Airborne Deployment of and Recent Improvements to the Viper Counter Sniper System

This paper describes an airborne deployment of the Viper sniper detection and counterfire system and several improvements that were incorporated after a review of comments from users of the fielded systems. The Viper sensor was flown aboard a T-34 aircraft and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Sparrow unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Infrared (IR) and visible video sequences were recorded for post processing. Algorithms for motion compensation, frame registration and target detection were then developed to run on the collected image data. No inertial attitude data were recorded and all motion compensation functions were made using image data. These experiments indicate that automatic detection of muzzle flash from an airborne platform is possible, and techniques that were developed for background estimation and false alarm reduction with a stationary sensor can apply with modifications to a moving sensor. 1 Caulfield, J.T.; Gower, P.W.; Moroz, S.A., Burchick, D.A., Ertem, M.C., Pierson, R.B.; “Performance of the Vectored Infrared Personnel Engagement and Return Fire (VIPER) IRFPA Muzzle Flash Detection System”(U), Proceedings of the IRIS Specialty Group in Passive Sensors, 1996 2 Gower P.W., Moroz S. A., Burchick D.A., Ertem M.C., Pierson R.B. “The Vectored Infrared Personnel Engagement and Returnfire (VIPER) System and Its Counter Sniper Application ”(U), Proceedings 35 IRIS Symposium on Infrared Countermeasures, 1998 Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. Form SF298 Citation Data Report Date ("DD MON YYYY") 00001999 Report Type N/A Dates Covered (from... to) ("DD MON YYYY") Title and Subtitle Airborne Deployment of and Recent Improvements to the Viper Counter Sniper System Contract or Grant Number Program Element Number Authors Project Number Task Number Work Unit Number Performing Organization Name(s) and Address(es) Naval Research Laboratory Washington, DC 20375 Performing Organization Number(s) Sponsoring/Monitoring Agency Name(s) and Address(es) Monitoring Agency Acronym Monitoring Agency Report Number(s) Distribution/Availability Statement Approved for public release, distribution unlimited Supplementary Notes Abstract Subject Terms Document Classification unclassified Classification of SF298 unclassified Classification of Abstract unclassified Limitation of Abstract unlimited