Encl-1.1_ In-Cycle.Opportunities_final.draft-11MAR.docx

ENCLOSURE 1.1: W900KK-22-R-0012

TOPICS: EWT – ELECTRONIC WARFARE TEST

OPPORTUNITIES

Closing Date/Time: 26 April 2022 at 2:30 pm Eastern Standard Time- No white papers or supporting documentation will be accepted after the identified closing date/time of this Opportunity Notice.

TTA-specific Topics: If listed under a TTA, topics are grouped and numbered in the following sections by TTA per numbered domains.

Table Legend In-cycle vs. Out-of-Cycle Opportunity Notice Type TTAs: Test Technology Areas’ initialisms are listed below:

· Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence Test (AAIT)

· Advanced Instrumentation Systems Technology (AIST)

· Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, and Software Intensive Systems Test (C4T)

· Cyberspace Test Technology (CTT)

· Directed Energy Test (DET)

· Electronic Warfare Test (EWT)

· High Speed Systems Test (HSST)

· Space Systems Test (SST)

· Spectrum Efficient Technology (SET) ‘Part.’: Indicates if the TTA is participating in this opportunity release (Yes/No) Topics: Indicates if TTA-specific topics are listed in this opportunity release (Yes/No) ‘Other’: Indicates if the ‘Other Test Technologies’ topic applies to this release (Yes/No).

Tabular Opportunities Listings The tables below show TTA participation for the listed ‘cycle’ type. Specified topics within this document can be accessed easily using the hyperlinks in the tables below:

In-Cycle

W900KK-22-R-00XX

ENCLOSURE 1.1: W900KK-22-R-0012

IN-CYCLE OPPORTUNITIES

A-8: 1 TRMC T&E/S&T BAA Enclosure 1.1: page 1 Return to Table Domain 1 - High Power Microwave (HPM) Vacuum-Rated Anechoic Materials There is a requirement for realistic Radio Frequency (RF) illumination of targets-in-space-conditions vacuum chambers. Realism requires that the RF energy comes from the correct direction (typically the Earth) and is not augmented by fields reflected from the chamber walls or resonances between direct fields and chamber reflected fields. The target size, where RF reflection will not interfere with test, for the smallest Chamber is 0.75m3. This topic is seeking technologies to achieve this result and, specifically, materials that will not reflect RF waves in the range between 700MHz and 40GHz, with emphasis on RF below 20GHz.

Given that the reflectivity/absorption of all existing anechoic material varies in effectiveness with frequency, the material sought needs to have a minimum effectiveness of -20dB at the poorest frequency. The chamber vacuum in which these materials are to be employed is 10-7 Torr. Any anechoic material out-gassing need be complete after 1 hour to maintain this pressure.

Space conditions, other than vacuum, in the chambers in which the material is to be deployed are:

· Temperature ≥100°K,

· Atomic Oxygen density ≤2x1012 O/cm2/sec, and

· Sun illumination may be simulated in the chamber at about ±20% of normal at the Earth.

The chambers can also be used to simulate low orbit energetic particles within the following ranges:

· Electrons 20-100keV to 5x108cm2/sec, and

· Protons 30-150keV to 108 cm2/sec.

Any anechoic material installed in the chamber will be cycled to the conditions described above from standard laboratory temperature and pressure (STP) along with the chamber and needs to survive 8 times the STP to space conditions cycles with less than 10% degraded or cracked.

This project needs to initially assess all commercially available anechoic materials to the conditions described above and, if no commercially available material meet these requirements are found, develop and test material technologies that do meet these requirements.

Medium UAS HPM Attack Instrumentation The proliferation of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) containing commercial camera or other surveillance capability or even a small explosive device is a significant military threat. These cheap UASs allow a swarm of many to be deployed to further complicate the military threat. High Power Microwave (HPM) has been shown to be an effective counter to this thereat, particularly to a swarm of UAS.

These vehicles come in a variety of form factors, this topic addresses instrumenting larger Group 1 and Group 2 UAS. As such the instrumentation package needs to be 3lb. The weight limit is that the HPM instrumentation should not compromise the test operation of the UAS target.

The instrumentation package includes:

· a detector (antenna),

· a shielded HPM envelope detection HPM data acquisition system,

· a prime power source independent of the instrumented UAS, and

· a means to telemeter the captured data to a base station, as the HPM instrumented UAS target may not be recoverable.

To develop and test counter UAS HPM systems, the target needs to be instrumented to determine the HPM waveform on target, and since these are small targets the HPM instrumentation should not participate in HPM interaction with the UAV (minimally intrusive, <10%).

The HPM wave form collected should be by pulse and consist of envelope detection; peak power, pulse length, for a HPM pulse above 1 kV/m to 100 kV/m peak or the E-field equivalent (V/m) with any polarization and a rise time 2ns.

The HPM frequencies for this topic are 500 MHz to 5 GHz or a proposed subset. The pulse repetition rate can vary between 1 Hz to 2kHz with pulse lengths up to 2.5 ms, and an HPM attack duration from 1 to 3 minutes (from trigger) for a test duration of ≤30min.

The trigger for telemetry to be passed to the ground is determined by the offeror, and the instrumentation package may also be recoverable. Any telemetry approach should provide for signals also coming from HPM packages on other instrumented UAS (HPM defense against a swarm of UAS testing).

Domain 2 – High Energy Laser (HEL)

1. Near Surface Laser Weapon System (LWS) Propagation Measurement High Energy Laser Weapon Systems (HELWS) are in development for multiple surface ship defense scenarios. A top priority is to build a shipboard HELWS to counter the sea-skimming Anti-Ship Cruise Missile (ASCM) threat, in both self-defense and escort (buddy)-defense scenarios. The near-surface regime is challenging because:

1) there is a rapid change in atmospheric qualities in the vertical direction and optical refractive gradients are large,

2) surface layer turbulence can be very intense, and

3) a surface aerosol obscurant layer often exists, exacerbated by windy conditions.

Rapid temporal and spatial changes can occur along the near-surface laser propagation paths. These effects are especially prominent near the land-sea interface.

The test and evaluation (T&E) of a HELWS in a near-surface scenario will require accurate assessments of the atmospheric channel. To predict HELWS beam dwell times and probability of kill in the near-surface layer, it is first required to predict the characteristics of the beam that impinges on the ASCM target (which is the objective of this effort). The most robust and accurate solution will fuse improvements in existing measuring and modeling capabilities. This development will enable a near-real-time laser flux prediction.

The requirement for local measurements is mandated by the pronounced variability in the propagation channel along the sea surface propagation path. The measured quantities must then be transformed via appropriate models to predict the HELWS laser propagated characteristics at the target plane.

Measurements. The required local range-resolved measurements must characterize

1) extinction (absorption and scattering),

2) optical turbulence (causing beam spread, jitter, and wander), and

3) vertical refractive index gradients (near sea surface-air interface), with all measured along typical sea-skimming paths from shipboard HELWS to target ASCM. The relatively small scale of variability, both vertically and horizontally, mandate a local-sensor-driven solution to increase prediction accuracy. It is anticipated that the sensor suite may be some combination of calibrated nodal (point) sensors mounted on multiple mobile relocatable UAVs, together with LIDAR(s) capable of range-resolved measurements.

Modeling. The foundational modeling requirement is the extension of all measurements to a prediction along the full path to assess the impact on a propagating laser beam. The desired capability is an accurate assessment of the individual and cumulative impact of each of these effects on the delivered laser beam profile (irradiance map over time). An important ancillary requirement is a validated model to extend the measurement from a local sensor node to a larger engagement region. The requested capability improvement must integrate the local measurements into a ‘full-path’ solution. Characterization of the propagation swath or volumetric sector within which the HEL beam will propagate will enable modeling of the laser beam profile arriving at the target.

The desired technology development is a HELWS prediction for a swath or volumetric sector anchored at the HELWS. Therefore, local nodal and range-gated measurements must be extended over:

1) The full LWS-to-target path

2) The swath of propagation paths anchored at the HELWS, forming a cone-like solid region This will require a judicious use of blending or smoothing algorithms, combined with local model-generated vertical profiles for turbulence, refractivity, and extinction.

In summary, a technology enhancement is sought to provide high-resolution atmospheric path characterization for a HELWS in a Test and Evaluation environment. The primary need is a flexible measurement design, and a secondary element is the appropriate use of smooth interpolation / extrapolation methods, including profile models where appropriate.

1. Atmospheric Absorption Coefficient Measurement High Energy Laser (HEL) beam extinction depends on the scattering and absorption by molecules and aerosols along the beam path. The Navy is particularly interested in better modeling of near-horizontal propagation in the presence of maritime molecules and aerosols, especially water vapor and salt particles. The absorption of HEL energy in the atmosphere results in beam irradiance degradation by the mechanism of thermal blooming. While extinction of the beam results from both scattering and absorption, it is only absorption that can result in thermal blooming. Improved atmospheric absorption coefficient measurements are needed to support improved HEL beam propagation models, especially in maritime, near-surface, propagation scenarios.

Requirements for the absorption coefficient measurement capability are an accuracy of ±0.25 Mm-1 (threshold capability) / ±0.05 Mm-1 (objective capability) at a sample rate of 1 Hz. Measurements are to be the path-integrated value over representative path lengths between 50 m and 10 km. Measurement instrumentation must be capable of employment in the maritime environment without functional degradation. Measurements are to be performed immediately before or after each HEL shot along a stationary horizontal path representative of the HEL beam path.

Offerors should describe how they would design, develop, fabricate, and calibrate the measurement capability. The developed system should be installed at a government facility or test range, and the effectiveness should be demonstrated.

1. Target Swarm Tracking A current threat for High Energy Laser Weapon System (HELWS) negation is a swarm of air or surface vehicles, including small vehicles such as Class 1 & 2 UAS or jet-ski targets. Initial range testing of an HELWS requires a range capability to resolve and track individual targets in the swarm and provide the HELWS with tracking information accurate enough to permit selection and acquisition of individual targets for negation. Current range radar systems cannot provide the accurate tracking information needed to support HELWS testing against swarms of small targets at engagement ranges of up to 10 km.

A range capability is needed to track individual targets in small swarms (≤10 targets), including Class 1 &2 UASs, with an accuracy of 0.1 degrees every 0.1 seconds at ranges up to 10 km and against sky, ground, and ocean backgrounds. Tracking data format must be compatible with range infrastructure and formats currently used by ranges to provide target tracking data to an HELWS. Tracking data format must also support range situational awareness displays.

Offerors should describe how they would design, develop, fabricate, and verify the tracking capability. The developed system should be installed at a government test range, and the effectiveness should be demonstrated.

Domain 3 – Special Interest Area: Nuclear Effects (SIA)

1. Horizontal High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) (E1) Upgrade The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Horizontal HEMP (E1) simulator provides all three Services and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency with the capability to conduct test and evaluation of military weapons systems and their associated support systems; both aircraft and ground based systems (transportable and mobile), to the HEMP (E1) threat environment specified in MIL STD-2169C.

The recent March 2021 update to MIL STD-2169D has resulted in a T&E gap for larger test objects supported at NAWCAD, i.e. the B-2, B-52, E-6B, E-4B, and KC 46A. The NAWCAD capability can only support small tactical sized (fighters/helicopters) to the updated MIL-STD-2169D environment. The Horizontal HEMP (E1) simulator located at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a smaller “single ended Marx” type design that uses the same technology as the NAWCAD simulator. The WSMR HEMP (E1) test capability mainly supports ground based (transportable and mobile systems) testing to the environment specified in MIL-STD-2169C. The WSMR T&E gap is that it is not capable of providing the updated MIL STD-2169D environment for any of the systems supported.

Updates to the HEMP (E1) environment necessitate reliable operation at increased operating voltage. The existing state of the art for Horizontal EMP simulator technology precludes reliable operation at the required voltage level of ~6MV at the output switch. This project develops new enabling EMP pulsed power component technologies and conducts component validation testing in a relevant environment.

Proposed tasking includes technology maturation of a new antenna system, development of new-pulsed power components, construction of a testing module, and 3MV demonstration testing in a “single-ended Marx” high voltage pulser test module for component validation.

ENCLOSURE 1.1: W900KK-22-R-0012

TOPICS: DET – DIRECTED ENERGY TEST

Return to Table Domain 1 - Electro Optics (EO)

1. Ultraviolet Light Emitting Array (ULEA) A key component of hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) and installed system test of advanced missile seekers and warning systems is dynamic scene projectors. The function of the scene projectors is to present realistic in-band (UV, Vis, IR) imagery to a unit-under-test (UUT). This imagery must possess sufficient spatial, temporal, and radiometric fidelity that the UUT cannot distinguish between projected and real world imagery. Shortfalls exist for this capability in the ultraviolet (UV) band.

The table below shows desired performance goals and characteristics:

Radiance (mW/cm2-sr) 315 - 400 nm (UVA)*

*Primary interest 385 nm & 357 nm + 5 nm **Negligible background in off state desired The projector system must produce “flickerless” emissions while running asynchronously with the unit-under-test (i.e. no synch signal). A delivered prototype system should include packaged UV emitter array(s), necessary drive electronics, and interface to external scene generation systems. Maximum system weight includes any components mounted on the outer axes of a flight motion simulator (FMS). Up to 50 feet of cabling may be required to interface to scene generation systems.

1. High Power/High Bandwidth 2-Color IR Emitters DoD EO/IR imaging sensors are rapidly advancing in technology, leveraging higher frame rates, larger dynamic ranges and improved spatial resolution. DoD test facilities need improved open-air sources to support testing of advanced EO/IR sensors. The focus on future emitter technologies is for 2-color IR high power sources that may be combined into one single output by combining high power (35-50 kW/sr/µm) red sources with high power (5-8 kW/sr/µm) blue sources, with power assessed at the output of the emitter optics.

The energy output should be wavelength stable, with high fidelity optical amplitude control with a calibrated witness sensor and feedback loop in each color-band to sense and maintain accurate temporal output levels in each color independently. The temporal bandwidth threshold goal is 1 kHz with an objective goal of 10 kHz. The high bandwidth is necessary to perform temporally accurate signatures for sensors with higher frame rate and processing capabilities. The two bands should be independently controllable and have output aligned with the Joint Mobile IRCM Test System (JMITS) bands, where the IR Blue band covers 3.8-4.2 µm and the IR Red band covers 4.55-4.68 µm.

The beam width of the sources as measured downrange should be nominally 3 degrees with a flat-top profile to uniformly provide energy on spatially separated sensors. The output aperture should be ≤50cm in diameter and have a minimum radiating area ≥400cm2. Ideally, the proposed effort may demonstrate a single emitter head for IR emissions that can support combined two-color emissions, but should demonstrate the use of solid-state sources to increase reliability and reduce size, weight, and power requirements (SWaP). The output of the sources should also have sufficient spectral stability to support repeatability and programmable bandpass corrections.

Red-band Spectral Output (µm) (Half-Power Points)

Blue-band Spectral Output (µm) (Half-Power Points)

1. High Power/High Bandwidth 2-Color IR Modulation DoD EO/IR imaging sensors are rapidly advancing in technology, leveraging higher frame rates, larger dynamic ranges and improved spatial resolution. DoD test facilities need improved open-air sources to support testing of advanced EO/IR sensors. The focus on improving current emitter technologies is higher frequency modulation of IR high-power sources for improved temporal features.

The current Joint Mobile IRCM Test System (JMITS), Multi-spectral Sea and Land Target Simulator (MSALTS), and Towed Optical Plume Simulator (TOPS) systems utilize quantum cascade lasers to provide simulation of missile signatures. The IR emitters in these systems project laser energy onto the Missile Warning System (MWS) of an aircraft in order to test the response of the multi-sensor MWS and other aircraft self-protection systems.

Current technology attenuators (such as motor-driven continuously variable filters and polarizers) cannot sufficiently provide high-frequency response with temporal accuracy in control of the laser intensity at the required laser power. Fast, accurate, high dynamic range, lightweight, low power consumption attenuators capable of withstanding operational beam energies are required to enable accurate representation of missile signatures.

The table below lists some salient requirements for the attenuator performance:

Frequency Response (kHz) (Full Dynamic Range)

1. Hypersonic Optical Sensor Hardware in the Loop There is a need for infrared (IR) phenomenological modeling to generate hypersonics scenario simulation information that can be used with scene projection systems to provide radiometrically- and goniometrically-correct Overhead Persistence Infra-Red (OPIR) signatures for hypersonic interceptor hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) testing and evaluate the performance of sensor hardware for intercept control.

Hypersonic interceptors will operate in a high speed atmospheric environment that includes, but is not limited to, shock waves, turbulence, and heated/ionized air. This environment introduces distortion of the incoming threat signature, and such signatures must be modeled by integrating the effects of the physical phenomenologies involved. The model must include the image distortion produced by the phenomenological conditions which are determined to affect sensor performance. The spatial and temporal resolution of the model must be sufficient to be compatible with current and evolving photons-in projection technologies.

After development, these models will be integrated with existing HWIL facilities or used in a dedicated hypersonic sensor HWIL capability.

The table on the following page shows desired goals and characteristics for the hypersonics optical model as they would be used by projections systems:

Spatial Resolution (expected target sizes)

Radiance (mW/cm2-sr) 1-3 µm (SWIR) 3-5 µm (MWIR) 8-10 µm (LWIR)

6,500 (~1045 K) 13,300 (~1225 K) 1,600 (~1000 K)

192,700 (~2000 K) 99,900 (~2770 K) 4,600 (~1875 K)

1. Cryo Rate Large Aperture Zoom Collimator There is a need to develop a cryogenic-rated, large-aperture zoom collimator for electro-optical/infrared sensor test & evaluation across the visible to longwave infrared (LWIR) (0.4-20 microns) radiation within a simulated space environment to properly match the System Under Test (SUT) individual Field of View (FOV) to the dynamic projection system individual element angular coverage (accounting for using a multiple-element sampling approach) for high-fidelity Hardware in the Loop (HWIL) T&E. The required collimated approach drives need to align and match up scene projection elements to SUT detector elements, where the current approach is a 2:1 linear sampling method (or 4:1 areal sampling method) for high-fidelity, real-time HWIL/SWIL testing. Without such optical matching, an artificial energy spread across multiple SUT detectors effect occurs that significantly reduces the relevance of the test data used to evaluate system performance.

This S&T effort will fabricate a prototype reflective, cryovacuum zoom collimator with adaptive optical (AO) compensation to meet the performance requirements per an initial design that will be completed under an ongoing CRP S&T Design effort. The collimator will incorporate movable curved mirrors plus a deformable mirror (DM) to simulate a broad-spectrum scene at apparent infinite distance to the sensor under test. Additionally, a means of feedback correction is required. The development of cryo-compatible adaptive optical compensation is essential to accomplishing the desired zoom range and optical matching to the SUT, and also provides the capability of improving blur due to thermal-contraction-induced wavefront error. The collimator should be either a continuous or multi-step zoom system where switchable optical elements are employed to achieve the zoom range needed to match a particular SUT.

The table below shows desired performance goals and characteristics:

* continuous zoom desired, discrete steps considered.

1. High Power Density Motor Hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) test and evaluation (T&E) is a proven tool for exercising the performance envelope of a guided munition, missile, or kinetic interceptor. Current in-development weapons (particularly hypersonic weapons) exceed the capabilities of the Flight Motion Simulator (FMS) component of HWILs. The focus of this topic is the development of next generation High-Power-Density Electric Motors (HPDEM) for use in an Advanced Flight Motion Simulator (AFMS) for replication of the weapon under test’s line-of-sight motion.

This development will design, develop, and deliver three HPDEMs with 30-in, 19-in, and 12-in diameters with peak torques of >40,000 N-m, >16,000 N-m, and >2,000 N-m, respectively and a greater than 5-sec duty cycle. These HPDEMS will be integrated with an existing FMS and potential AFMS. The table below summarizes desired performance goals and characteristics:

Torque (N-m) (pitch, yaw, roll)

Acceleration (deg/s2) (pitch, yaw, roll)

Domain 2 – Radio Frequency (RF) No topics released