisations;
• Acquisition/procurement issues; and
• Potential collaborative opportunities and possible
future involvement in ITEC and I/ITSEC.
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engine capable of searching the central NSRL node, as well
as other repositories developed by Nations or organisations.
The prototype of the NSRL is currently open to the NATO
M&S community via the RTO website.
M&S Education and Conferences
The NMSG holds an annual M&S Conference on specific
themes designed to familiarise those who attend with the
latest M&S developments, best practice and standards,
and to expand on new and on-going M&S activities within
the Alliance and its Member Nations.
Figure 22: Examples of Commercial Games
with Potential Military Applications.
The 2008 Conference, under the theme “How is Modelling
& Simulation Meeting the Defence Challenges out to
2015?”, was held in the Fall in Vancouver, B.C.,
Canada. The papers presented are available from the RTO
website (RTO-MP-MSG-060). The 2009 M&S Conference
will be held in Brussels, Belgium, covering the
following underlying themes: Support to operations; Human
behaviour representation; Irregular warfare; Defence
Against Terrorism; and Coalition tactical force integration.
NATO Simulation Resource Library
The uncontrolled increase in the use of simulation over the
last few decades has produced dispersion and duplication
of simulation resources and efforts, complicating any
possible reusability. NATO has taken the first step
towards addressing this complication by adopting the High
Level Architecture (HLA), a standard for interconnecting
simulators and for improving simulation software
reusability. Unfortunately, the adoption of the HLA
standard does not solve all the problems related to
simulation reusability within NATO.
Another fundamental element needed to achieve this goal is
a library for simulation resources. A Simulation Resource
Library (SRL) is considered a pre-requisite for reuse,
in order to provide awareness of, and access to, shared
resources. Without an SRL, reuse will be fragmented,
incomplete and unsustainable. Once the SRL is populated,
authorised users could access and tailor an application for
their own purpose, then run it and obtain secure results
within a short period of time.
The NMSG established a Task Group (MSG-012) on
“Recommendations on the Establishment of a NATO
Simulation Resource Library (NSRL)”. This Group studied
the technical aspects related to the establishment of an
NSRL as required by the NATO M&S Master Plan (NATO,
1998), considering it was clearly a first step in promoting
simulation resource reusability within the Alliance.
The Task Group provided a specification document for the
establishment of an SRL for NATO and Partner Nations.
Based on this document, and on the recommendations
of the NMSG Task Group (MSG-042) on “Definition
of a Framework for Simulation Resources Reusability”,
the RTA has started the development of an NSRL at its
headquarters near Paris, France. The NSRL will provide an
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Figure 23: The 2008 NMSG Annual Conference – Vancouver.
In summary, NATO recognises the importance of M&S and
has responded through the establishment of the NMSG.
A vision for M&S, coupled with strategy and business
plans, shows a positive way forward.
The NATO M&S vision is to provide a readily available,
flexible and cost-effective means to enhance NATO
operations in the application areas of defence planning,
education, training and exercises in support of operations,
research, technology development and armaments
acquisition. This will be achieved by a NATO-wide
co-operative effort that promotes interoperability, reuse
and affordability.
The NMSG is now addressing and making substantial
advances in solving many M&S challenges through the
sharing of experiences and talents within NATO and
Partner Nations.
The System Analysis and Studies Panel (SAS)
The SAS Mission
The mission of the System Analysis and Studies Panel is to conduct studies and analyses of an operational and
technological nature and to promote the exchange and development of methods and tools for Operational
Analysis (OA) as applied to defence problems.
Activities of the SAS Panel
The SAS Panel activities are predominantly focused on
exploring how operational capability can be enhanced
through the exploitation of new technologies, new forms of
organisation, or new concepts of operations. As such,
the SAS Panel PoW is tightly coupled, not only with
national interests, but with NATO’s warfighting and
operational agencies. Outlined below are the results of
recently completed and on-going Task Groups, as well as
descriptions of new work that the Panel plans to undertake.
The Impact of Potentially Disruptive
Technologies
The goal of the SAS-062 Task Group was to identify
possible disruptive technologies for defence, particularly in
security operations, and to develop a process to assess them
using military staff in a wargame-like setting. A disruptive
technology is one which significantly ‘changes the conduct
of operations, especially the rules of engagement, within a
short time, and thus has an impact on the long-term goals
for concepts, strategy and planning’.
The team, comprised of representatives of nine Nations and
ACT, developed a methodology and a process to assess
technologies on possible disruptive effects for defence and
security. Both the process and the methodology were
captured in a wargame-like exercise called the “Disruptive
Technology Assessment Game (DTAG)”. Besides the
DTAG, the team collected and assessed more then 60
Ideas of System (IoS). Over a period of three years, three
DTAGs were held. An average of twelve military officers,
ranging in rank from major to colonel, participated in each
DTAG.
The Task Group assessed approximately 40 technologies
that underpinned over 60 IoS cards. Many technologies
may have utility in future applications, and the Group
is actively seeking other forums in which to use the
interactive gaming methodology. Additionally, the Group
demonstrated that relatively immature technologies can
still be assessed.
Capability-Based Long-Term Planning
Since the end of the Cold War, the focus in defence
planning has moved away from classical planning
methodologies towards a more wide-ranging, capabilitybased approach. The problem is no longer to counterbalance the military might of the Warsaw Pact, but to
identify the capabilities required to realise poorly defined
political aims and objectives.
Since the scope of these aims is now much broader than it
used to be, the analytical tools and techniques are also now
more varied and perhaps more nebulous than they were in
the past. There is no longer a single, dominant scenario
that defines all military requirements, but rather a
multitude of potential missions and tasks that have to be
prioritised and balanced on the political and strategic level.
Extracting the military requirements, and others such as
those associated with the Effects Based Approach to
Operations (EBAO), from these missions and tasks is not
straightforward.
With this as a backdrop, the SAS-072 team organised a
Specialists’ Meeting on 18-19 November 2008, in Oslo,
Norway, to examine how effects-based planning is being
implemented today across the various Nations. The goal of
this event was to facilitate a learning process and future
cross-border co-operation in defence planning. Almost 20
paper presentations demonstrated the level of interest in
the topic and provided for an engaging exchange of ideas
and information.
NATO Independent Cost Estimating and its
Role in Capability Portfolio Analysis
Figure 24: DTAG Setting.
Faced with the reality of stagnant defence budgets, it has
become even more important to understand the costs
of equipment throughout the life cycle in order to
optimise the capability delivered within monetary
constraints – the SAS Panel continues to provide improved
methodologies and enhanced tools to this end. In Spring
2008, the Panel launched a Task Group to address “NATO
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Independent Cost Estimating and its Role in Capability
Portfolio Analysis” (SAS-076). The Task Group will
produce NATO’s first-ever independent cost estimates on
the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) System
and on Rotterdam class ships.
Figure 25: Rotterdam Class Ships.
The AGS programme presents a useful opportunity to
leverage well-developed requirements and produce an
estimate on a system that draws a great deal of interest
from the NATO community. The cost estimate, complete
with uncertainty analysis, has the potential to provide
important data to NATO decision-makers as the AGS
programme will be out for tender soon.
The Rotterdam estimates will allow ex-post testing of the
methodology, since actual cost data already exists for this
programme. Using cost analysis requirements and
assumptions data for the Rotterdam ships, the Task Group
will develop what is, in essence, a ‘should cost’ estimate
based on the underlying programme requirements,
characteristics and work breakdown. Once the Group
completes the estimate, actual costs can be compared to
the model’s estimate in order to validate the methodology
and enable future refinements.
SAS-076 builds from the legacy of Panel activity in this
arena. For example, “Methods and Models for Life-Cycle
Costing” (SAS-054) produced a comprehensive view on
the application and use of life-cycle costing, from an early
conceptual phase in the product life cycle, right through to
the disposal phase. Using the findings of SAS-054 as a
springboard, “Code of Practice for Life-Cycle Costing”
(SAS-069) is in the process of producing a practical and
succinct guidebook for the use of life-cycle costing
methods. Such methodologies will help add credibility
to the Life-Cycle Costing (LCC) process and reduce the
likelihood of embarrassing cost over-runs.
A final objective of SAS-076’s work is to help understand
the costs of future capability sets, not just individual
systems. The team will sponsor several international
Workshops in 2009 – 2010, inviting experts in the field to
discuss best practices and explore the role of life-cycle
costs estimates of systems and their relationship to
capability costing. This dimension of SAS-076’s work
supports the shift in philosophy from individual ‘stovepiped’ platform development to capability and effectsbased perspectives on operations.
20
Analytical Tools for Irregular Warfare
In order to meet current and future security challenge
sets, NATO needs to understand and be able to evaluate
Irregular Warfare (IW). Conventional warfare analyses
tools, capabilities and methodologies are often ill-suited to
address the complex nature of irregular warfare. NATO is
uniquely situated as an intergovernmental organisation to
identify innovative approaches to study IW, including:
• Gathering and developing tools/methods/algorithms;
• Identifying historical and current data sources; and
• Highlighting on-going analyses.
The SAS-071 team is organising a Specialists’ Meeting to
explore a variety of topics related to the analysis of
irregular warfare. Set to take place on 24-26 March 2009,
in Ottobrun, Germany, working groups will discuss:
• Operational analysis support to current operations;
• Data and validation for IW analysis tools;
• Models, methods, and frameworks for IW analysis;
• Historical perspectives of IW;
• IW analysis to support future capability; and
• Strategic analyses, assessments and metrics for IW.
Figure 26: Irregular Warfare Analysis Space
Long Term Scientific Study – Joint
Operations 2030
Unique to the SAS Panel, a Long Term Scientific Study
(LTSS) assesses the impact on military operations that
might be expected to come from developments in science
and technology, over both the medium and long term
(typically 10 – 20 years).
In response to NATO’s Main Armaments Groups, this study
is considering the impact that potential future global security
environments could have on joint operations across a range
of representative operations. Commencing in November
2006, the team – with 14 Nations and NATO agencies
contributing – has made great strides by completing three of
its envisioned five phases on-schedule.
During Phase I, the team laid the foundation for the
study by reviewing and discussing security threats and
trends, the future security environment, the Future Worlds
approach to long-term planning, ACT’s Long-Term
Capability Requirements (LTCR) study, the use of scenarios
in long-term planning, the role of a military estimate, and
the development of a Concept of Operations in operational
planning. A Phase I report is available through the RTO by
contacting the SAS Panel Executive Office.
The Phase II effort focused on projecting the
anticipated conditions likely to be facing NATO in 2030.
To accomplish this, the team conducted an analysis
to develop a preliminary list of themes (e.g., drivers)
for significant changes in conducting military actions,
stemming from fundamental, longer-term undercurrents
in technology, international law, management and
globalisation. These themes, in turn, create issues for
the military planner. The Phase II report will be available
at the beginning of this year through the SAS Panel
Executive Office.
Phase III took the themes and issues from Phase II and
combined them with the requirements identified in ACT’s
LTCR and generated a set of capabilities required
by NATO in 2030. The resultant list of 350+ theme, issue
and capability combinations were then prioritised and
characterised.
Phase IV, which will finish early in 2009, consists of
outreach efforts to determine what solutions are likely to
be in place in 2030. These solution solicitations target not
only the NATO Science & Technology (S&T) community,
but anywhere technical experts who are knowledgeable
about the state-of-the-art can be found. With these
projected solutions in hand, the Task Group will match
them with the capability needs identified in Phase III to
determine which R&T areas merit future investment.
This effort culminates with Phase V, a multi-national
exercise to validate and augment the work of the Task
Group, in preparation for the final report in December 2009.
NATO Network Enabled Capability (NNEC)
C2 Maturity Model; and C2 for NNEC:
Preparing for Complex Endeavours
This study seeks to explore fundamental command and
control, including consultation and co-ordination concepts
such as collaborative planning, self-synchronisation,
individual cognition, and individual and organisational
behaviour in the context of NNEC analysis, development,
and implementation as an operational capability. Thus far,
the SAS-065 team has developed a maturity reference
model for NNEC C2 that reflects a set of increasing
capabilities. The team has completed several validation
case studies to legitimise the constructs of the model,
and will continue to map additional case study findings to
the model’s variables.
An NNEC C2 maturity model will be of value to C2
planners and operators. Planners will be able to directly
relate investment in NNEC-related C2 technologies to
increased capability, by allowing them to be evaluated
against a validated standard for performance. Operators
will have a framework against which to judge their
organisational responses and procedures as they take steps
to continuously improve responsiveness and capability.
In support of the SAS-065 effort, a Symposium is planned
for September in Bratislava, Slovakia. This effort,
SAS-079, aims to improve current thinking on C2 in an
NNEC context, and also to encourage the development and
implementation of the approaches, systems, training and
evaluation tools needed for NNEC success.
Analysis and Modelling for Human Resource
Management in Defence
Motivated personnel, in sufficient numbers, and with the
right mix of skills, training and experience, are the bedrock
of military capability. This has always been the case,
but the requirements of defence transformation have led to
increased levels of interest in this area, as many Nations
embark on major changes in manpower structures in order
to meet the new needs of expeditionary operations rather
than territorial defence.
Even for Nations who have largely completed this change,
demographic and economic pressures will continue to pose
major challenges to national Ministries of Defence in
formulating and implementing personnel policies. Many of
the problems that currently exist in this area make it difficult
for Nations and NATO Human Resource Management
(HRM) bodies to function efficiently and effectively.
Operational analysis and other model-based approaches
are capable of providing valuable support to defence
decision-makers addressing personnel issues. However,
this application domain has tended to have a lower
profile than work related to topics such as concepts
of operation, equipment acquisition and logistics.
The SAS-073 team has organised a Specialists’ Meeting
for 19-20 March 2009, in Brussels, Belgium, in order to
address these issues, exchange experiences, and propose
further collaborative research programmes to assist
national and Alliance decision-makers with defence HRM
policy choices.
Work Planned for 2010 and Beyond
To ensure a robust and relevant programme of work,
the SAS Panel continuously evaluates new proposals that
could be sponsored as technical activities. For 2010 and
beyond, work under consideration includes:
• Performing a capability-based assessment of non-lethal
weapons;
• Organising a Symposium to explore approaches for
increasing the effectiveness of military organisation,
and to include quality movements and others;
• Establishing a Specialist Team to share experiences
with Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theories and
applications in defence;
• Exploring methods for enhancing the credibility and
validation of ‘soft’ operations research and operational
analysis;
• Developing and furthering analytic models for
characterising the impact of rising power and energy
costs on S&T, capability development and operations;
and
• Establishing additional contexts for the DTAG
methodology and furthering the analysis on the impacts
of disruptive technology.
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The Systems Concepts and Integration Panel (SCI)
The SCI Mission
The mission of the Systems Concepts and Integration Panel is to further knowledge concerning advanced
system concepts, integration, engineering techniques and technologies across the spectrum of platforms and
operating environments to assure cost-effective mission-area capabilities.
Examples of Recent Work
carried out by the SCI Panel
Interoperability and Integration of
Dismounted Soldier Weapon Systems
Unlike the development of individual infantry weapons
in the past, active dismounted soldier modernisation
programmes currently link the individual modular weapon
system as an integrated component of the soldier’s ensemble
of equipment. The weapon systems envisioned in many of
the national programmes of NATO Nations include not
only kinetic small calibre lethality, but also advanced fire
control functionality, laser range finders and designators,
daylight video, image intensified and thermal imagery,
and numerous other advances. Many of these components
provide sensory perception to the individual soldier and
may provide new methods to employ these weapons on
the future battlefield of tomorrow and in the global war
on Terrorism. New technologies, coupled with advanced
integration concepts, will provide a modular weapon system
that is tailourable to the threat environment NATO forces
will face in the future, and leverage the synergistic effects of
the weapon as a component of the soldier’s integrated
system.
Working at the behest of AC/225 Topical Group 1, which
has the aim of ensuring interoperability of future national
dismounted soldier systems as they are developed and
fielded, Task Group SCI-178 began in 2006 to examine
critical weapons sub-system problems for current
interoperability issues and long-term soldier system
interface and development issues. Specifically, the Task
Group sought results in three areas:
1) Technical Interfaces – To define and outline the
technical interface systems integration principles and
concepts for future soldier system weapons and
establish standard methods for accessory mounting
rails / attachment points and data interfaces as
technical interfaces between weapons, optics, and
target identification and target location devices
within the soldier modernisation programme.
2) Human Factors Focus and Analysis – To define and
outline the human systems integration principles and
concepts for future soldier system weapons and the
soldier modernisation system.
3) Power – To investigate the power requirements of
future weapon systems, and methods for providing,
harvesting or generating power.
22
One of the primary objectives of the Task Group was to
determine an optimal mounting method for attachments to
weapons. The Interfaces sub-group developed an optimised
solution from a Mil Std 1913 rail, based on comparative
assessments of all possible weapon attachment methods.
Through multiple engineering enhancements, utilising
expertise from participating Nations and industry,
an enhanced NATO Accessory Rail was developed to
include manufacturing drawings.
The major achievement of the first three years of the Task
Group was the submission of the new NATO Accessory
Rail as proposed STANAG 4694 to the NATO Army
Armaments Group (NAAG) Land Capability Group 1.
Figure 27: NATO Rail STANAG.
The Human Factors sub-group conducted numerous trials
that developed a compendium of human factors assessments
on interface and compatibility issues with present and
future soldier systems. This vast amount of work includes
optimal weapon system weight (Fig. 28 and 29) and centre
of mass recommendations and effects, recommended
placement of control functions, butt stock integration with
headborne systems (Fig. 30) and modern body armour,
overall effectiveness tied to the time to engage a target, and
engagement accuracy.
The Power sub-group has been very effective in determining
if centralised power on a weapon sub-system is better than
the current decentralised power, where every attachment has
its own power source. This Group has directly interfaced
with the Human Factors sub-group in defining optimal
weight allocations and centre of mass effectiveness.
The Group also has demonstrated working prototypes of
conductive and inductive powered rail systems.
To capitalise on the synergy and momentum of these
activities, the Task Group requested and received an
extension for a fourth year of work from the NATO RTO’s
Research and Technology Board (RTB). In this fourth
year, it is hoped that STANAG 4694 will be ratified by
many Nations and specified in their weapon system
procurements and retrofits. Industry also appears to be
eagerly awaiting the adoption of STANAG 4694.
Figure 29: Video Recordings were made to Capture
Data on Muzzle Rise, Slew, and Rifle Control.
Figure 28: The Study of Movement Accuracy incorporated
the Impact of Rifle Weight on Initial Accuracy.
The SCI-178 Task Group attributes its success to several
factors. First, it is ensuring the applicability and integration
of its work with the NATO Army Armament Group’s Land
Capability Group 1, of which a quarter of the Task Group
members are directly involved.
Secondly, the Task Group is an optimal mix of scientists,
engineers, material developers, industry and operational
users from ten NATO and Partner Nations.
Thirdly, the Task Group maximised its work potential by
initially organising itself as three sub-groups formed along
the main lines of work (Technical Interfaces, Human
Factors and Power), which have now been consolidated into
two groups to more fully pursue the integration aspect of the
work.
Finally, the Task Group’s work will directly influence the
ability of national soldier modernisation programmes to be
aware of and develop weapon systems that provide the
warfighter with an optimally integrated and interoperable
weapon system, making NATO’s infantryman more lethal
and effective in the future.
Figure 30: Butt Stock Integration.
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Three additional live fire trials in early 2009 also will be
conducted to test powered rail and centralised power
sources and to help test the validity of the entire body of
data.
The final Technical Report is due at the end of 2009 and
will include a report on the development of STANAG 4694,
a compendium of human factors reports, a centralised and
decentralised power report, and a powered rail report.
Detection and Neutralisation of Route
Threats
One of the main threats in the current out-of-area operations
of NATO forces is that posed by the route threat. This threat
includes various deployments of explosive devices such as
landmines, Area Denial Weapons (ADW) and various forms
of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) being encountered
today in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Task 4: Execute and analyse common demonstrations,
tests and trials of detection and neutralisation techniques
for route threat.
The Task Group’s activities will be supported by
demonstrations, tests and trials of existing and emerging
detection and neutralisation techniques considered suitable
for countering the existing and future threat deployments
mentioned. The conclusions of the investigation will be
presented in a final report which is due to be published in
late 2010 and will include recommended detection and
neutralisation technologies to route threats based on the
results of the Task Group’s demonstrations, tests and trials
which will take place over the next two years.
The SCI-193 Task Group is concentrating on applicable
countermeasures for these various explosive threat
deployments by investigating the physical and operational
capabilities and limitations of techniques for stand-off
detection and neutralisation of route threats. Applicable
detection techniques typically include infrared, electrooptical, trace and bulk explosive detection, nuclear-based
and radar systems which exploit such things as spectral,
polarisation, explosive and bio-degraded species and
temporal features for detection.
Within the bounds of NATO collaboration, the eleven
participating NATO and Partner Nations will assist in
creating a route detection and neutralisation baseline against
the explosive route threats and related initiation device
deployments. The technologies demonstrated, tested and
trialled will identify the body of science and technology
research needed to fully achieve stand-off detection and
neutralisation for routes.
Mission Effectiveness of Denial and
Deception
Collaboration and integration with other NATO-related
efforts include participation in SET Panel’s IED Conference
in May 2007 (SET-117) and liaison through Task Group
members with the RTO SET Panel, NATO Defence Against
Terrorism (DAT) C-IED Group, and NATO Science for
Peace Explosive Detection Group.
NATO transformation efforts to counter the operational
challenges of coalition warfare in a new millennium
encompass the need to develop new concepts, plans,
doctrines and policies. As such, NATO must address and
understand the entire spectrum of emerging and increasingly
asymmetric threats that it will face.
To date, the Task Group has completed its ‘pilot test’ of
readily available systems against available targets using
existing procedures. The results and lessons learned from
pilot testing will be applied to four subsequent tasks:
• Task 1: Threat and scenario definition – The aim of
this task is to identify the key characteristics of the
route threat as encountered by NATO forces.
• Task 2: Identification of systems currently being tested
and equipment for the demos/tests/trials that is required
and presently available.
• Task 3: Design and set-up common demonstrations, tests
and trials of detection and neutralisation techniques for
route threat – The definition of assessment criteria will
be in accordance with those produced by the
SCI-133 Task Group.
Realistically, assessing the capability of possible and
probable Nation state (government and military) and nonstate actors (unconventional players such as terrorists,
insurgents, criminal organisations, etc.) will enable NATO
to develop methods and procedures for defence domain
awareness. The myriad tools – Materials, Methods and
Technologies (MMT) – available to potential adversaries
out-number the resources available to combat them.
As such, the Alliance must be adaptive to meet, counter,
and subsequently defeat them effectively.
24
Figure 31: Command-Wire Detector under Test during
the SCI-193 Pilot Test, Operated by an Officer
from the Royal Netherlands Engineers.
The SCI Panel is playing a significant role in educating
Alliance members on the importance of understanding one
of these key asymmetric challenges – Denial and
Deception (D&D). In March 2008, the SCI Panel held a
Symposium (SCI-199) on “Mission Effectiveness of
Denial and Deception”, with the main goal of assessing
the effectiveness of denial and deception within military
operations and the importance of developing effective
countermeasures.
The discussion encompassed five key areas:
• Doctrine;
• Training;
• Requirements;
• Operational lessons learned; and
• Research and technology.
which will continue through 2011. The Symposium has
also provided a strong foundation for follow-on activities
such as the SCI-207 Lecture Series to be conducted in
March 2009 and the SCI-213 Symposium scheduled for
May 2009.
As identified by recent NATO operations and previous
study efforts (SCI-131, SCI-188, and now SCI-199), D&D
is a key element and force multiplier in all levels of warfare.
Future adversarial use of D&D will not diminish in
importance, but will continue to transform with and against
Allied technologies, doctrine and practice.
Unique to the Symposium were working level sessions
that identified critical areas of future study for the SCI-200
Task Group.
The collaborative work on D&D being done within the RTO
structure is producing real benefits for NATO and its
Member Nations and Partners.
The Symposium was sponsored by the Allied Command
Transformation Staff Element Europe (ACT/SEE), SHAPE
HQ, and was attended by representatives from 12 countries.
In addition to country participation, personnel from SHAPE
and NATO HQ also attended.
Enabling Technologies for Maritime
Situational Awareness
The Symposium achieved a number of its objectives,
including:
• Examined NATO’s traditional views and existing
assumptions of Camouflage, Concealment and
Deception (CC&D) to include D&D doctrine, training,
and mission requirements (logistics, communications,
operations and intelligence);
• Raised the awareness and understanding of adversarial
threat to D&D capabilities, including MMTs;
• Evaluated the adversary and potential effects of D&D
in conventional and unconventional settings;
• Discussed the significance of D&D at the tactical,
operational and strategic levels in the modern context;
• Discussed and identified areas of D&D effects against
NATO mission areas through operational lessons
learned, as well as assessed countermeasures, including
the possible adaptation/expansion of existing NATO
capabilities; and
• Addressed existing technologies and other areas for
potential countermeasure development and application.
In January 2008, on behalf of the North Atlantic Council,
the NATO Military Committee endorsed the NATO
Concept on Maritime Situational Awareness (MSA). The
Council agreed that the MSA Concept should be pursued
further by the NATO Military Authorities by developing a
clear vision of the required capability and developing a
comprehensive, integrated implementation plan.
Figure 33: NATO MSA Battlespace.
In concert with NATO’s Allied Command Transformation
(ACT), which has prepared the final draft of the MSA
Concept Development (CD) Plan, the SCI-211 Task
Group will work to assist ACT in improving maritime
information sharing and collaboration, information
exchange requirements, and in improving MSA processes.
The Task Group also will also assist participating Nations
in developing and fielding appropriate MSA standards and
capabilities.
Figure 32: Disguised Cell Phone Antenna Towers.
The results of the Symposium serve as a knowledge
baseline for other cross-Panel activities, such as the
SCI-200 Task Group on “Mission Effectiveness of D&D”
The Task Group had its first planning meeting in December
2008 and intends to conduct Workshops and subject-matter
discussions in support of the material, technical and
interoperability aspects of the NATO MSA CD Plan. Initial
plans include a joint effort to hold a Workshop with the
NURC on “Anomaly Detection and Data Fusion” in 2009.
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The Sensors and Electronics Technology Panel (SET)
The SET Mission
The mission of the Sensors and Electronics Technology Panel is to advance technology in electronics and
passive/active sensors as they pertain to Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition (RSTA),
electronic warfare, communications and navigation; and to enhance sensor capabilities through multi-sensor
integration/fusion in order to improve the operating capability and to contribute to fulfil strategic military results.
As NATO warfighters and peace-keepers continue to shift more and more towards asymmetrical warfare,
SET technologies have to focus on the military mission of saving lives, improving the quality of life and extending
our combat effectiveness.
Research in the SET Panel addresses the phenomenology related to target signature, propagation and battlespace
environment, electro-optics (or electro-optical), radio frequency, acoustic and magnetic sensors, antenna, signal
and image processing, components, sensor hardening and electro-magnetic compatibility.
The RTO Sensors and Electronics Technology (SET)
Panel originates from the AGARD Sensor and Propagation
Panel (SPP), the Defence Research Group (DRG) Panel 3
on Physics and Electronics and the DRG Panel 4 on
Optics and Infrared. Since 1998, SET has undertaken more
than 200 activities covering areas such as the emerging
phenomenology and technologies related to target
signatures, propagation and battlespace environment,
acoustic and magnetic sensors, signal and image processing,
sensor hardening, radiation and electromagnetic pulses.
The SET Panel’s vision is to provide the NATO Nations
with the most relevant, innovative and updated forum for
collaborative R&D in the field of sensors and electronic
technology for Defence and Security (D&S). As a result,
both the scientists and the soldiers from the NATO
Nations shall be able to operate seamlessly together and
benefit from leading-edge technologies in sensors and
electronics.
technology. The Panel pursues its endeavour with more than
40 Task Groups that embrace the following disciplines:
Phenomenology:
• Target/background signatures;
• Propagation;
• Battlespace environment characterisation;
• Sensors hardening; and
• Electronic protection measures and electromagnetic
compatibility.
Whilst NATO warfighters and peace-keepers continue to
shift more and more towards asymmetrical warfare,
the SET Panel aspires to focus on technology that supports
the military objective of saving lives through the
improvement of quality of life and combat effectiveness.
In short, the research carried out by the Sensors and
Electronics Technology Panel addresses the phenomenology
related to target signature, propagation and battlespace
environment, Electro-Optics (or Electro-Optical-EO), Radio
Frequency (RF), acoustic and magnetic sensors, antenna,
signal and image processing, components, sensor hardening,
electromagnetic compatibility, and any other phenomena
associated with sensors and electronics that assist NATO
warfighters during future warfare and peace-keeping
scenarios.
Traditionally, the SET Panel runs the whole spectrum
of the RTO activities (Symposia, Specialists’ Meetings,
Workshops, Courses, Exploratory Teams and Technology
Groups) with a special emphasis on Research Task Groups
(RTGs). Many Task Groups are ‘closed’ groups, in order
to allow Partner Nations to work on sensitive signatures and
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Figure 34: Battlespace Characterisation.
Sensors:
• EO sensors (ultraviolet, laser radars, imaging infrared
(IR), IR search and track, etc.);
• RF sensors (radar, radiometers, gonyometers, etc.) and
related technologies, including passive RF sensors;
• Acoustic, seismic, magnetic, chemical and inertial
sensors;
• Urban, indoor and subterranean navigation sensors;
• TeraHz sensors (from the point of view of military
technology, especially in the context of urban warfare
and DAT); and
• Dual-use purpose sensors for a wide range of
applications (urban/high intensity to security/low
intensity).
The main purpose of each Focus Group is to provide a
convenient and efficient forum for in-depth technical
discussions during the SET business weeks. The Focus
Groups have to review NATO guidance updates and their
applicability to SET Task Groups (TGs) / Exploratory
Teams (ETs), on-going Technical Team activities,
examine and propose new activities, discuss Technology
Watch topics and propose award nominations.
Figure 35: Quantum Well in Narrow Gap Semiconductor.
Electronics:
• Processing:
• Antenna processing and aperture control;
• Signal processing;
• Image processing;
• Pattern recognition, including automatic target
recognition; and
• Multi-sensor fusion.
• Components:
• EO (optics, integrated optics, fibre optics, focal plane
arrays, lasers, etc.);
• RF (antenna, amplifier, filter, Digital Radio Frequency
(DRF) – memories, monolithic microwave integrated
circuits, high-power microwave sources, etc.);
• Micro-electronics;
• Micro-mechanics;
• Displays;
• Mechanical, chemical, etc.;
• Sensor hardening;
• Electronic Protection Measures; and
• Electromagnetic Compatibility.
Technology Watch is performed by the SET Panel as part
of its normal business, in order to constantly monitor the
development and emergence of new technologies, and to
review and analyse their potential impact on military R&T.
The SET Panel identifies various on-going programmes on
enabling technologies and initiates discussions on areas
related to emerging technologies. SET Technology Watch
current topics are:
• Nanotechnology: a Research Task Group (SET-123)
has been established;
• THz Technology: a RTG (SET-124) has been
established. A Specialists’ Meeting on THz (SET-129)
was established in 2008. The SET-148/RWS “Detectors
and Associated Electronics for THz Applications” will
be held in Ukraine during the Fall 2009;
• Meta Materials (negative index of refraction materials):
Two RWS on “Refractive Proprieties of Photonic
Crystals & Metamaterials” and “Photonic Metamaterials
for Defence Applications” were established in 2008;
• Data Fusion;
• Waveform Diversity: a Lecture Series (SET-119) has
been established – “Waveform Diversity and Analysis
for Laser Radar” will be considered in 2009; and
• Biometric sensors: “Human Signature Exploitation”
and “Biologically Inspired Optical Sensors” were
investigated in 2008.
At present, the Panel members are comprised of more than
50 national representatives and top-class scientists coming
from 22 of the 26 NATO Nations. Three Ex-Officio
members from the NATO Consultation Command and
Control Agency (NC3A), NATO Undersea Research
Centre (NURC) and the Allied Command Transformation
(ACT) participate in the Panel business meetings.
The Technical Team members are made up of more than
700 scientists belonging to NATO, PfP and non-NATO
Nations. SET members are eager to endorse the innovations
that are expected to fulfil, more than 10 years in advance,
the military needs of the Alliance, so as to maintain a
technological lead and to provide advice to NATO decisionmakers.
The SET Panel is ‘partitioned’ into three Focus Groups:
• RF Technologies (RFT);
• Optical Technologies (OT); and
• Multi-Sensors and Electronics (MSE).
Figure 36: Three Dimensional Beamforming.
Other SET Technology Watch topics in the field of
technology developments for military applications are:
• Advances in surveillance and recognition using SAR
Moving Target Identification (MTI);
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Wideband gap semi-conductors;
RF Micro-Electro-Mechanical Sensors (MEMS);
Quantum well infrared photodetector;
IR-Focal Plane Array (IRFPA);
Diffractive optics;
Synthetic Aperture Optics (SAO) for low cost and/or
low weight IR applications; and
• Displays.
Military users are invited to brief the SET scientists
and Panel members during the SET meetings and lead
discussions on:
• Persistent urban surveillance;
• Detection and neutralisation of explosive devices or
IEDs hidden for a long time in guard-rails or trees or
under ground;
• Neutralisation of radio-controlled threats;
• Detections and neutralisation of under vest suicide
bombs; and
• Sensing and sensing capability, as well as determining if
there is any interest or need to establish a co-operative
SET Programme on mine detection.
The SET Panel encourages NATO Nations and Partners to
participate in SET research and information exchange
activities. The non-NATO and PfP members that have
contributed in the SET Panel are from Australia, Austria,
Finland, Russian Federation, Switzerland, Sweden and
Ukraine.
A select team of SET scientists play an important part
in some of the most important projects of the NATO
Public Diplomacy Division Science for Peace and Security
(SPS) Programmes. The success of the last SPS project
on “Advanced Detection System for Underground
Transportation System” can be attributed to a prestigious
NATO-Russia committee which relied on the competent
collaboration of SET members.
• Improving stand-off technologies for the detection and
clearing of explosives and mines;
• Countering improvised explosive devices;
• Improving precision air-drop technology for special
operations;
• Stand-off and point detecting and identifying of
biological and chemical agents, integrated into a
Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) warning and
reporting systems; and
• Assessing new technologies for reconnaissance,
surveillance and target acquisition of terrorists.
Traditional SET activities are directly related to the LongTerm Capability Requirements (LTCRs) identified as high
priority for both Nations and NATO. Examples of SET
activities related to the LTCRs are:
• Urban, indoor and subterranean navigation sensors and
systems;
• Predictions and detection of Improvised Explosives
Devices (IEDs) throughout terahertz wave technology
for stand-off detection of explosives;
• Integration of radar and infrared for ship self-defence;
• Smart textiles for the NATO warfighter;
• Acoustic and seismic technologies for military
applications, such as Unattended Ground Sensors
(UGSs);
• Detection and tracking of low-altitude stealth air
vehicles;
• Military applications of ultra-short, high-intensity laser
pulses;
• Adaptive system architectures for coalitions combating
terrorism;
• Anti-fratricide measures; and
• Countermining.
The SET Panel also co-operated with the SPS on
programmes related to Defence Against Terrorism (DAT).
The SET Panel addresses medium- and long-term potential
applications, as well as short-term challenges to NATO.
The Panel’s current Programme of Work (PoW) includes,
directly or indirectly, relevant DAT following guidance
from the CNAD. Potential or existing DAT contributions
include:
• Reducing the vulnerability of large-body aircraft to
manpads;
• Protecting harbours and vessels from surface and subsurface threats;
• Addressing the need for effective weapons and sensors
to counter small, rapid surface vessels, especially in
littoral waters;
• Reducing the vulnerability of helicopters to ground
attack, specifically rocket-propelled grenades;
• Improving survivability of systems in high threat
environments (EW excluded);
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Figure 37: SET Panel Diversity.
Examples of Recent Work carried
out by the SET Panel
High Performance Passive Millimetre-Wave
Imaging Using Sparse Aperture Arrays
Recent conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan have
emphatically shown the importance and necessity of
proper surveillance and reconnaissance to plan and carry
out well-directed military strikes against hostile forces and
infrastructures. In mountainous regions or in highly
urbanised areas, a nadir imaging orientation for data
acquisition would be desirable to avoid information gaps
in many locations due to the shadowing which occurs in
existing EO/IR or SAR imagery.
While significant advances in imaging technologies have
been made in the past several decades, major limitations
still exist in our ability to sense and image objects of
interest through most of the natural obscurants. Moreover,
applications for security often require imaging through
obscuring media, such as clothing, outer garments and
non-conducting containers.
There is a pressing need to develop imaging technologies
using wavelengths that are long enough for robust
performance and operation, and still small enough for
practicality and portability. Imaging systems based in the
30 to 300 GHz region of the Electromagnetic (EM)
spectrum are ideally suited for such applications.
Millimetre wavelength (mmW) radiation has unique
capabilities within the EM spectrum for imaging.
to investigate the application of PmmW imaging as it
applies to sparse aperture systems, with the first aim being
the improvement of target discrimination and recognition,
and the second aim being the development and optimisation
of signal processing methods and system architectures in
order to demonstrate the affordability of high-performance
imaging systems.
PmmW is an emerging technology, and while it offers the
ability to image through scattering and obscuring media,
there are significant issues associated with its use and
deployment in actual systems. Therefore, this Task Group
was focused on identifying suitable system concepts,
architectures, devices, phenomenology and system
modelling to facilitate the transition of PmmW imaging
technology into real-world systems.
As far as military applications are concerned, the increasing
role of Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles (UAV) in future
conflicts will, in the long term, require sensors that can see
through poor weather and battlefield obscurants.
One potential solution to this would be to use an array of
PmmW sensors that could be combined to synthesise the
large aperture required to image detail on the ground.
In a similar way, a conformal sensor could be deployed on
the front of rotary-wing craft to allow navigation and
collision avoidance in poor weather.
Figure 38: The Electromagnetic Spectrum showing
Windows in the Millimetre-Wave Spectrum.
Millimetre-wave imaging is completely safe to humans,
whereas wavelengths in the UV and X-ray band, which
are able to penetrate obscurant media, are ionising and
potentially harmful to humans. Millimetre-wave radiation is
attenuated millions of times less in obscurants such as
clouds, fog, smoke, snow and sandstorms than visual or IR
radiation.
Millimetre-wave imaging can be performed in passive
mode (similar to IR and visible imaging) and one way to
accomplish this is through the use of passive radio
frequency sensors. These would be hard to detect by hostile
forces, and therefore desirable for strategic and tactical
reasons, as well as for security reasons. In summary, the
following aspects of the Passive millimetre-Wave (PmmW)
imaging represent unique opportunities that set it apart from
more conventional imaging modalities:
• Visualisation is enhanced through smoke and fog and
other airborne obscurants.
• Passive implementation does not require any
illumination of millimetre-wave energy upon the image
scene.
• Implementation using ‘lensless’ sparse array imaging
techniques, providing high spatial resolution without
the need for big and bulky optics.
The objectives of the SET-083 Task Group were to increase
the knowledge of phenomenology in this waveband and
In addition, effective Concealment, Camouflage and
Deception (CCD) of military targets is considerably more
difficult when targets are simultaneously imaged by
sensors at quite different frequency bands within the
electromagnetic spectrum. As an alternative technology,
a two-dimensional millimetre-wave imaging radiometer is
a compelling sensor for this task, as many visible and
infrared CCD techniques are not effective in the millimetre
waveband. Also, stealth techniques such as conformal
shaping, designed to minimise the intensity of RF radar
returns, may increase millimetre-wave signatures.
Figure 39: UAV Flying in Cloud-Covered Terrain.
Covert operation of passive millimetre-wave sensors avoids
detection by hostile forces. Imaging in this waveband also
offers the opportunity of defeating terrorists, as clothing is
relatively transparent, allowing the detection of weapons
and contraband. Whilst this is an obvious military benefit,
the need to use large apertures to achieve the ranges
required has prevented this from being widely exploited.
To utilise large apertures, it is necessary to consider imaging
29
methods where the aperture is synthesised from a collection
of smaller elements.
Sparse aperture imaging is a technique that has been
used for many years in radio astronomy. This type of
antenna could then be deployed conformal on platforms,
for example, on the underside of UAVs for through-cloud
surveillance, on the front of helicopters and fixed-wing
aircraft for landing and piloting, and on ships for littoral
surveillance. Flying objects fitted with sensors of this
type would be able to look down vertically, avoiding
shadows and facilitating the viewing of targets in deep
valleys and narrow streets. The benefit of this technology
would be an increased detection rate arising from high
resolution and good thermal sensitivity.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 40: (a) Illustration of a Sparse mmW Aperture Mounted
on the Under Carriage of a UAV, Simulated Image at 6,000
feet for (b); A 35-foot Wing Span; and (c) A 2-foot Aperture.
(a)
(b)
and contraband. The persons being covertly scanned do not
have to be exposed to any energy transmission sources,
thus eliminating many public health concerns.
One primary obstacle to imaging in the millimetre-wave
spectrum is that longer wavelengths require larger apertures
to achieve the resolutions typically desired in surveillance
applications. As a result, lens-based focal plane systems
tend to require large aperture optics, which severely limit
the minimum achievable volume and weight of such
systems. In addition, the price of mmW detectors and sensor
elements remains high; therefore, the ability to realise dense
focal plane arrays is prohibitive.
To overcome these limitations, the NATO RTO SET-083
Task Group investigated the use of scanning and distributed
aperture detection schemes in which the effective aperture
size can be increased without the associated volumetric
increase in imager size.
Most importantly, the Task Group investigated how to
conduct mmW imaging through clouds, fog, maritime
inversion layers, battlefield and obscurants determining
Meteorological Operative Conditions (METOC) in support
of time-critical strike mission planning and through the
analysis of sparse antenna arrays requirements and
constraints. National data collection and interpretation were
shared among the Group and new data was collected
in order to support selected scenarios phenomenology.
The Task Group developed and validated a system
modelling and simulation tool to predict and assess system
performance. Enabling technologies and technology gaps
were also defined.
Co-ordination was maintained with the SET-053 Task
Group on “Ground Target Recognition by Radar” and
the SET-069 Task Group on “Robust Acquisition of
Re-Locatable Targets Using mmW Sensors”. It is important
to mention that the main goal of the SET-069 Task Group
was to evaluate active mmW systems in a wide range of
engagement conditions that included the compilation of an
active mmW database and RCS models for improving
signature understanding.
The SET-069 Task Group was also interested in identifying
and analysing features of the mmW active/passive target
simulations based on camouflage, passive countermeasures,
target variability and environmental conditions. Interaction
with the radio astronomy community was also deemed as
relevant.
(c)
(d)
Figure 41: (a) Illustration of a Helicopter Landing in a Desert
Environment; (b) Rendition of a Conformal mmW Sparse
Aperture for Arial Operations; (c) and (d) Use of
Sparse mmW Imagers for Piloting and
Navigation on Naval Platforms.
As noted previously, clothing is relatively transparent,
therefore imaging in the 30 to 300 GHz or mmW waveband
also offers the opportunity of detecting concealed weapons
30
Vibrating Antennas and Compensation
Techniques
Advanced military aircraft and modern Medium and High
Altitude Long Endurance (MALE, HALE) Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) will be equipped with structural
integrated array antennas to fulfil avionics functions, which
are mainly related to radar, Electro-magnetic Counter
Measures (ECM) and Communication, Navigation and
Identification (CNI). Conformal array antennas can be
realised by means of integrating arrays of micro-strip, multilayer antenna elements in the skin of aircraft.
When such antenna elements are put on the skin of
the aircraft, they are subject to steady and unsteady
aerodynamic loads leading to deformation and vibration.
As a consequence, the positions and slopes of the elements
of the array antenna change. The effect of deformations
and vibrations will be most significant on array antennas,
which are large in terms of wavelength (high gain
antennas). An example of such an antenna is an array
antenna for side-looking Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
mounted on the fuselage of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
or on a reconnaissance pod of a fighter aircraft.
During the period of activity, two Workshops on vibration
of antennas and related topics were organised, involving
the participation of international guests from outside the
Task Group (industry and research organisations).
The Group presented their results during a focus session at
the NATO AVT Panel Specialists’ Meeting to promote
activities and stimulate participation in future events.
Because military data is highly confidential and access is
restricted, the validation of performance estimation and
compensation methods for the prediction of vibration
levels was carried out using existing software.
Computational models were developed representing
different generic classes of aircraft types. It was confirmed
by different sources, however, that the assumptions made
and the predicted levels of deformation and vibration are
realistic to the necessary degree and can be met under
flight conditions.
To overcome the problem of availability of measured data
for the vibration load for real aircraft, a generic aircraft
model based on a simplified mass-stiffness-model was
developed and thus allowed the Task Group to predict levels
of vibration for different types of aircraft under realistic
flight conditions.
Figure 42: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Mounted
on the Fuselage of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.
The objectives of the SET-087 Task Group were:
• Assessment of levels of vibrations of aerospace
structures supporting phased array antennas
(specification of antennas of interest and external
loads, simulations using aero-elastic methods);
• Evaluation of performance of vibrating aerospace
antennas (by means of electromagnetic modelling of
deformed antennas and signal processing studies);
• Study of compensation techniques (active vibration
control, array shape measurements and electronic
compensation, auto-calibration techniques);
• Use of demonstrators (linear array of patch antenna
elements on a vibrating plate, linear interferometer array
fixed on a cantilever wing type mock-up); and
• Active participation of Partners from industry who could
make available data on the in-flight vibration
conditions of commercial or military aircraft (e.g. from
flight tests).
The SET-087 Task Group has been successful in permitting
the exchange of information between participating Nations.
It has improved the networking between different experts
and facilitated the exchange of ideas in the field of airborne
antenna arrays, assessment of levels of deformation and
vibrations, as well as compensation methods. The activity
has helped to stimulate research activities and raise the
awareness of potential benefits for many applications inside
the scientific community.
The Task Group organised and hosted several technical
Workshops and participated in international conferences to
promote their results. Multi-disciplinary research has been
performed by the research institutes Office National
d’Etudes et Recherches Aérospatiales – ONERA (France),
Research Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar –
FGAN (Germany) and National Aerospace Laboratory –
NLR (Netherlands). Furthermore, THALES Airborne
Systems (France) and the Air Force Research Laboratories
(USA) have contributed to the specification of large
aerospace antennas, which are subject to deformations and
vibrations.
A follow-on research activity under the umbrella of NATO
RTO is going to be established to focus on these problems.
The objective of the new Task Group will be to develop
solutions for large array apertures and to concentrate
performance studies on applications rather than antenna
function. In addition to the topics mentioned above,
the structural integration of antennas, the mechanical
measurements of the position of antenna array elements
and active compensation of vibrations by means of
mechanical actuators should be included. By broadening
the scope of work, this new activity aspires to stimulate
greater participation, especially from industry.
Figure 43: Vibrating Platform with
Embedded Patch Antennas.
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Research and Technology Organisation
B.P. 25, F-92201 Neuilly-sur-Seine - France
Website: www.rto.nato.int
Email: [email protected]