NATO will adopt the SAPIENT (Sensing for Asset Protection with Integrated Electronic Networked Technology) protocol developed by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) as a C-UAS (counter-unmanned aircraft system) standard, according to defence publishers Jane’s.
“A year-long ratification process will begin in 2024 with 14 countries required to approve it before it is formally adopted as a NATO Standardisation Agreement (STANAG), Cristian Coman, chief scientist for the Joint Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance division at NATO’s Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency), told Janes and other media representatives at the exercise,” said the publisher.
“SAPIENT was developed by the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) as an open standard that allows the fusion and integration of autonomous sensory information into a single integrated picture.”
According to UK Ministry of Defence briefing document:
“SAPIENT is intended to work at the “information level” rather than continually streaming raw data. The SAPIENT Middleware system architecture is based around a central database. A number of data agents manage the data-flow into the database. Each node communicates with a data agent to populate the database with declarations and detections, including as much information as the sensor modules are capable of providing. Although the SAPIENT philosophy is that C2 functionality is based on the ‘summary’ messages produced by the sensors, it is recognised that there are sometimes occasions where it is necessary to stream data from a sensor, and SAPIENT can provide the functionality to facilitate this. All ingest into the database is carried out by the data agents to ensure the data is valid. The data agent may monitor and if necessary limit data bandwidth.”
For more information
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/nato-to-adopt-sapient-as-c-uas-standard
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1144352/SAPIENT_Interface_Control_Document_v7_FINAL__fixed2_.pdf
(Image: UK Government)
