Fusion of ESM allegiance reports using DSmT

Electronic Support Measures consist of passive receivers which can identify emitters coming from a small bearing angle, which, in turn, can be related to platforms that belong to 3 classes: either Friend, Neutral, or Hostile. Decision makers prefer results presented in STANAG 1241 allegiance form, which adds 2 new classes: Assumed Friend, and Suspect. Dezert-Smarandache theory (DSmT) is particularly suited to this problem, since it allows for intersections between the original 3 classes. In this way, an intersection of Friend and Neutral can lead to an Assumed Friend, and an intersection of Hostile and Neutral can lead to a Suspect. Results are presented showing that the theory can be successfully applied to the problem of associating ESM reports to established tracks, and its results identify when miss-associations have occurred and to what extent. Results are also compared to Dempster-Shafer theory (DST) which can only reason on the original 3 classes. Thus decision makers are offered STANAG 1241 allegiance results in a timely manner, with quick allegiance change when appropriate and stability in allegiance declaration otherwise.