Brad Tousley plenary talk: Advanced platforms for sensing in the air, space, maritime/undersea, and ground domains

Creating greater US resilience in outer space is the most pressing defense-related challenge in the field of sensing, says Bradford Tousley, director of the Tactical Technology Office (TTO) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in this plenary talk from SPIE DCS.

Tousley also notes that research in sensing technologies will return the biggest benefit in the future by getting more satellites into space. Sensing now provides excellent awareness of where airplanes are on Earth, for the most part, but we do not understand this in space.

The TTO works to provide or prevent strategic and tactical surprise with very high-payoff, high-risk development and demonstration of revolutionary new platforms in ground systems, maritime systems, air systems, and space systems while also focusing on the cross-cutting themes of agile development approach, cooperative autonomy, unmanned systems, power, and propulsion.

Tousley joined DARPA in January 2013 as the director of the TTO. He holds a BS from the United States Military Academy as well as an MS and PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Rochester.