Optimising assets deployment in planning and in operation thanks to AI-based Omnisys BRO

Omnisys, an Israeli defense tech company known for its multi-mission, multi-domain, battle-proven optimization systems – unveils BRO™, its next-generation AI-powered platform that enables commanders to maximize the impact of available assets across dynamic battlefield scenarios

When facing the realities of the battlefield, commanders rarely have all the resources they would ideally need. Even when resources are available, leveraging them to their full potential is essential to counter enemy threats effectively. Optimisation is more than a buzzword – it’s a critical operational need. And it lies at the core of Omnisys’ BRO: Battle Resource Optimisation.

“We are providing a decision recommendation system, as our system actually provides actionable recommendations in real time, shortening the time for commanders to get the preferred decision,” Fredi Tzimet, Deputy CEO of Omnisys, told EDR On-Line. On today battlefield time is definitely a key issue, therefore being able to use own resources at their best during combat gives an edge over the enemy.

However BRO relevance starts well before the engagement, as it is a key element in the planning phase. BRO is a suite of AI-supported software solutions made of specialised products such as BRO-IG (Intelligence Gathering), BRO-AS (Air Surveillance), BRO-AD (Air Defence), BRO-EW (Electronic Warfare) and BRO-SM (Spectrum Management). These are the ones mostly oriented towards the military world, another product being BRO-BSec, designed for border security operations.

EDR On-Line understood that those products can operate stand-alone or in conjunction with C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computer and Intelligence) systems, and can be adapted to the level of command, from battalion up.

“Let us say that the enemy wants to hit your deployment area with different kinds of effectors, such as aircrafts, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and so on, at the same time and from different directions. You have several types of defensive systems, of which we know the performances, while those of the enemy can be evaluated with a certain degree of precision. Once on the ground, these performances might vary as they are affected by different elements, one of them for example being weather conditions. Being the commander, you must decide where to deploy and how to use the different systems in order to get the best performances,” Fredi Tzimet explains, a planning problem that includes many different variables which would take a team of personnel and quite a long time to be solved, one of them being the service CONOPS (Concepts of Operations), which vary from country to country.

BRO allows solving it in critical time, reducing staff personnel and providing the commander with one or more of solutions. “Before the battle starts the system can provide you a course of action recommendation ensuring maximum performances. In some cases we can increase the overall defence system performances by over 30% thanks to the smart deployment and coverage analysis,” the Omnisys representative told us.

This is however only one part of the story, the one before the engagement starts. “We integrate our BRO with the customer C4I system; “The C4I provides the real time picture, and we use that picture to provide smart real-time recommendations to the commanders. I think we are a new generation of decision recommendation system as our system actually provides actionable recommendations in critical time, so reducing time for commanders to get to the preferred solution,” Fredi Tzimet stated, adding that while staff personnel feels tiredness and tension, computers do not, hence BRO performances do not degrade with time.

The capacity to store information and to analyse much higher number of potential solutions taking in count more parameters in a much shorter time compared to a human staff is what gives BRO an edge over traditional planning and conduct procedures.

The capacity to be fed with technical and performance data from as many different sensors and effectors needed makes the BRO also a key tool when conducting coalition operations.

“Looking at Europe, every country has different kind of systems and capabilities, so planning and conducting combined multi-domain operations is not an easy task. Using BRO, allows to integrate different kind of sensors and effectors, and by using some kind of configuration capabilities we can provide a single optimised picture,” Omnisys Deputy CEO explained.

As most AI-based systems, BRO is capable to learn from experience. In the planning phase most is done by simulation, however when things start to get real, the system improves its knowledge, especially on enemy systems performances as well as enemy CONOPS, EDR On-Line understood. “By the real information we get from the real picture, we calibrate our simulation tools on our digital twin,” Fredi Tzimet pointed out, underlining that not only enemy assets but also friendly assets capabilities can be reviewed considering their real performances on the field in specific conditions.

In the planning phase BRO is able to simulate enemy-induced conditions, one of the most critical being its capacity to jam or spoof GNSS signals, which are commonly used by nearly all players on the battlefield for navigation and weapons guidance. And playing with different level of enemy disturbance can help in knowing how much this will reduce friendly effectors effectiveness, leading eventually to a re-planning of some operations.

Images courtesy Omnisys