Attch 1 - Statement of Objectives (SOO).pdf

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STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

(Advanced Research Announcement (ARA))

Advanced Development of Enhanced Operator Capabilities (ADEOC)

FA8650-21-S-6005

10 September 2021

1.0 BACKGROUND

With static personnel numbers and increasing demands for highly skilled United States Air Force (USAF) Airmen and United States Space Force (USSF) Guardians to perform more physically, cognitively, and technically challenging missions, there is an increasing need to improve how the Department of the Air Force (DAF) assesses, trains, equips, monitors, protects, restores, and sustains its operators. It is the mission of the 711th Human Performance Wing's Airman Systems Directorate (711 HPW/RH) to foster the development of hardware, software, and information technologies/solutions to meet those needs. As basic and applied research efforts continue to evolve, advanced science and technology (S&T) work must be accomplished rapidly to realize cost-effective means of assessing, sustaining, restoring and enhancing Airman/Guardian proficiency, performance, resilience, health, and safety.

The purpose of this effort is to develop, mature, validate, and ultimately transition technologies fostered under the technology development product lines of 711 HPW/RH's Airman Biosciences (RHB), Bioeffects (RHD), and Warfighter Interactions & Readiness (RHW) Divisions.

1.1 RHB - Envisioned technologies will provide the capability to enable, enhance, sustain, and/or restore the health, performance, and safety of personnel in a variety of challenging USAF/USSF mission sets. The goal is to provide advanced technologies and data products, personalized to the individual and appropriate for use in operational USAF/USSF environments.

1.2 RHD - Envisioned technologies for 711 HPW/RHD will provide the capability to field and use novel weapon technologies, including directed energy systems, and enable the development of protective equipment and mitigation strategies in extreme environments faced by USAF/USSF. These technologies include the ability to model the human in these mission spaces for weaponeering guides, wargames and mission planning.

1.3 RHW - Envisioned technologies will provide the capability to increase combat capabilities through personalized learning, readiness, and cognitive improvements; and to deploy integrated solutions that develop synergies, maximize battlespace interoperability, enhance situational awareness, and increase combat power while decreasing Airman and Guardian physical and cognitive workloads.

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2.0 SCOPE

This ARA will acquire advanced system development, engineering, and integration skills needed for experimentation and development of prototype systems for operational demonstration, assessment, and transition to acquisition programs for production and deployment. Envisioned research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) activities encompass technology readiness levels (TRL) 5 through 7 to provide documentation and engineering analyses for acquisition program initial system design reviews. The Contractor will perform systems research and development (R&D) at government and industrial settings. Contractor activities will include but are not limited to systems engineering, human systems integration, alerting or alarms, and communication functionality, as well as development and testing of methods, interventions, environments, and devices capable of monitoring/regulating/mitigating workload and operator demands to ensure overload in critical tasks does not occur.

2.1 RHB Product Lines (2). Contractor activities include but are not limited to technology development, experimentation, and demonstration in the areas of bioscience, biotechnology, and aerospace medicine, to enable, enhance, sustain, and restore the health and performance of multi-domain Airmen and Guardians.

a. Biotechnology for Performance Research and Development (BPRD) Product

Line. Technical focus for this product line includes, but is not limited to, technologies and devices capable of monitoring, regulating, sustaining, augmenting, and/or restoring operator performance.

b. Operational and Aeromedical Health (O&AH) Product Line. Technical focus for this product line includes, but is not limited to, technologies and devices capable of ensuring medical availability of operators by assessing attributes (sensory, behavioral, physiologic) and operational environments (chemical, physical, psychological, biological, radiological stressors) to enable and protect optimal health, and mitigate risks in high-demand, high-impact missions.

2.2 RHD Product Line (1) - Bioeffects. Contractor activities include but are not limited to technologies and devices capable of characterizing novel and directed energy weapon systems, the feasibility and use of protective equipment or mitigation strategies, and the associated impact on mission outcome from the Airman/Guardian performance.

Contractor activities may also include technology development and demonstration of augmented/virtual reality systems.

2.2 RHW Product Lines (3). Contractor activities include but are not limited to technologies and devices capable of improving and personalizing individual, team, and larger group instructional training and readiness methods for the Airman/Guardian.

Contractor activities may also include technology development, demonstration, and experimentation in adaptive warfighter interfaces, including human-machine integration and human factors.

a. Readiness Product Line. Technical focus for this product line is development to improve and personalize individual, team, and larger group instructional training and readiness methods. Emphasis is on competency definition and requirements

- 3 -analysis, training and rehearsal strategies, and environments to support learning and proficiency achievement and sustainment during non-practice periods or under novel contexts to include just-in-time performance support and instruction.

b. Airman Machine Integration, and Analytic Tools Product Lines. Technical focus for these two product lines is to develop capabilities in adaptive warfighter interfaces, including human-machine integration and human factors. Emphasis is on developing technologies and capabilities to regulate workload and address operator demands and requirements to alleviate critical task overload. Technical areas of interest include, but are not limited to, perceptual ability exploitation, communications in a complex environment, analytics-enabled cognition, and comprehensive capabilities for teaming (human-human and human-machine).

3.0 TASKS / TECHNICAL AREAS / RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The work under this effort will be implemented through Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) or other cost-reimbursement contracts, or through Other Transactions for Experimentation (reference Title 10

USC 2373).

3.1 Advanced Development. The Contractor shall integrate, validate, and demonstrate integrated prototype systems (composed of existing Government-owned and commercial hardware/software technologies), and assessment techniques, in relevant, representative, and actual environments. For new technology prototype designs, model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and the development of simulations may be utilized. The Contractor shall report development results; conduct record keeping for experiments; and utilize best practices and knowledge of experimental methodologies to maintain a high level of research integrity. Advanced development tasks identified for this ARA include but are not limited to the following.

a. The Contractor shall develop prototype systems that provide air and space operator-integrated capabilities to enhance human performance, and enable/sustain operator performance under fatigue and other cognitive and physiological stressors beyond current human norms.

b. The Contractor shall develop and demonstrate prototype systems that (1) ensure the medical availability and optimal performance of Airmen and Guardians in high-demand, high-impact mission tasks, (2) maintain homeostasis and reduce the risk of injury or secondary insult resulting from operational and environmental stressors (e.g., extreme acceleration forces, vibroacoustics, hypoxic/hypobaric conditions, thermal stress, radiation and directed energy, chemical/biological agents and toxins, low gravity, spatial disorientation), and (3) enable, sustain, enhance, and restore operational and aeromedical health and human performance by providing improved capabilities in force health protection, human health and performance, aeromedical evacuation, and en route care.

c. The Contractor shall develop and demonstrate wearable, minimally invasive, multi-use, and durable sensor platforms capable of real-time, high-resolution measurement

- 4 -of air and space operator metabolic markers.

d. The Contractor shall develop technologies to identify, assess, and mitigate risks to human occupants on board air and space systems utilized for troop transport to forward areas and medical transport of injured troops.

e. The Contractor shall develop neurotechnology-enabled platforms for optimizing warfighter-AI performance in military aerospace operations and environments.

f. The Contractor shall develop technologies to enable warfighter control of aerospace systems and provide additional sensing capabilities via brain-machine/computer interface (BMI/BCI) technologies.

g. The Contractor shall develop prototype systems to optimally assess and select personnel for critical military aerospace career fields that require intensive training and suffer high washout rates.

h. The Contractor shall develop and demonstrate technologies using engineered microbes to protect, sustain, and augment air and space operator performance when subjected to environmental stressors (e.g., radiation, toxic chemicals, biological agents, and toxins), and internal biological stressors (e.g., fatigue, anxiety, stress, illness).

i. The Contractor shall develop and demonstrate point-of-injury treatment and medical decision support systems to provide medics with real-time situational awareness, expert medical information, and effective communication systems enabling patient care in field conditions (e.g., battlefield, patient transport/evacuation, field hospitals).

j. The Contractor shall develop and demonstrate prototypes capable of content-enabled agents/avatars for aiding/training, with discreet person-state/performance sensing/tracking and high fidelity data presentation/interaction, while incorporating machine learning/AI-driven analytic and assessment tools, to enable air and space operators’ rapid acquisition of new mission skills or training refresh. Technologies of interest include but are not limited to augmented/virtual reality, direct neural stimulation, and brain-machine interfaces.

k. The Contractor shall develop prototype systems that blend live, virtual, and/or constructive environments (co-located or distributed) to enhance personalized training and readiness and enable performance tracking and assessment, to include the ability to predict or account for human performance changes within complex operational training environments. Prototypes shall also consider various performance models, which include but are not limited to multi-scale models of skill acquisition, skill decay, situation awareness, real-time domain knowledge acquisition, and identifying gaps in knowledge, physiocognitive interactions, and performance for integration. Approaches and demonstrations of prototypes should be generalizable to other military and civilian work environments.

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l. The Contractor shall develop prototypes with functional systems able to predict, or account for, human performance given changes to physiology (e.g., fatigue, exposure to stimulants, exposure to toxins, high cognitive load). The contractor shall develop interactive synthetic humans as "friendly assets," teammates and instructors, adversary players, agents, and coaches, capable of operating within complex training systems; and capable of naturalistic interactions with human and machine teammates (e.g., speech, gesture, tone of voice).

m. The Contractor shall develop prototypes of scalable, multi-role interfaces for flexible manned/unmanned roles and interactions. Prototypes shall be capable of operating within complex systems and simulate human-human and human-machine teammates to address the appropriate interface, transparency in automated decision aids, and trust in the machine teammate. Prototype systems shall be capable of naturalistic interactions with human and machine teammates, and operate within complex training environments integrated into the prototype architecture.

Prototypes should incorporate or allow the integration of the cross-correlation of data for multiple domain operations to improve personnel efficiency and efficacy through intelligent application of human-machine automation. Prototypes shall leverage machine learning algorithms, data fusion, data analytics, and human factors engineering user interface principles.

n. The Contractor shall develop and demonstrate technologies to measure individual and team leading, performance, resilience, and proficiency. The Contractor shall develop and demonstrate tools to persistently monitor and diagnose performance in aerospace environments; and identify knowledge/skill requirements and gaps in multiple area(s) or construct(s) such as communication (speech, text/chat) monitoring; physiological state tracking and mobile performance tracking; team interaction, either co-located or at a distance; collaboration and trust in Airman/Airman and Airman/machine teams; situated knowledge or judgment;

automated decision making and play calling; teaming metrics; understanding; and learning.

o. The Contractor shall develop integrated prototype human-system interfaces for use in physiologically challenging ground, air, and space operational environments.

Human-system interfaces and components include but are not limited to helmet systems, protective equipment and survival gear, seating systems, restraints and harnesses, and energy attenuation systems.

p. The Contractor shall develop, test, and evaluate On-Board Oxygen Generating

System (OBOGS) and related oxygen system technologies. This technology development area includes but is not limited to breathing systems and regulators, oxygen masks, liquid oxygen systems, solid electrolyte oxygen separators, high pressure oxygen systems, oxygen storage systems, and life support sensors. Testing and evaluation will assess performance under extreme operating conditions such as high altitude, changes in available air flow to the system, and exposure to chemical or other contaminants in the oxygen supply system.

q. The contractor shall develop and test manned/unmanned systems, simulators, and

- 6 -emulator technologies to assess the cognitive and physical performance of multi-disciplined, distributed teams interacting with manned/unmanned systems.

r. The contractor shall develop and test Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) technologies to assess the cognitive and physical performance of multi-disciplined, distributed teams in a Joint Operations Center (JOC) LVC environment, including workflow, cognitive overload, decision-making, and fatigue.

s. The contractor shall develop and test Human-Machine Interface (HMI) systems to enable teaming exercises; improve performance of Base Defense Operations Center / Command & Control (BDOC/C2) stations; accomplish Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK) integration; and coordinate manned/unmanned teaming with multi-level security/networking.

t. The contractor shall develop and test field-ready Joint Terminal Attack Controller

(JTAC) and security forces-specific hardware prototypes with advanced multi-sensory interfaces to link a user's radios, headset, and end user device (EUD) in a dismounted kit, with modifications required for user-specific requirements.

u. The contractor shall develop and test human education training and readiness enhancement technologies to provide medium to high fidelity representations of operational systems and missions. The system instrumentation shall support evaluations of hardware and software (content, scenarios, syllabi, and models) in contexts that approximate actual operations.

v. The contractor shall develop and test human performance data collection and modeling systems to support capture of complex human performance with automatic data harvesting for model development. The systems shall enable digital engineering mission analysis and augmented/virtual reality-based evaluations that can take place locally and at operational locations, with deployable test equipment and technology capability artifacts to permit operational personnel evaluations of technical capabilities for field use.

w. The contractor shall develop and test virtual reality bioeffects systems to provide laser dazzle simulations, multi-sensory stimulus, and performance outcome assessments to provide experiential learning to operational units.

x. The contractor shall develop and test Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) enabling tools to enhance existing platforms; characterize collateral hazards or target effects from novel and/or existing directed energy weapon systems and multi-sensory devices; and help operational units determine personnel protection requirements.

3.2 Experimentation. The Contractor shall accomplish prototype experiments in lab/bench environments and/or test beds. Specific tasks will include but are not limited to test plan and human protocol development and approval; and acquisition/development of special laboratory and test facility equipment to meet test program objectives via an optimal experimentation capability.

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3.3 Management of Effort. The Contractor shall manage technical, schedule and cost satisfaction of the effort; plan, prepare, conduct, and document reviews; track CDRL satisfaction; and interface with the customer to assess performance satisfaction and reassess the project as needed. The Contractor shall comply with applicable animal and human use regulations (reference paragraph 4.5).

4.0 SECURITY REQUIREMENTS

4.1 Position of Trust. All contractor personnel require a minimum of a Federal

Investigative Standards (FIS) Tier 1 background check (T1)/SF85 for any position that requires access to the Internet, use of automated information systems to cover standalone computers, or unescorted entry into restricted or controlled areas, prior to reporting for duty in support of any requirement. The investigation is not for a security clearance; it is for a position of trust. This is a mandatory requirement set forth in DoDM 5200.02_AFMAN 16-1405, Air Force Personnel Security Program. All documentation required for security certification shall be the responsibility of the Contractor. No foreign nationals shall be employed for work under this contract without prior approval of the Government.

4.2 Individual Security Clearances. Some ARA Closed Calls and Open Period Requests for Proposals (RFPs) will require Contractor personnel to have an active clearance (up to TS//SCI) prior to reporting for duty. Interim clearances for newly hired personnel shall be processed as expeditiously as possible. Such clearance must be obtained through the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. For clearance, Contractor personnel require a minimum of a Federal Investigative Standard (FIS) Tier 3 (formerly known as National Agency Check with Law and Credit/Access NACLC) with Standard Form (SF) 86 for unescorted entry into restricted or controlled classified areas prior to reporting for duty. The investigation is for a security clearance.

4.3 Operations Security (OPSEC). The Contractor shall provide OPSEC protection for all sensitive/critical information and indicators involved in execution of this contract/Task Order, as defined by AFI 10-701, Operations Security. 711 HPW Critical Information and Indicators are protected under the 711 HPW Operations Security Program and the 711 HPW Critical Information and Indicators List (CIIL). Contractor employees granted access to critical information and indicators will be provided initial OPSEC training by the 711 HPW OPSEC Coordinator upon in-processing and prior to being granted access to CIIL items related to the contract/Task Order. The Contractor will also participate in 711 HPW’s annual OPSEC training and education programs, which includes periodic updates and refresher training on CIIL items applicable to the contract/Task Order. The 711 HPW OPSEC coordinator will evaluate the OPSEC posture of AF contract activities and operations.

4.4 Information Security and Force Protection. The Contractor shall provide Information

Security and Force Protection training as defined by DoDM5200.01_AFMAN16-1404 Volumes 1-3, Air Force Information Security Program, and DoDIO-2000.16V1_AFI10- 245-O_AFMCSUP, Antiterrorism (AT) Program Implementation. The Contractor shall participate in the 711 HPW sustained Information Security and Force

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Protection/Antiterrorism training, or include this training as part of their ongoing security program. The 711 HPW Security Managers will evaluate the training posture of AF contract activities and operations. This requirement is set forth in DoDM5200.01_AFMAN16-1404 Volumes 1-3, DoDIO-2000.16V1_AFI10-245- O_AFMCSUP, and applicable AFRL and 711 HPW supplements.

4.5 Protection of Animal and Human Subjects. The Contractor shall comply with the provisions of the following directives:

a. Title 32, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 219 (32 CFR 219), Protection of Human Subjects

b. Department of Health and Human Services Regulations, Protection of Human

Subjects (45 CFR Part 46), Subparts A, B, C, and D

c. DoDI 3216.01, Use of Animals in DoD Programs

d. DoDI 3216.02_AFI40-402, Protection of Human Subjects and Adherence to

Ethical Standards in Air Force Supported Research

e. AFRLI 40-402, Protection of Human Subjects in Research

Interaction with human research subjects shall not commence until approval from the Air Force Institutional Review Board (IRB) has been obtained. Interaction includes communication or interpersonal contact between investigator and subject for the purposes of conducting research.

If an IRB exemption is granted, then the provisions above would no longer be applicable;

however, standard ethical principles should still be adhered to. Investigators should refer to, and abide by, The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research, 18 April 1979.

4.6 Highest Security Classification: TS//SCI.