Sensitive site exploitation (SSE) missions are often conducted far forward and without the luxuries of time and assured security. Analysis of site information has traditionally required network backhaul which has often proved elusive in electronic warfare-contested or space-contested operational environments. Even under ideal conditions, onsite forces face difficult challenges of making sense from, the volume, variety, and velocity of data encountered. Teams need to collect and triage quickly to exploit the most perishable information for immediate action and decide "what" and "to whom" to exfiltrate for offsite exploitation. For example, names and images, extracted from a device may correlate with bio-metric identification or with other wide ranges of sources, including RF detection, hyperspectral imagery, and/or gait from full motion video (FMV) analysis.

A Blueforce advisor told us very early on that to truly understand customer pain and the very problems we hoped to solve with our technology, we had to "live a week in the breach". So we did, and we continue to do so. We spend many, many weeks each year deployed alongside of intelligence analysts, far forward commanders, door kickers, CBRN responders, EOD, investigators, undercover officers, MWD/K9 units, and others. Given the tempo of operations and the collapsed decision space presented by increasingly non-predictive threats, we continue to hear a common refrain: decision makers want nothing to do with a big data problem when responding. The "responder" is too often drowning in data and desires an explicit collision of "sense-making" with data, where and when it meets the commanders intent.

The increasing speed of unpredictable and chaotic events collapses the tactical decision space for military commanders and first responders. Forward sensor fusion with edge-based processing accelerates recognitional decision making by widening the decision-maker's aperture to a greater number of sensor inputs and a wider array of sensor types. Cognitive computing tools compare signals to patterns to automate decision cues and open the door to meta-cognition, discovery of new patterns, and continuous improvement of decision models. The new BlueforceEDGE Image Recognition Plugin enhance's real-time recognition and speed of decision for operators and fixed and mobile command nodes by recognizing persons of interest as well as object recognition. BlueforceEDGE V3 ("EDGE") software delivers an extensible autonomous agent software platform that enables sensors from multiple manufacturers to be fused into a secure and interoperable stream of data enabling a single pane of glass view of your entire mission space. EDGE not only extends access to sensors from disparate manufacturers, but also allows development of software plugins providing access to enterprise services, iamge recognition systems, video and data analytics, rules engines, and more.