SEPTEMBER 2022AEROSPACEDEFENSEREVIEW.COM9data in realtime speeds the process of identifying what data is most important for analyzing once the full resolution video and data stored on the platform returns to the FOB, where it can be reviewed post-mission, similar to how an NFL football coach can study in detail the recording of Sunday's game on Monday. During some unmanned missions, probability of intercept/probability of detection concerns will make the realtime down-linking of data untenable. Once a vehicle is sent out into the bat-tlefield there's a greater chance of the vehicle and the critical data it has collected falling into adversarial hands. For those reasons the sensor data must be stored using a system with Data-at-Rest (DAR) protection. By leverag-ing multi-layer commercial encryption, as outlined by the NSA's Commercial Solu-tions for Classified (CSfC) program, critical data can be encrypted for storage and forwarding in an NSA approved manner. This provides an alternative to Type 1 encryption with greatly reduced risk and consequences in the event the platform or data is captured by the enemy. A good example of a data stor-age system that can protect terabytes of DAR using CSfC is Cur-tiss-Wright's DTS1 Network Attached Storage solution. Unlike airborne platforms, unmanned ground vehicles and naval platforms can also benefit from recent advances in data communication. For example, the advent of 5G networks in the battlefield can establish a large high-speed data communications "bubble" that enables collected data to be processed in the field in realtime. Typically, the size of the vehicle and its distance from the FOB will determine whether or not sensor data transport can be performed in realtime. An example of a rugged processing system for data analysis is Curtiss-Wright's PacStar Tactical Fusion system, which can be used to search for signal of interest in data captured from drones in realtime to the FOB, or can be used to process the full high resolution data set after removal from the returned unmanned platform. Today, sophisticated battlefield networks can be quickly stood up to connect the FOB to the Cloud. What's more, if connectivity is denied or reduced, the Cloud can be replicated locally at the FOB for limited amounts of times. Curtiss-Wright's PacStar MDC system is a compact, mobile system that can act as a local Cloud or as a Cloud synchronization point, so that multiple battalions in theatre can share a disconnected Cloud. This enables unmanned vehicles to continue transmitting sensor data, which is stored temporarily in the replicated Cloud, and when connection is restored, can be re-synchronized with the appropriate government Cloud, making the critical data available to leadership. If there's one biggest technological advance making possible the recent breakthroughs in the miniaturization and ruggedization of deployable enterprise networking/computing solutions it's the advance of modern GPU hardware, the software that leverages those GPUs, and the availability of ruggedized versions of those devices, from vendors such as NVIDIA, that can be used in deployable military systems. Additional factor helping to drive these capabilities are the increase in solid state storage density that's appropriate for field usage, such as NVMe devices, and the inevitable march of Moore's Law that continues to drive new levels of processing power on a regular drumbeat.Along with the ability to collect and store sensor data in the field, the DoD's mandate to use electronics systems based on the modular open system approach (MOSA) has helped increase the use of standardized interfaces such as Ethernet and IP networks. Where before system designers may have selected, for example, dedicated video buses like SDI, that were difficult to integrate, the use of Ethernet is becoming ubiquitous. Previously, a platform might have deployed an analog sensor that required a dedicated piece of translation equipment to convert to the data into digital format. Today, advances in electronics enables those sensors today to directly use a common data format or use a published API. That means that the unstructured store of data, sometimes referred to as a "data lake," can be more rapidly exploited using powerful analytic software, such as Kinetica, which can process the unstructured data at a rate not even imagined a few years ago. All of these advances combine to empower the warfighter and decision makers with more data, which helps them observe, orient, decide, and act on the most informed path. CURTISS-WRIGHT'S PACSTAR MDC SYSTEM IS A COMPACT, MOBILE SYSTEM THAT CAN ACT AS A LOCAL CLOUD OR AS A CLOUD SYNCHRONIZATION POINT, SO THAT MULTIPLE BATTALIONS IN THEATRE CAN SHARE A DISCONNECTED CLOUDQuickbytesFollowing the outbreak of World War II, the British army cut Germany's underwater cables, forcing them to rely on nuch vulnerable modes of communication.source - Mercury Systems
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