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APRIL 10, 15:46 EDT
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio -- U.S. Air Force electronic warfare experts are trying to find better ways of protecting military radar systems from hostile jammers and other kinds of electronic spoofing, which they call "electronic attack."
To do this, scientists at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, are moving forward with a program called the Electronic Protection Initiatives, better known as EPI.
This program is to identify techniques and technology to counter existing and near-future electronic-attack threats. Air Force experts are specifically interested in protecting target detection, acquisition, discrimination, identification, automatic target recognition (ATR), geolocation, and tracking systems.
The electronic-protection equipment involved would be aboard aircraft or satellites, and could include unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and bistatic or other multiple platform configurations, Air Force officials say. Electronic protection also is known as electronic counter-counter-measures, or ECCM.
Exacerbating threats from electronic attack are constantly evolving enemy systems, including readily available and technologically advanced high-speed, low-cost digital electronic countermeasures and digital RF memories (DRFMs), Air force officials say.
Scientists from the Electronic Protection Initiatives program say they are particularly interested in techniques and technology such as space-time adaptive processing (STAP) and singular value decomposition (SVD). They are eying the use of electronically scanned array and conformal array antennas with multiple-phase centers that support multiple-channel adaptive signal processing.
Program officials say they are looking for electronic protection techniques that use digital exciters and receivers and micromechanical systems (MEMS), to support conventional radar systems operating at microwave and non-microwave frequencies.
Researchers seek to use new electronic protection capabilities from this program to improve radar performance operating hostile electronic countermeasures, as well as substantially improve the survivability of U.S. weapon and equipment.
Program leaders are looking for defense contractors for a five-year program to research advanced electronic protection techniques, develop preliminary designs and evaluations such as digital models, hardware-in-the-loop simulations, and conduct field and flight tests. Contractors chosen for the program also must generate electronic attack capability to represent the emerging threat.
Contractors will be asked to develop several different prototypes, integrate existing and emerging technologies, and involve their component developers in the development with en eye toward future technology insertion and mitigating obsolescence.
Contractors must have secret facility and storage clearances. No foreign participation will be allowed.
Three delivery orders are part of this program:
-- advanced electronic attack/electronic protection flight test definition;
-- high altitude platform electronic protection development; and
-- advanced electronic protection technique development.
The advanced electronic attack/electronic protection flight test definition is to define a database of advanced electronic attack against current and future intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems.
The high altitude platform electronic protection development segment is to define a database of advanced electronic attack against current and future high-altitude aircraft, satellites, or UAVs.
The advanced electronic protection technique development is to develop advanced electronic-protection techniques for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems.
Air Force officials say they may award several different contracts for this program at a total value of about $24 million. Proposals are due by May 28, 2002, and contracts may be awarded in September.
For more technical information, contact Eugene Sikora by e-mail at Eugene.sikora@wpafb.af.mil, or by post at AFRL/SNRW, 2241 Avionics Circle, Bldg. 620, 2241 Avionics Circle, room N3-F10, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433-7333.
For more contracting information contact Sharma Wilkins by phone at 937-255-4279, or by e-mail at sharma.wilkins@wpafb.af.mil. Also contact Noreen Bennett by phone at 937-255-6351, or by e-mail, Noreen.Bennett@wpafb.af.mil. Send questions by post to Wilkins or Bennett to Bldg. 167, 2310 8th St., Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433-7801.
Military & Aerospace Electronics
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