Exploiting Small Boat Wake Signatures for Improved Threat Classification and Feature Aided Tracking Navy SBIR FY2013.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2013.2 Topic No.: N132-104 Topic Title: Exploiting Small Boat Wake Signatures for Improved Threat Classification and Feature Aided Tracking Proposal No.: N132-104-0582 Firm: Arete Associates P.O. Box 2607 Winnetka, California 91396 Contact: Andrew Harey Phone: (818) 885-2200 Web Site: www.arete.com Abstract: Aret� Associates proposes to develop novel techniques to exploit radar-identifiable small boat wake signatures associated with unsteady motion and turbulent signatures in addition to enhancing existing methods to exploit steady-state wake characteristics. Using advanced nonlinear hydrodynamic techniques, Arete will develop innovative advanced modeling of steady, unsteady and turbulent wake signatures. Arete will then integrate the physical modeling results with its state-of-the-art radar simulation code to produce radar predictions that will help determine what signatures are identifiable in radar. Based on these results,Arete will develop exploitation algorithms to identify signatures and methods to retrieve important and relevant information about small surface vessels. Additionally, Arete will explore and scope out radar waveforms that would be optimal for each identified wake signature. Benefits: Exploitation of the information from the ship wake in conjunction with any hard target data can be a powerful tool in fingerprinting, establishing the behavior of, and performing change detection on small boats suspected of WMD proliferation, piracy or swarm participation. The wake exploitation capability also has application in both homeland and port security applications as well as environmental enforcement of boat speed restrictions. Return