Poster Abstract Due Date: 15 March 2024
For a downloadable version of the Call for Abstracts, please click here.
We invite you to participate in the 30th National Fire Control Symposium (NFCS) which will take place in Fort Walton Beach, FL, 15 - 18 April 2024. The NFCS, heralded as the premiere forum for discussing the entire kill web, has served the Integrated Fire Control Community of Interest (IFC-COI) for three decades. Due to its restricted and no-foreign format, the NFCS is in a unique position to cultivate lasting relationships between the forward operators, service communities, warfare centers, laboratories, and our industry partners.
Initially launched in 1992 by the Air Force, and subsequently supported by the Army, Navy, and Marines, the NFCS is now an industry sponsored event. The 2024 event features the U.S. Air Force as the lead technical advisor. The event has been successful in engaging the multi-services, industry, and academia in synergistic relationships and discussions. With continued reduction in budgets, the government has an increasing reliance on cooperative research efforts. The size and focus of the NFCS promotes a greater number of productive contacts and collaborative relationships, provides an overview of a larger number of external research efforts, and provides U.S. researchers with a deeper understanding of the state-of-the-art and the warfighter’s perspective. The net result is the potential reduction in duplication of work completed by academia, industry, and the services, as well as the promotion of scientific advancements resulting from joint efforts that could save DoD valuable time and financial resources, while defining innovative solutions to technology challenges.
Along with concurrent technical sessions offered throughout the week, attendees can attend a flag level Plenary Session, special topic presentations, a technical poster session, and many networking and collaboration functions. The topics chosen will support the 2024 theme “Fire Control Solutions for Integrated Deterrence,” which is critical to ensuring U.S. advantage over peer adversaries.
Topic areas in the 2024 Call For Abstracts are focused on the Kill Web elements versus specific functional areas as in the past. All abstracts must fit in one or more of these:
This kill web element requires that platform and operator have the necessary tools and training to prepare, configure, and employ the platforms’ systems to successfully complete the kill web. Successful execution of distributed Integrated Fire Control (IFC) requires preparation to ensure optimization of battlespace, maximization of effect, and appropriate allocation of platform, sensor, and weapon resources. This preparation occurs both pre-mission as a function of training, system optimization, and mission planning at multiple levels, and during active operations as a function of battle management, to include dynamic replanning. Successful preparation requires accurate modeling and simulation (M&S) representations of red and blue capabilities and limitations, relevant decision aids, understanding of force employment concepts, and thorough knowledge of system functions and constraints in relevant operational environments. Increasing warfighting complexity demands specialized tactical training, improved decision speed, and dynamic resource allocation. This need is central to operations in all services, at all levels of war, and in all domains.
This kill web element requires that systems have the ability to persistently search a volume that is expected to contain threats, and to collect, integrate, correlate, and disseminate (to include in flight target update) surveillance information (manually or automatically) to other elements of the kill web. Successful execution of distributed IFC requires delivery of precision effects with advanced networking, integrated sensor approaches, and multi-node collaboration/decision support tools. Many challenges exist to enable tasking, collection, processing, exploitation, dissemination, and management of the extensive and diverse set of data sources to rapidly orient to evolving threats. These core capabilities are imperative to provide warfighters with timely, decision quality, and actionable combat data at the tactical edge. This pertains to current and proposed systems and technologies that address these challenges and improve the integration of multidomain command & control (C2) and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities.
This kill web element requires that a system detects targets at sufficient range to support mission objectives, in a manner that enables track initiation. Successful execution of distributed IFC requires accurate, timely, and persistent situational awareness (SA) and the means to effectively communicate SA to assets in theater. Space systems provide indispensable capability in contested environments where these assets may provide the only visibility into denied territory. Global, theater, regional, and area detection must be supported by robust and complimentary multi-sensor (electro-optical, infrared, radio frequency, offboard) capabilities to permit efficient handover of detections for tracking and engagement.
This kill web element requires that sensors and systems provide timely information of sufficient quality to engage at ranges relevant to support mission objectives. Successful execution of distributed IFC requires the ability to maintain track integrity, and manage a track picture to support force interoperability and common field of view. Multi-sensor (electro-optical, infrared, radio frequency, offboard) data fusion supports robust and accurate track management while suppressing/mitigating effects of deception and electronic attack. Sensor fusion at the data, feature, and decision levels enable optimal fire control solutions.
This kill web element requires that the system accurately identify targets at sufficient range to employ weapon(s)/effects in support of mission objectives. Successful execution of distributed IFC requires the development and deployment of a reliable and accurate Combat Identification (CID) capability. CID enables the warfighter to locate and identify critical targets with high precision, permits use of long-range weapons, prevents fratricide, enhances battlefield SA, reduces leakage and waste, and reduces exposure of blue forces to enemy fire. This topic will explore innovative architectural, algorithmic, hardware, software, and system integration solutions, as well as near-term operational lessons learned, the decisions and processes involved in CID, and current/emerging CID requirements for all services. CID addresses all functional elements of cooperative and non-cooperative techniques while suppressing/mitigating effects of deception and electronic attack.
This kill web element requires successful engagement scheduling and coordination to enable weapon employment. This requires sufficiency of communication between the control platform and supported weapons, as well as timely and accurate execution of post-launch operations such as in-flight target updates that support target defeat and sufficient weapon lethality at combat relevant ranges. Successful execution of distributed IFC requires one or more engagement alternatives that satisfy mission objectives in both benign and degraded environments. IFC performance is directly dependent on a number of factors, from environmental impacts to the performance of platform-specific systems and sub-systems, including hardware and software. This topic can include analysis of the impact of the design and configuration of platforms, sensors, and kinetic and non-kinetic weapons and effectors on fire control system performance. In addition to considering offensive fire control performance, this topic also addresses defensive capabilities that enable the fire control system to perform in highly contested environments.
This kill web element requires accurate and timely assessment that supports re-engagement and concurrent surveillance, detection, and tracking of additional threats. Successful execution of distributed IFC requires timely and accurate battle damage and kill assessment. This permits sensor and weapon resource reallocation, limits over-expenditure of weapons, and ensures any required re-engagement occurs in a timeline that supports optimal weapon-target pairing for threats of varying range and speed.
Approved for Public Release/Unlimited Distribution; Case File Number: 88ABW-2020-1286; 29 April 2020