Target acquisition system and method

A system (20) for identifying and tracking targets in an image scene having a highly cluttered background. An imaging sensor and processing subsystem (21) provides a video image of the image scene. A size identification subsystem (23) removes background clutter from the image by filtering the image to pass objects whose sizes are within a predetermined size range. A feature analysis subsystem (24) analyzes the features of those objects which pass through the size identification subsystem and determines if a target is present in the image scene. A gated tracking subsystem (25) and scene correlation and tracking subsystem (26) track the target objects and image scene, respectively, until a target is identified. Thereafter, the tracking subsystems lock onto the target identified by the system (20). Several methods relating to target acquisition are also disclosed.