Designing a performance evaluation methodology for data fusion-capable tactical aircraft v

In previous papers, we documented our evolving research that expanded on and formalized an approach to the design of a Performance Evaluation (PE) methodology for Data Fusion (DF)-based tactical aircraft systems. We have shown that the design of a PE process for any multi-sensor or multi-aircraft fusion-based system involves the design of a separate data fusion process involving association and estimation functions for PE purposes per se. Our publications to date have developed the theoretical and architectural groundings for this new PE process, and several case studies have been carried out to show sample implementations of the principles of this new methodology. In addition, some limited-objective parametric experiments have also been carried out that show the application of the new evaluation methodology for typical tactical aircraft problems. In the current paper, we summarize and cumulate the findings of these past works, and show our most recent AFOSR/AFFTC-sponsored research efforts related to extending the design and application of this methodology to air-to-air engagement problems involving what are called higher-levels of data fusion capability (situation and threat estimation) and the employment of electronic warfare systems. The paper discusses the detailed strategies for data association, metrics estimation, and also the analytical techniques that exploit the formality of the methods of Statistical Design of Experiments (DOE) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for these fusion applications.