IDEX 2023: Israeli firm Omnysis showcases its multi-layered air defense solutions.

The field of aerial defense against threats such as missiles, unmanned aircraft, cruise missiles, and drones is evolving throughout all military arms. It is expected to become one of the major fields in the next war – digital warfare.

Artist rendering of BRO-AD system. (Picture source: Omnisys)

Defense arrays are required to respond to multiple types of threats coming from a wide range of directions, altitudes, and ranges. Moreover, the extent of threats capable of hitting targets at precise accuracy has been increasing, and many threats are difficult to detect due to low signature and/or low-altitude or low-speed flight capabilities.

In order to provide a response to the complete range of threats and enable several interception attempts and redundancy, defense systems currently include several layers designed to cope with threats from various ranges. The systems comprise several types of sensors (e.g. radars, ELINT sensors, and electro-optic sensors) and effectors (such as interceptors and high-power lasers).

Achieving effective defense requires optimal deployment of the sensors and effectors while considering all relevant factors, including types of possible threats, launching areas, possible intrusion tracks, weather conditions, spectral disturbances between the systems themselves, and more.

In addition, during combat the battle picture can potentially change due to system malfunctions, diminishing inventories, unfamiliar threats, etc. In order to detect such events and provide a response, the huge amount of data gathered must be transformed into operational insights. Also, real-time performance awareness and recommendations should be provided in order to allow improved asset protection.

It is therefore necessary to produce multi-layered and multi-system optimization of system deployment, both prior to the battle and over its course, in order to bridge in real time all gaps versus the changing threat.

The Israeli company Omnisys identified the current operational need already a decade ago and developed advanced groundbreaking technologies in the optimization and AI fields in order to meet the need. The company’s systems help fully utilize battle resources in the most effective way throughout each battle round.

Among the company’s leading products is BRO-AD (Battle Resource Optimization for Air Defense). The BRO-AD system enables optimal deployment planning of systems prior to battle, ongoing situation evaluation, and real-time recommendations to the mission commander regarding deployment updates and operational configurations as system and environmental changes occur.

Using BRO-AD leads to optimal asset protection, minimal weapon waste, revealed gaps in performances and shooting patterns, and shortened operational response time.

During the optimization process the system considers many factors including: intelligence, possible warfare outlines, own force system capabilities, enemy force system capabilities, changing environmental conditions, including weather, cloudiness, electromagnetic effects, and more.

The system gathers the battle data in real time and uses complex AI algorithms to produce insights and update optimization recommendations in real time in accordance with the changing conditions.

The BRO-AD system includes three integrated products that provide end-to-end optimization throughout the mission’s lifecycle. Together, these products maximize mission performance in all three stages – pre-mission planning, in-mission management, and post-mission debriefing:

BRO-AD Planner provides optimal pre-mission planning based on intelligence, environment, threat status, own force system capabilities, and resource allocation.

BRO-AD Commander receives real-time data from the operational systems and provides a forecast of expected mission performance. It also alerts on performance degradation or the appearance of a new threat in the environment, and recommends the required improvement (location change, radar operation configuration update, etc.).

BRO-AD Debriefer enables the investigation of a tremendous amount of data (e.g. a 24-hour battle) and the extraction of advanced insights regarding pattern changes in force behavior, new threats, and more. This product feeds the previous two in a circular process.