The U.S. Army is in the process of testing the prototype of the Federated Universal Synchronization Engine (FUSE). The FUSE is capable of combining video and sensor data from various Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) onto a single Ground Control Station. The testing is going on at the Redstone Arsenal located in Huntsville, Ala.
Tim Owings, the deputy program Manager of the Army UAS, says that the new system paves the way for easily switching from one stovepipe intelligence source to another, which has not been tried out before. Owings further explained that the FUSE makes use of software and hardware to synchronise the data from multiple intelligence sources like the Ground Moving Target Indicator, Electro-Optical, Infrared and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capabilities etc. This synchronised data can be viewed on a single screen. Owings claimed that the FUSE helps the operator find targets faster by giving better intelligence feeds. Owings explained with an example thus; by using FUSE one can have a Gray Eagle and SAR in the same vicinity and combine their data to see the GMTI (Ground moving Target Indicator) on the Ground Control Station screen.
According to Owings, FUSE is useful especially in tracking fast-emerging targets in a combat scenario where quick action can be taken based on the synchronised data. The U.S. Army came up with the idea to develop FUSE based on the observations from the team that was sent to Afghanistan to asses the effectiveness of the UAS sensors. The conclusion of the study was that there was a need to share the information in a better way and produce it on a single screen, this led to the idea of coming up with FUSE. The Army plans to have the FUSE all set for deployment in a year from now.
Source: http://www.army.mil/