Hostile Fire Defeat ATO: A Quick Look at C&C and 

Resource Cueing 

by Jesse B. Kovach and Christopher H. Winslow 

ARL-TN-0431 May 2011 

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. 
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Army Research Laboratory 

Adelphi, MD 20783-1197 

ARL-TN-0431 May 2011 

Hostile Fire Defeat ATO: A Quick Look at C&C and 

Resource Cueing 

Jesse B. Kovach and Christopher H. Winslow 

Computational and Information Sciences Directorate, ARL 

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. 
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1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY)

May 2011 

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FY10 

4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 

Hostile Fire Defeat ATO: A Quick Look at C&C and Resource Cueing 

5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 

5b. GRANT NUMBER 

5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 

6. AUTHOR(S) 

Jesse B. Kovach and Christopher H. Winslow 

5d. PROJECT NUMBER 

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7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 

U.S. Army Research Laboratory 

ATTN: RDRL-CII-B 

2800 Powder Mill Road 

Adelphi, MD 20783-1197 

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ARL-TN-0431 

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13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 

14. ABSTRACT 

A summary of the experimental Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and 

Reconnaissance (C4ISR) system used at the 2010 Capstone Experiment for the Hostile Fire Defeat Army Technology Objective 

(HFD ATO) is presented. The overview includes discussion of the Common Operating Picture (COP), the use of Cursor on 

Target (CoT) as an interoperability vehicle, and the presentation of a new and novel resource cueing system that makes use of 

SQLite to store potential target information and Blue Force asset information. Resource Cueing policies are represented as SQL 

triggers stored in the database schema. 

15. SUBJECT TERMS

C4ISR, COP, CoT, HFD ATO, resource cueing 

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OF ABSTRACT 

UU 

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14 

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Christopher H. Winslow 

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UNCLASSIFIED 

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UNCLASSIFIED 

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(301) 394-5617 

Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8/98) 

Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39.18 
iii

Contents 

List of Figures iv

List of Tables iv

1. Introduction 1

2. Common Operating Picture 1

3. Cursor on Target 3

4. Resource Cueing 4

List of Symbols, Abbreviations, and Acronyms 6 

Distribution List 7 
iv

List of Figures 

Figure 1. COP map display. ............................................................................................................2

Figure 2. COP asset annotator. .......................................................................................................3

List of Tables 

Table 1. List of HFD sensors. .........................................................................................................4
1

1. Introduction 

The Battlefield Information Processing Branch brought three technologies/capabilities to the 

Hostile Fire Defeat Army Technology Objective’s (HFD ATO) Capstone Experiment. The three 

technologies/capabilities are: 

• Common Operating Picture (COP) that allows for the display of relevant information on a 

single display system and allows for collaboration between multiple levels of command. 

• An interface that allows access to/from the branch’s Command, Control, Communications, 

Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) software via Cursor on 

Target messages. 

• A resource cueing application that is controlled by SQL-like rule structures. 

2. Common Operating Picture 

The COP used at the CE consisted of two user-level applications that were supported by a series 

of U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL)-developed experimental data stores and inter-process 

communications schemes. The first of the two user-level applications was a mapping application 

known as SharedInk. SharedInk is based on the Commercial Joint Mapping Tool Kit (CJMTK) 

and uses MIL-STD-2525 symbols to display geo-referenced information about sensor position 

and sensor detections. This displayed symbol information is enhanced by adding the ability to 

display sensor characteristics such as field of view, graphical representation of Line of Bearing 

Reports (LOBR), and an indication as to whether imagery is available at a particular location. 

The second user-level application is known as the ARL Asset Annotator. This application allows 

a user to view and annotate still and video images from any system that is connected to the 

C4ISR network. This connection can be made using ARL-specific communications schemes or 

via standard Cursor on Target (CoT) interfaces. 

Figure 1 shows an example of the map display. On this display, the locations of the sensors are 

shown using the blue MIL-STD-2525 sensor symbols. The pie-shaped figures emanating out 

from some of the sensors show the field of view of each of those sensors. The red lines radiating 

out from some of the sensors indicate that a LOBR has been generated by that sensor. Towards 

the middle of the figure, there are two yellow MIL-STD-2525 “unknown unit” symbols. Note 

that these symbols are near the intersection of several LOBRs. These symbols represent the 

computed location of a source of gunfire. 
2

Figure 1. COP map display.

Figure 2 shows a typical view of the ARL Asset Annotator. Across the top are tabs for each of 

the individual sensors that have reported imagery. On the left are thumbnails of images from a 

particular sensor. On the right is a large view of a single image. As can be seen, this image has 

been annotated with both pen and text. 
3

Figure 2. COP asset annotator.

3. Cursor on Target 

CoT is an XML-based data structure that is suitable for the transfer of track information, imagery 

information, Intelligence, Surveillance, & Reconnaissance (ISR) tasking, and a variety of other 

information types that are useful in C4ISR systems. The core schema has been registered in the 

Department of Defense (DoD) XML Registry since 2003. An advantage of CoT is that the 

development of sub-schemas is encouraged, as there is a methodology to segregate experimental 

sub-schemas into specific portions of a CoT message. The Battlefield Information Processing 

Branch has developed some sub-schemas that are directly related to the transfer of LOBR 

information. The branch is currently investigating the feasibility of proposing formal changes to 

the CoT schema. Beside the fact that CoT has technical merit, it offers the advantage that it is 

reasonably well-documented, supported by over 100 systems, and is not tied to any particular 

system—that is, a vendor who claims to support CoT claims to support some level of 

interoperability between systems and vendors. 

Table 1 lists the systems that were integrated into the COP. Some of those systems integrated via 

ARL-developed communication mechanisms, and some of those systems integrated via the 

standard MITRE CoT server. All information was sent and received as CoT messages, regardless 

of the communication mechanism used. Each system is marked in table 1 with its integration 

mechanism. 
4

Table 1. List of HFD sensors. 

SYSTEM INTEGRATION 

LEVEL 

MFR 

Ground based MAST acoustic sensor ARL ARL/AAI 

Packbot based MAST acoustic sensor ARL ARL/AAI 

Balloon based UTAMS acoustic sensor ARL ARL 

Ground based UTAMS acoustic sensor CoT ARL 

Ground based PDCue acoustic sensor CoT AAI 

Ground based FightSight IR/acoustic sensor CoT ARA 

Ground based Mobile Optical Detection Sys. ARL ARL 

Ground based IR video sensor ARL ARL 

Ground based IR trip wire camera ARL ARL 

Ground based pan/tilt video camera ARL ARL 

Balloon based pan/tilt video camera ARL ARL 

Ground based Compact Radar ARL ARL 

4. Resource Cueing 

The resource cueing capability used at HFD has two main components. The first component is 

TripwireTracker, a simple application that receives LOBRs from a number of different ARLdeveloped and vendor-developed sensors, and computes averaged intersection points and quality 

scores using an iterative algorithm. TripwireTracker is a proof-of-concept demonstration of data 

fusion between sensors provided by multiple vendors and is not intended or presented as an 

advanced fusion algorithm. 

The second component of the cuing system is AutocueServer, which receives raw LOBR reports, 

fused detections, and blue force tracking information from a variety of different CoT data 

sources, and generates asset cuing commands based on stored policies. AutocueServer uses a 

SQLite database to store sensor report and asset location information. Cuing policies are 

represented as SQL triggers stored in the database schema. User-defined functions written in C# 

can be called from the triggers to send commands to cameras, robots, and other assets. This 

approach allows for cuing policies to be defined and changed at runtime. Also, by using SQL to 

represent cuing policies, the system designer was not burdened with designing and implementing 

yet another custom policy language. Because the cuing system uses standard CoT interfaces and 

message formats to send and receive data, it is possible to use sensors with different 
5

characteristics and different modes of operation from different vendors in order to achieve a 

more complete solution for the defeat of hostile fire. 

Several cuing policies and behaviors were demonstrated at the HFD experiment. The simplest 

behavior was to cue one camera with detections from Micro Autonomous System Technologies 

(MAST) acoustic sensors, while cuing another camera with detections from Unattended 

Transient Acoustic MASINT Sensor (UTAMS) sensors. A more complex behavior was to find 

the closest camera to a given detection and cue it towards the location of the detection, while 

leaving other cameras alone. (This behavior could easily be extended to take into account lineof-sight computations if such a capability is available.) Another behavior picked a single target 

from the compact radar and cued a camera to track that target as it moved, while ignoring all 

other targets generated by the compact radar. A final behavior used blue force tracking data to 

cue a camera to track a robot as the robot moved around the test range. Behaviors can also be 

defined to cue robots as well as cameras, and to cue different assets for detections occurring in 

predefined geographic regions, although these capabilities were not demonstrated at the HFD 

experiment. 

 
6

List of Symbols, Abbreviations, and Acronyms 

ARL U.S. Army Research Laboratory 

C4ISR Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and 

Reconnaissance 

COP Common Operating Picture 

CoT Cursor on Target 

CJMTK Commercial Joint Mapping Tool Kit 

DoD Department of Defense 

HFD ATO Hostile Fire Defeat Army Technology Objective 

ISR Intelligence, Surveillance, & Reconnaissance 

LOBR Line of Bearing Reports 

MAST Micro Autonomous System Technologies 

MASINT Measurement & Signal Intelligence 

UTAMS Unattended Transient Acoustic MASINT Sensor 
7

NO. OF 

COPIES ORGANIZATION 

1 ADMNSTR 

ELECT DEFNS TECHL INFO CTR 

 ATTN DTIC OCP 

 8725 JOHN J KINGMAN RD STE 0944 

 FT BELVOIR VA 22060-6218 

1 CD OFC OF THE SECY OF DEFNS 

 ATTN ODDRE (R&AT) 

 THE PENTAGON 

 WASHINGTON DC 20301-3080 

1 US ARMY RSRCH DEV AND ENGRG 

 CMND 

 ARMAMENT RSRCH DEV & ENGRG 

 CTR 

 ARMAMENT ENGRG & TECHNLGY 

 CTR 

 ATTN AMSRD AAR AEF T 

 J MATTS 

 BLDG 305 

 ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND MD 

 21005-5001 

1 PM TIMS, PROFILER (MMS-P) 

 AN/TMQ-52 

 ATTN B GRIFFIES 

 BUILDING 563 

 FT MONMOUTH NJ 07703 

1 US ARMY INFO SYS ENGRG CMND 

 ATTN AMSEL IE TD A RIVERA 

 FT HUACHUCA AZ 85613-5300 

1 COMMANDER 

 US ARMY RDECOM 

 ATTN AMSRD AMR 

 W C MCCORKLE 

 5400 FOWLER RD 

 REDSTONE ARSENAL AL 35898-5000 

1 US GOVERNMENT PRINT OFF 

 DEPOSITORY RECEIVING SECTION 

 ATTN MAIL STOP IDAD J TATE 

 732 NORTH CAPITOL ST NW 

 WASHINGTON DC 20402 

NO. OF 

COPIES ORGANIZATION 

1 APPLIED RSRCH ASSOCIATES, INC. 

 ATTN S SNARSKI (2 COPIES) 

 8537 SIX FORKS RD STE 600 

 RALEIGH NC 27615 

1 PROGRAM MANAGER ACOUSTIC 

 SYSTEMS 

 AAI CORPORATION 

 ATTN T WITTE 

 124 INDUSTRY LN 

 HUNT VALLEY MD 21030 

1 DIRECTOR 

 US ARMY RSRCH LAB 

 ATTN RDRL ROE V W D BACH 

 PO BOX 12211 

 RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK NC 

 27709 

19 US ARMY RSRCH LAB 

 ATTN IMNE ALC HRR MAIL & 

 RECORDS MGMT 

 ATTN RDRL CII B C WINSLOW 

 (5 COPIES) 

 ATTN RDRL CII B J KOVACH 

 (5 COPIES) 

 ATTN RDRL CII B R WINKLER 

 (2 COPIES) 

 ATTN RDRL CIM L TECHL LIB 

 ATTN RDRL CIM P TECHL PUB 

 ATTN RDRL SES P M SCANLON 

 (2 COPIES) 

 ATTN RDRL SES PA W LUDWIG 

 (2 COPIES) 

 ADELPHI MD 20783-1197 

TOTAL: 29 (27 HCS, 1 CD, 1 ELEC) 
8

INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.