Visual Target Acquisition: Bridging the Gap from Vision Research to Applied Models

Abstract

One of the lessons learned in Desert Storm is that visual and electro-optical (VISEO) systems are highly effective. Most of us recall seeing CNN footage of EO sensors acquiring targets and guiding weapons to destroy the target. The effectiveness of VISEO systems is the good news. The bad news is that the other side is likely to be equipped with similar VISEO systems in the next war. Our personnel and materiel are therefore likely to be highly vulnerable to such systems in future conflicts. There is an urgent need to make our weapons systems, especially ground vehicles, less conspicuous on the battlefield, i.e., to develop more effective camouflage and signature suppression techniques.