ANCILE: Dismounted Strike Warning and Position Tracking

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ANCILE Dismounted Strike Warning and Position
Tracking
Approved for Public Release
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What is ANCILE?
Note Ancile is not an acronym but rather a name
taken from the mythological shield and talisman
of power to protect the Roman Army

• Novel technology combination and architecture
  integration

• Capability
• - Warns dismounted soldiers about incoming
• indirect fires
• - Same device can report dismounted locations
  to
• Blue Force C2 systems
• Characteristics
• - Pager-sized device
• - Simple Operation
• - Less than one pound

4 Patents and 4 PCTs Pending
3 Year Collaborative Effort between PEO C3T
USMA
Strike warning and position tracking for
dismounted soldiers
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Inside the ANCILE Pager
Low Cost
Small
3 inches
Battery Case 4 x AAA Batteries
Radio Module 1 watt output 256-bit AES
Encryption Frequency-hopping
GPS Module
Audio Alarm
Computer Module Linux 2.6 kernel 400 MHz
processor 64 MB Persistent RAM
COTS Components
Lightweight
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How Does ANCILE Work?
1. Enemy forces launch mortar rounds against a
friendly patrol.
2. Counter-battery systems, like FireFinder and
LCMR, detect the rounds and generate a warning
message.
4. Ancile pagers in the predicted danger zone
alert the soldiers well before the rounds hit
them.
3. A small bridge device on the tactical net
receives the warning message and relays it to the
Ancile pagers.
Same Comms and GPS mechanisms can be used in
reverse for Blue Force Position Reporting
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ANCILE Pager Warning Times
Partnered with RDECOM-ARDEC to license
ANCILE technology
Rounds detonated more than 50 meters away from
the pagers
Seconds
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Round
North Pager
South Pager
Successfully Demonstrated during Yuma Proving
Grounds Live Fire Event
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Extending Ancile to provide IED warning

• Assuming that we know the location and activities
  of a tactical unit, how do we avoid interrupting
  soldiers at a critical moment in order to relay
  IED information? That is, how to we model
  decision processes in small-unit tactical
  settings in order to prioritize competing
  cognitive activities?
• Is the Ancile device or TiGRNet intrusive to a
  soldiers mission? Can the devices be integrated
  such that they avoid this drawback?
• What are the tools available to adequately model
  the cognitive processes and measure outcomes in
  order to prioritize competing cognitive
  processes?
• What are the tools available for modeling
  man-machine interface issues to develop
  analytical models and metrics for choosing among
  alternative interface and display technologies?
• What are the tools available today to adequately
  model the communication links being used at squad
  and platoon level?
• Assuming that we know the location and activity
  of a tactical unit, how do we build a predictive
  model of communication capabilities for squads
  and platoons on the move in urban areas in order
  to estimate the amount of data feasible to relay
  to a given tactical unit at a given time?

www.ANCILE.net
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Extending Ancile to provide IED warning (cont.)

• For Power to the Edge considerations for
  effects-based analysis of outcomes a DIME on
  PMESII framework of understanding and altering
  battlespace state has been proposed. That is,
  choosing among alternative Diplomatic,
  Information, Military, and Economic (DIME)
  actions is expected to produce a different
  battlespace state defined in terms of Political,
  Military, Economic, Social, Infrastructure, and
  Information (PMESII) outcomes. The idea of the
  strategic corporal is that actions at the
  tactical level may dramatically alter the extent
  to which strategic outcomes are achieved. Recent
  counter-insurgency (COIN) operations discussions
  have involved considerations concerning how to
  balance nation-building activities with
  government and non-governmental agencies with
  security operations. In your own Network Science
  discipline, what are the technologies available
  today that should be brought to bear in the
  Ancile and TiGRNet problem, to better understand
  the battlespace state, and assist in choosing
  actions which produce desired outcomes?
• In your own Network Science discipline, what are
  the technologies that need to be developed in
  order to be brought to bear in the use of Ancile
  or TiGRNet, to better understand the battlespace
  state, and assist in choosing actions which
  produce desired outcomes?