Attachment A- Weapons Pitch Day Topics.pdf

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

WEAPONS PITCH DAY

PURPOSE

This document identifies the major future armament development focus areas that will comprise the inaugural Weapons Pitch Day.

CONTENTS

ENGAGEMENT LANES Page

Reach 3

Affordable Mass 4

Autonomous Collaboration 5

Sensing and Comms Nodes 6

Non‐Kinetic Effects 7

Digital Engineering 8

Next Generation Laser Designators 9

Selectable Effects Warhead Technologies 10

Terminal Guidance System 11

Image‐based Guidance System 12

REACH

OBJECTIVE:

Develop technologies that hold adversaries (both air and ground) at risk from 500++nm away at or better than neutral inventory cost.

The Armament Directorate is in search of concepts that are focused on allowing Blue aircraft to effectively prosecute targets (either both air and ground) with increased standoff range.

Cruise missiles

Loft missiles

Air‐to‐Air missiles

Hypersonic weapons

Air‐launched, “truck” vehicles

Targets of interest include:

Fighters

Soft stationary ground targets (fixed and mobile)

Hardened targets

Moving ground targets

Maritime targets

Small Businesses must be able to provide extended range solutions that do not exceed the procurement cost of current weapons to allow inventories to be created and maintained within current projected anticipated budgets. As such, cost reducing/minimizing technologies across the board are of interest. Specific technologies under analysis include:

Propulsion technologies o Ramjets/Scramjets o Gas Turbine Engines o Rockets

Disposable or re‐usable “boost” vehicles

New lightweight and/or high temperature materials for use in armament propulsion systems

Warhead technologies and design concepts

Communications/datalink technologies/concepts

Application of “century series” type technology development/refresh concepts.

Aerial delivery of small cargo allotments with autonomous routing and range

Tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) and associated additional enabling technologies are also requested. It is anticipated that TTPs in conjunction with innovative technologies will be needed to meet the Air Force’s reach goals.

AFFORDABLE MASS

Develop capabilities to deliver at 10 to 1 or better cost imposing strategy on our adversaries

IADs systems by being able to overwhelm airspace with threats that cannot be ignored.

The Armament Directorate is in search of concepts that are focused concepts under exploration on allowing blue forces to utilize large numbers of relatively low cost weapons systems.

Weapon classes of interest include:

Ranged air‐to‐ground weapons

Air‐to‐air missiles

Air‐launched, “dispenser” vehicles

Targets of interest include:

Red Team Air Defense Aircraft

Soft stationary ground targets (fixed and mobile)

Moving ground targets

Maritime targets

Small Businesses must be able to provide solutions that are low cost, have sufficient range, and are capable of diverting defensive fire (present as a target of interest). Specific technologies under analysis include:

Low cost materials and manufacturing processes (i.e. additive manufacture) for armament system manufacture

Low cost propulsion systems and technologies

Modular, open‐system payload architectures and payload concepts/technologies

Disposable or re‐usable “dispenser” vehicles

Miniaturized, reliable electronics to include flight controls, mission computers, seekers, etc)

Electronic warfare concepts and armament based transmission capabilities also a critical aspect of this lane (i.e. identification of other non‐conventional delivery methods).

It is anticipated that TTPs in conjunction with innovative technologies will be needed to meet the Air Force’s goals.

AUTONOMOUS COLLABORATION

Develop capabilities to deliver massed weapon waves that adapt to the battlespace and maximize outcomes.

The Armament Directorate is in search of concepts that are focused on allowing blue forces to utilize numbers of collaborative weapons systems to:

Employ coordinated tactics to ensure mission success

Employ automated, adaptive and collaborative tactics in a fluid battlespace

Support blue forces multi‐domain command and control strategies

Anticipated benefits include providing more assured target prosecution in a complex battlespace and nearly infinite tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) modification and application toward creating new and world unique capabilities. Weapon classes of interest include:

Ranged air‐to‐ground weapons

Decoys

Targets of interest include:

Soft stationary ground targets (fixed and mobile)

Hardened targets

Moving ground targets

Maritime targets

Specific technologies under analysis include:

Artificial intelligence algorithms with “dialable” human influence o Target identification schema o Target prioritization algorithms

Collaborative weapons playbook scripts

Datalink technologies/concepts

Miniaturized, reliable electronics to include flight controls, mission computers, seekers, etc) also a critical aspect of this lane. It is anticipated that TTPs in conjunction with enabling innovative technologies will be the heart of capabilities developed in this lane.

SENSING & COMMS NODES

GOAL:

Develop capabilities to deliver armaments that can be utilized as the backbone (as sensing and communications nodes) of blue team multi‐domain command and control (MDC2) strategies.

The Armament Directorate is in search of concepts focused on enabling blue forces to utilize weapons as major contributors to multi‐domain command and control (MDC2) space.

Weapons, specifically employed in mass, provide the opportunity to be used as either/both communication nodes or sensors. As communication nodes, weapons can be used to pass along information over long distances or be used to report back. As sensors, seeker input could be used to provide battlespace awareness. In mass, diverse sensor data (RF, IR, MW, etc) from different weapons could be “fused” together to inform the battlespace. Weapon classes of interest for this engagement lane include:

Cruise missiles

Loft missiles

Air‐to‐Air missiles

Hypersonic weapons

Air‐launched, “truck” vehicles

Specific technologies under analysis include:

Low‐cost, multi spectral seekers

Datalinks technologies/concepts

Data transmission and evaluation software/algorithms

Air deliverable ground communications/sensing packages

Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) communications

Tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) and associated additional enabling technologies are also a critical aspect of this lane. It is anticipated that TTPs in conjunction with innovative technologies will be needed to meet the blue forces command and control strategic goals.

NON‐KINETIC EFFECTS

GOAL:

Develop capabilities that can disrupt the battlespace and provide a deeper magazine than traditional kinetic effects.

The Armament Directorate is in search of concepts focused on either/both increasing Blue forces’ magazine depth and/or presenting new armament delivered capabilities to the battlefield. Many non‐kinetic weapons are electric power derived and therefore afford the potential of multiple “shots” per weapon engagement v. a traditional kinetic weapon with one

“bang.” Other non‐kinetic effects provide different effects than kinetic weapons that may be as effective on the battle space as a kinetic weapon with lower cost and/or in a smaller package.

Weapon classes of interest that could employ such effects include:

Cruise missiles

Loft missiles

Air‐to‐Air missiles

Hypersonic weapons

Air‐launched, “truck” vehicles

Though several potential targets and applicable technologies exist to support this focus area, Small Businesses must have proper security considerations to drive the discussions unable to be addressed herein.

also a critical aspect of this lane. It is anticipated that TTPs in conjunction with innovative technologies will be needed to meet the Air Force’s reach goals.

DIGITAL ENGINEERING

Develop technologies to enable the development and delivery and recapitalization of new capabilities that leverage open, digital frameworks and rely upon modeling and simulation to move from idea to fielding, faster.

The Armament Directorate is in search of concepts focused on digital/digital engineering to employ new technologies faster. The use of modeling and simulation combined with optimization and visualization algorithms & techniques is anticipated to accelerate weapon concept development, analysis, system design, production, use, recapitalization, and sustainment. Armament Directorate looking for digital solutions to utilize Weapons Open

Systems Architecture (WOSA) to the maximum extent possible.

Specific areas of digital engineering focus include:

Model Base Systems Engineering

Weapon Open Systems Architectures

Databases

Data mining/optimization tools

Armament unique modeling and simulation

Multi‐security level solutions

Next Generation Laser Designators

Develop capabilities for laser technologies to provide improved man‐in‐the‐loop designation and enable improved system performance

The Armament Directorate is in search of are in search laser technologies with improved designation and system performance. Particular interest in:

Increasing acquisition range

Reduced system size

Increased resiliency in pulse‐coding capabilities

Increased flexibility and integration, especially with next‐gen semi‐active laser (SAL) seeker

Also in search of improvements in acquisition range, flexible engagement capabilities, or size, weight, and power (SWaP). Designators may be ground based or airborne. New designator concepts should explore the laser wavelength (the traditional 1.06 um, as well as 1.55 um and others), pulse repetition frequency (10s of Hz to kHz – constant or variable PRF), pulse widths, and pulse‐coding techniques.

Additionally searching for concepts that emphasize benefits in at least one of two categories:

Improvement in detection range/SWaP

Techniques for pulse‐coding schemes

Selectable Effect Warhead Technologies

Develop enabling technologies that allow a compact multi‐mission ordnance to change its output in response to the target type and engagement scenario

The Armament Directorate and Air Force Research Laboratory are in search small general purpose (GP) bombs that can adapt their output to a wide variety of missions and targets.

These GP bomb should have good fragmentation, blast, and penetration capabilities in order to defeat mobile surface targets and multi‐story buildings.

In addition, the munition should be able to change its blast and fragmentation outputs either in magnitude or in direction, or both. Anticipated concepts should not use variable output initiators or any similar attempt to initiate deflagration in a high explosive.

Specific areas of interest:

Blast and fragmentation characteristics of the high and low modes

Differences between the two modes

Reduced collateral damage

Penetration survivability

Terminal Guidance System

Develop terminal guidance systems accurate to <1m in conjunction with small UAV and precision guided munitions seeker.

USSOCOM is in search of concepts compatible with current seekers or in conjunction with a seeker that meets form fit size, weight, and power of current specifications required by fielded precision guided munitions and small UAVs. Terminal guidance source form fit and power must be compatible with fielded targeting systems, be capable of real time user maneuvering in conjunction with real time image source.

Image‐based Guidance System

Develop Image‐based guidance systems for light weight air vehicles

USSOCOM is in search of concepts for guidance system based on image using IR and/or full spectrum visible light accurate to within 1 m in terminal phase to assist in identifying targets in environments not conducive to laser‐base or GPS based operations i.e. cloud cover, dust, obscured. A light‐weight, platform‐agnostic geo‐registration capability to support onboard solution for real‐time, high‐accuracy geolocation of targets.

Specific areas of interest:

Small UAVs

Package delivery

Situation reporting for emergency response forces