NOCA - Project Kaiju.pdf

Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Number

FA8650-22-S-1004

Project Kaiju

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT TITLE: Project Kaiju

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT TYPE: Notice of Contract Action (NOCA)

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: FA8650-22-S-1004

TECHNICAL POC: Gary Kaufman, AFRL/RYWE, (937) 713-4007, email:

gary.kaufman.1@us.af.mil, AFRL mailing address: 2241 Avionics Circle, Bldg. 620, Wright- Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7303.

CONTRACTING POC: (Primary) Caleb Rose, AFRL/RYKSR, (937) 713-9965, email:

caleb.rose.1@us.af.mil, (Alternate) Matthew Mayles, (937) 713-9849, email:

matthew.mayles@us.af.mil, mailing address: 2130 Eighth Street, Bldg. 45, Wright-Patterson

AFB, OH 45433-7251.

This announcement does not request any proposals at this time. The following topic is an anticipated requirement for AFRL/RYWE for FY22-FY26. A BAA solicitation requesting proposals for this topic is anticipated to be published January 2021.

The funding listed reflects the estimated requirement funding only. This estimate is not a guarantee of funding. Funding is uncertain and is subject to change. Changes in funding availability may occur at Government discretion.

Program Description: The U.S. Armed Forces have been at the forefront of technological development, but with the advancements across the world in radar and weapon technology, adversaries have closed the gap. U.S. aircraft are increasingly required to operate in hostile environments heavily defended by integrated air-defense systems (IADS). Current IADS consist of radars that employ active electronically scanned array (AESA) antennas and individual missiles equipped with sensors that operate in either the radio frequency (RF), electro-optic (EO) or infrared (IR) bands. The next evolution of advanced IADS is likely to employ radars, surface-to-air (SAM) and air-to-air (AAM) threats that utilize multi-spectrum technology. That is, U.S.

aircraft will be expected to counter IADS equipped with missiles guided by sensors that operate with various levels of coordination between the EO/IR and RF regimes for detection, navigation, and/or tracking processes, i.e., multi-spectrum threats. As IADS advance towards employing multi-spectrum capabilities, a foreseeable problem is the relevancy and effectiveness of countermeasures (CMs) developed for a single spectrum when they are employed against a multi-spectrum threat. In addition, various emerging advanced threats may pose serious risk to high-value airborne assets (HVAA). HVAA are necessary for mission success and are historically provided natural protection due to their operational distance being far enough outside the immediate battlefront. With adversaries understanding the importance of HVAA to mission success, as well as their vulnerabilities, HVAA may become a likely target for emerging longer-range advanced threats. Continued HVAA Protection is key for the AF to maintain air superiority and satisfy their core mission goals (e.g., Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), Global Reach, command and control (C2), etc.).

mailto:gary.kaufman.1@us.af.mil mailto:caleb.rose.1@us.af.mil mailto:matthew.mayles@us.af.mil

In order for a system to operate in a peer or near-peer conflict a degree of cognition, system integration, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are required to generate and/or maintain a competitive advantage due to the sheer volume of data, speed of activity, and complexity of threat capabilities. Cognitive typically refers to systems or processes that attempt to mimic or replicate the human decision-making by utilizing sensors, perceptions, learning, reasoning, and memory autonomously. AI/ML are the tools and processes used to teach systems to make those human-like decisions. The Cognitive Electronic Warfare (EW) ecosystem encompasses all the AI/ML utilized by systems and processes to enable varying levels of autonomy across the various EW missions, with AFRL supporting the warfighter and ops community missions including (rapid) reprogramming on the ground to closed-loop self-protect jamming in the fight. In the laboratory or squadron, AI/ML can assist with data analysis or mission data generation to increase the volume of data processed and the confidence in the data to be used operationally. This will allow for next sortie updates to mission data while generating reports for further analysis. Data collected during in-field and/or in-fight operations will be critical to further development in system and process learning. As AI/ML advances it will be able to process and utilize larger amounts of data in real-time, opening the potential for autonomous EW on an asset. This ability to have the capability for on-board data collect and analysis will be necessary for future closed-loop real-time autonomous reactions to changes or unknowns in the perceived Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS) environment (i.e., closed-loop sensing and self-protect jamming). Essential for rapid insertion and assessment of AI/ML technology are the adoption of open standards, agile Devops /algorithm development, and process validation tools environments. This AI/ML foundation will be critical to allowing AI/ML to migrate into fielded systems and eventually onto assets for closed loop operations.

Project Kaiju will be a one-step, Closed BAA with the following nine (9) main tasks and technical objectives:

(Gamera) Big Data for Cognitive EW (CEW) Research: Conduct a study that investigates which key community developed tools should be integrated into a common and modular framework to generate “Big Data”.

(King Ghidorah) Software-Defined Radio (SDR) Research: SDR code library requires in-depth investigation of target system hardware for the purpose of understanding its operation for the purpose of creating the best possible SDR emulation of the target system. Procurement of target systems, development of data links to interface with SDRs and other equipment to command and control systems, disassembly (to include destructive testing) of target systems, lab, field and flight testing, and procurement of candidate SDR hardware/software.

(Mecha Rodan) Multi-Spectrum Threat Defeat: Refine existing Multi-Spectrum M&S environments to add advanced capabilities (including model accuracy) and spans across Electronic Support (ES) and Electronic Attack (EA).

(Kumonga) RAPTURE Laboratory: Design, fabricate, test, and document special purpose hardware to meet research and development (R&D) test requirements for Size, Weight, and Power (SWAP) constrained program requirements. Perform lab and field testing of custom designed hardware (includes soldering surface mount Printed Circuit Board (PCB)’s, modifying PCB’s, assembling custom cables, computer aided design (CAD) of custom enclosures, and assembly of the final product).

(Mothra) EA Demo: Build a reconfigurable EA processing framework for assessment of EA capabilities (emitter tracking, technique selection, technique generation).

(King Kong) Real Time Algorithm Development: Utilize government furnished hardware architecture description to determine the viability of government furnished non-real-time machine learning algorithms for real-time applications.

(Baragon) RF EW Demonstrator (REWD) for Next Sortie Mission Data Reprogramming:

Develop, mature, and evaluate advanced EW algorithmic concepts to detect, sort, identify, disambiguate, and track complex emitters in complex environments. This includes leveraging algorithms developed in Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s Adaptive Radar Countermeasures (ARC), AFRL’s Electronic Support Critical Experiment (ESCE), and ONR’s Reactive Electronic Attack Measures (REAM). This effort will also include integrating multi-sourced processing chains, closed loop software component control and tuning, component performance comparison, analysis and visualization products to aid human/machine teaming and trust.

(Colossus) Advanced Threat Defeat (ATD): Develop novel and cognitive electronic warfare capabilities to generate multi-layered EA techniques resulting in long range kill webs. Leverage distributed sensing, machine learning and AI and align with Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) concepts for autonomous vehicles to enable Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) resulting in coordinated joint fires and convergence of EW effects.

(Godzilla) Program Management: Perform program management of scope, schedule, cost, and risk for the overall contract and for each individual research project and development activity.

Additionally, this BAA will address the issues both individually and collectively. No R&D conducted under this program will be done in isolation, but rather in full consideration of how the new technologies can progress toward full integration with large, complex systems, ready to transition to support of the warfighter.

The contractor will be expected to deliver all software and/or hardware as required, and all associated data developed and/or used in the execution of this effort, unless clearly stated otherwise in the proposal. It is anticipated that a BAA providing more details into this program will be released January 2021; the solicitation will be made available at www.beta.sam.gov.

Direct any questions to the Contracting or Technical point of contacts identified in the announcement.

Security: General Operations Security (OPSEC) procedures, policies and awareness are required in an effort to reduce program vulnerability from successful adversary collection and exploitation of critical information. OPSEC will be applied throughout the life cycle of the contract. The Critical Information List (CIL) and the RY OPSEC Plan will be provided upon request by AFRL/ RYOY Information Protection Office. While working on the government installation, OPSEC guidance and OPSEC training will be provided by AFRL/RYOY Information Protection Office. This training will ensure contractors are familiar with RY’s CIL and RY’s OPSEC Plan as it pertains to their contract. The contractor shall apply OPSEC in their management of their current program IAW AFI 10-701 Operations Security and WPAFB Supplement to AFI-10-701.

All DoD contractors (including subcontractors) shall supplement their current security practices by requiring any personnel involved in executing this contract where critical program information (CPI) has been identified to protect the CPI to the standards articulated in the Program Protection Plan and in accordance with DoDI 5200.39. Upon contract award, all identified DoD contractors (including subcontractors) shall acknowledge and meet the requirements stated by the Program Manager for the protection of CPI. The DoD contractor must immediately notify the U.S. Government upon the discovery of any nonconformance with CPI protection.

Funding: Anticipated Program Funding: $150,000,000 (FY22- FY26) broken into two awards.

• $135,000,000 – Main contract covering all tasks and technical objectives outlined above.

• $15,000,000 – Niche contract focusing on Mothra, King Kong, Baragon, and Colossus.

The niche contract is required to include Godzilla and a combination of the aforementioned focus areas (minimum one focus area, preferred all four (4) focus areas).

Anticipated Contract Type: It is anticipated that two Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee (CPFF) C-Type contracts will be awarded in support of the Project Kaiju effort, main and niche contract.

Period of Performance: Both the main and niche contract are expected to be 63 months (60 months for technical effort and 3 months for final reporting).

Classification Level: Both the main and niche contract will be classified at Top Secret/SCI.

Set Aside: None.

Industry Day: Prior to releasing the BAA solicitation, AFRL intends on hosting an Industry Day with all potential offerors in order for AFRL to express its goals, schedule, and provide feedback to all potential offerors. It is expected to be held in late October 2021. Due to COVID- 19 restrictions, the event will most likely be a virtual conference.

THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR PROPOSALS. DO NOT SUBMIT PROPOSALS AT THIS

TIME. ANY PROPOSALS RECEIVED WILL BE DISCARDED.