Target Acquisition Weather Software (TAWS)

The Target Acquisition Weather Software (TAWS) is used today by tactical weather teams supporting Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine combat operations. TAWS incorporates a modular system design that allows “plug and play” upgrades, provides a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI), and operates in a PC environment with Windows 9X/NT operating systems. Versions of TAWS can also be migrated for Unix platforms or web-browser interfaces. The TAWS GUI brings together several databases including meteorology, geography, targets, and weapons systems/sensors. New databases can be plugged in as needed. The GUI allows user-selected information from the databases to operate against several high-fidelity physical models that support sensors operating in the infrared (IR), television/night vision goggle (NVG), and laser wavelengths. TAWS predicts detection or lock-on range for a series of targets. For each target, calculations may be performed for a series of potential times, approach azimuths, sensors, and sensor elevations. TAWS provides output products that can be tailored to a user's needs, including tables, graphs, and superior target scene visualizations. It supports multiple targets, weapons systems, and sorties. TAWS is the next step in precision strike tactical decision aids, providing improvements to system usability, system applicability and functionality, and physical models. Here, we present an overview of the TAWS architecture, including how the various components work together to translate raw weather information into performance predictions. We also show how tailored decision aids can be used to facilitate planning by providing simple output displays that allow users to readily assimilate the information.