Pentagon Funding Maritime Monitoring Software Solutions
Site: FCC.gov
The Defense Department will fund a program aiming to create web-based applications for organizations that conduct maritime monitoring, the Office of Naval Research announced Monday.
ONR said the Pentagon is allocating $1 million to develop technology under the International Collaborative Development for Enhanced Maritime Domain Awareness project.
Starting this fall, a team including ONR and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific will collaborate with Chilean scientists to create widgets for sailors to monitor pirate activity at sea.
Researchers at the Technical University of Federico Santa Maria in Chile will create automated and small-target detection tools based on open source technologies.
ONR will work with researchers based in Africa with the University of Ghana, University of Mauritius, the University of Pretoria and the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
John Stastny, an engineer in the advanced analysis systems branch at SSC Pacific, said in the release that the tools will eventually be integrated into a widget framework.
ONR said the apps will help maritime operators analyze data in order to find information about drug smugglers, illegal fisherman and arms traffickers.
Project researchers aim to make the software compatible with multiple maritime networks so groups can share information globally, ONR said.