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Synthetic aperture radar (SAR), electro-optical (EO) imagery, and motion-target indicators (MTI) are sensors utilized in prime surveillance/reconnaissance systems. Each sensor system can generate substantial volumes of data requiring vast computational resources to support exploitation, the problem is only aggravated in systems which support multiple sensor evidence fusion components. The dynamic nature of military operational settings often makes it difficult to efficiently apply the computational resources necessary for successful exploitation. Current limited research suggests that dynamic, scalable and heterogeneous computer systems may be an avenue to develop successful exploitation systems of the future. Existing research and development into systems of this type has not explicitly addressed their use for tactical imagery exploitation system. The Collaborative Heterogeneous Operations Prototype (CHOP) as part of DARPAs Scalable Tactical Imagery eXploitation (STIX) program conducted a review of existing state of the art commercial and non-commercial middleware and metasystem technology as applicable to STIX's technical objectives (the architectural characterization of a multiple source exploitation system appropriate for use in a dynamic military operational setting). The results of that review resulted in the design and development of a heterogeneous metasystem demonstrating state of the art near real time exploitation technology in the solution of multiple source imagery exploitation problems. The system was evaluated against measures of effectiveness and measures of performance applied to previously built and fielded imagery exploitation systems; its performance was consistent with those systems. CHOP STIX, however, offered automatic dynamic system reconfiguration to maximize system performance in an environment of changing mission requirements, sensor selection, data load, and computational resource availability. These characteristics made CHOP STIX appropriate for use in a wider range of operational settings than existing systems.
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