Thursday, February 11, 2016

AFRL adds RF Resiliency to AIRBORNE CONNECTIVITY AND DISSEMINATION BAA


AIRBORNE CONNECTIVITY AND DISSEMINATION - Federal Business Opportunities: Opportunities

Title:              AIRBORNE CONNECTIVITY AND DISSEMINATION
 Sol. #:             BAA-RIK-12-08
 Agency:             Department of the Air Force
 Office:             Air Force Materiel Command
 Location:           AFRL/RIK -  Rome 
 Posted On:          Feb 10, 2016 6:49 am
 Current Type:       Presolicitation (Modified)
 Base Type:          Presolicitation
 Base Posting Date:  Nov 16, 2012 12:50 pm
 Link:               https://www.fbo.gov/spg/USAF/AFMC/AFRLRRS/BAA-RIK-12-08/listing.html
 

I. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION:

The Air Force Research Laboratory - Information Directorate (AFRL/RI) is soliciting white papers under this BAA for research, design, development, test, evaluation and experimentation of innovative technologies and techniques for Airborne Network Connectivity and Dissemination.

The objective of the BAA is to conceive, develop and demonstrate innovative and affordable technologies that provide agile and secure information transmission, network and dissemination capabilities to airborne platforms that enable the sharing of quality information within resource and policy constraints. The intent is to expand the Global Information grid (GIG) to connect three major domains of warfare: Air, Space, and Terrestrial. The goal is to deliver timely, reliable, and actionable information to war-fighters and systems across the United States Air Force enterprise to support Command and Control, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.

Efforts under this program are expected to enable the Air Force to provide a transportable network, flexible enough to communicate with any air, space, or ground asset in the area. The network will provide a beyond line-of-sight (LoS) communications infrastructure that can be packed up and moved in and out of the designated battle-space, enabling the military to have a reliable and secure communications network that extends globally. The network is designed to be flexible enough to provide the right communication and network packages for a specific region, mission, or technology.
White papers may describe but are not limited to
  • Hardware brass-boards and/or software systems development.
  • Activities for validation with model-based design and simulation.
  • Demonstration of hardware brass-boards and antenna in-the-loop validation techniques.
Research efforts under this program are expected to result in functional capabilities, concepts, theory, and applications addressing Air Force airborne network connectivity problems. The effectiveness of the developed technologies for potential operational use will be assessed through testing and evaluation activities. Technologies that can be transitioned for operational use are of high interest. Offerors are encouraged to describe the pre-conditions that are necessary for the proposed techniques to work effectively.



Work is encouraged in, but not limited to, these focus areas:
  • 1. Airborne Network Architecture
    • 2. Information Transport Performance Management
      • 3. Integration and Interoperability with the Global Information Grid (GIG)
        • 4. Advanced Tactical Data Links (ATDL) -  
        • 5. Radio Frequency (RF) Resiliency for AOC Mission Systems
        • The Combined/Joint Force Air Component Commander's (C/JFACC's) ability to Command & Control (C2) air power is threatened by emerging anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) security challenges around the globe, to include the changing US overseas defense posture, and emergence of space and cyberspace as contested domains of future conflicts. Based on these trends, and the Air Operation Centers (AOCs) dependence on Internet Protocol (IP) and satellite based systems, the C/JFACC's C2 abilities in a contested environment are at risk. A solution to combat these threats must be integrated into AOCs.
        • Technology gains in the area of Wideband High Frequency (WBHF) may provide a distributed control capability to maintain a degree of C2. Solutions should include stand-alone RF systems at all AOCs and bases, and a deployable RF capability for dispersed/austere sites. For example, WBHF could provide AOCs the ability to ensure that critical mission products, such as Air Tasking Orders (ATOs) and Air Combat Orders (ACOs), are able to reach remote Wings.
        • Reasearch areas include:
          •      A) Conduct experiments and demonstrations providing validation of critical capabilities and enhancements to WBHF systems
          •      B) Model the future WBHF network for the AOC, to demonstrate scenario-based mission impact
          •      C) Conduct fielding studies of WBHF systems
          •      D) Develop a WBHF mesh network architecture that supports data routing and dissemination
          •      E) Develop Automatic Link Establishment (ALE) techniques for WBHF
          •      F) Develop the required security protection to pass ATOs and ACOs, to include the  integration of secure Type 1 encryption devices with WBHF systems

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