US Army Research Laboratory, AMSRL-OP-PR, 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, MD 20783-1197

A -- EVALUATION OF AUTOMATIC TARGET CUEING AND RECOGNITION ALGORITHMS FOR SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR IMAGERY POC Contact Mary Ellen Caldwell, 301/394-3880. The purpose of this program is to solicit the submission of applicable SAR ATC/R algorithms for evaluation by the Government. The Product Manager for Tactical Synthetic Aperature Radar (PM-TESAR) is a US Army product office under the Program Executive Office for Intelligence and Electronic Warfare (PEO-IEW) and the Project Manager for Night Vision, Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition (PM NV/RSTA). PM-TESAR is responsible to the Joint Project Office for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (JPO-UAV) for the delivery of the synthetic aperature radar (SAR) payload for use on the Predator UAV as a part of the Medium Altitude Endurance UAV (MAE-UAV) Advanced Concept and Technology Demonstration (ACTD). PM TESAR is planning to issue a solicitation in FY97 for the procurement of at least one scalable Automatic Target Cueing (ATC) system (both algorithms and hardware) to demonstrate real time ATC capabilities for SAR in multiple platforms. Furthermore, the JPO-UAV has assigned to PM-TESAR the responsibility for evaluating all Automatic Target Cueing and Recognition (ATC/R) systems, both algorithms and hardware, which have potential application to the Predator UAV. In order to better understand what is achievable by FY97 and to fulfill the JPO-UAV needs, PM TESAR is interested in determining the state of the art in real time SAR ATC/R capabilities. PM-TESAR has assigned to the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and the US Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) the responsibility for the execution of the evaluation of available ATC/R algorithms which have applicability to the SAR imagery produced by the Predator SAR payload. The SAR payload on the Predator UAV produces magnitude only SAR imagery in a continuous strip map of one (1) foot resolution in both range and cross range at a maximum data rate of approximately 0.5x10 (to the 6th power) pixels per second. This imagery is transmitted continuously from the UAV to a ground station over a commercial satellite data link channel. In the ground station, image analysis will exploit and annotate the SAR imagery and disseminate it to users world wide. Conducting real time analysis of this high volume data stream in wide area surveillance operations is anticipated to be a demanding requirement for human operators. Algorithms are sought which can act as image analysis aids by providing automatic target cueing and/or target identification information to a ground based analyst. Objects of interest to the ATC/R system include both ground order of battle (GOB) and missile order of battle (MOB) targets deployed in tactically realistic environments. It is desired that these ATC/R algorithms be capable of operating in real time on scaleable, open architecture processing systems consisting of commercially available off the shelf (COTS) computing elements. Although data supplied and results generated under this study will be unclassified, technologies are involved which are subject to the International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Therefore, data and results will only be distributed to US owned companies and controls will be required which assure no access by foreign nationals. Respondents to this announcement will be provided with a specification describing the parameters of the Predator SAR, the desired performance characteristics of the solicited ATC/R algorithms and details of the proposed evaluation plan. Information concerning how the Government intends to handle this evaluation will be available on or about 15 Apr 1996 ONLY via the Internet on ARL WWW Server at http://w3.arl.mil/sar/. Interested respondents may also locate this information via ARL Homepage at http://www.arl.mil.homepage. Notices of changes to this announcement will also be released via the Internet if and when they occur. In addition to information requested on the Internet, interested firms must submit two copies of the information requested in Note 25. Since no other information is available for release regarding this action at this time, telephone requests will not be honored. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only, does not constitute a solicitation for bids or proposals, and is not to be construed at a commitment by the Government. The Government will not pay for any effort expended in responding to this synopsis. See Numbered Note(s): 25. (0107)

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