Northrop Grumman ASA software and data fusion application, built on Objectivity database, wins trophy for ‘Best Intelligence Data Fusion and Collaborative Analysis System’

Cyril Draffin

In a newly introduced IT security category, Northrop Grumman Corp. received the winner’s trophy for “Best Intelligence Data Fusion and Collaborative Analysis System” at the GSN 2010 Homeland Security Awards Dinner on November 8.

The prize was awarded for Northrop Grumman’s Analyst Support Architecture (ASA), a GOTS product that is coupled with the adaptable COTS Objectivity/DB database, to allow government agencies and the military to ingest and manage massive amounts of intelligence data.

The award’s trophy was accepted for Northrop Grumman by Cyril Draffin, vice president of homeland security, who joined GSN on the day after the awards program for a video interview on the ASA system and other corporate initiatives in homeland security. The complete interview will be posted in the next few days on the GSN Web site.

Also in attendance at the awards dinner, representing Objectivity, were Jay Jarrell, president and CEO of Objectivity, and Rich Shelley, Objectivity’s vice president of global sales.

According to the awards entry, the Analyst Support Architecture uses an advanced tactical data processor (TDP) that enables analysts to bridge the gap between raw data and the decision of execution, through a suite of tools that are complementary both to the novice and the specialist.  In operational use and under development for 10 years, this data fusion application provides a correlated operational picture for the analyst to validate new and unusual activity.

“Detected events are displayed both graphically and textually and are conveyed in the context of the organization being monitored. In addition, the system contains numerous interactive tools which allow ad-hoc manipulation of the data to enhance user-driven analysis activities. Further, it is designed to allow rapid integration of multisource data in both integrated air defense and maritime domain awareness environments to meet the needs of today’s war fighter.”

The U.S. Air Force is using ASA in the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) Operational Watch Center, where analysts pass relevant information to tactical databases in-theater. The success of ASA resulted in the Air Force’s decision to add ASA to its Electronic Systems Center (ESC) at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts.

Key features of the system include Threat Warning Situational Awareness, Tactical Movement Detection, Out-of-Garrison Operations, Target Development, Event Discovery, Pedigree Data and Collaboration.

The heart and soul of the ASA engine, says Northrop Grumman’s awards entry, is the correlation engine, which provides a subject-matter expert that is adaptable to any operation or environment, while enhanced situational awareness is accomplished through an updating process of correlation, identification, verification and alerting.

These capabilities are enabled by Objectivity/DB’s fully distributed database for data fusion, which offers the unprecedented ability to power applications that collect, fuse and process Multi-INT data.