Beyond line-of-sight information dissemination for Force Protection

Force protection capabilities have emerged as necessary for operations such as Village Stability Operations and Forward Operating Base security. Current Force Protection Kits include a rich set of sensors that can be monitored from a core operator station. This paper describes ongoing research to extend the reach of Force Protection capabilities as part of an integrated, network-centric system to protect mobile troops on patrol, to include sensors beyond the organic Force Protection perimeter, and to enable the automated, selective transfer of information to and from kit locations. These extended Force Protection capabilities are enabled by a highly-mobile, vehicle mounted information management system providing beyond line-of-sight publish-subscribe capabilities, sensor data archiving, video storage and retrieval, and data ferrying across long distances.