Suitability of synthetic imagery for ATR evaluation

There is a commonly held belief among many who participate in ATR development and evaluation that a lack of data (imagery from tactical sensors) is a significant obstacle in the production and thorough evaluation of high performance ATR systems. Recognizing that it may be too costly or even impossible to collect a sufficient quantity of real data to adequately represent all ATR mission scenarios of interest, synthetically generated imagery may be one way to overcome this obstacle. Given the impact that synthetic imagery could potentially have on the development of our future weapon systems and on the performance of these systems in future conflicts, it is critical that this technology be validated prior to its use in the evaluation of ATR systems or in the training of operational ATRs. In an Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD) funded effort, the Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) of the Communication and Electronics Command (CECOM) developed a plan for validation that is being executed.