COASTSYSTA Dahlgren Division, NSWC, 6703 West Highway 98, Panama City, FL 32407-7001

A -- RESEARCH INTO IMPACT OF LOSSY IMAGE COMPRESSION ON AUTOMATIC TARGET RECOGNITION SOL N61331-97-R-0017 DUE 013097 POC Shirley Griner, Contract Specialist, (904)235-5354 Carol A. Dreger, Contracting Officer, (904)234-4863. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, Coastal Systems Station, Panama City, Florida, intends to award a sole-source contract to Lockheed Martin Defense Systems -- Arizona for basic research for the development of unique mathematical and statistical algorithms for compressing sonar data and detecting and classifying mines in sonar imagery that has undergone lossy data compression. This effort includes development of algorithms that compress sonar data to meet in-situ requirements for data storage and data transmission rates wile preserving critical data characteristic needed for mine detection and classification. This effort will include options to further improve algorithm performance and testing against Government furnished sonar data that will be provided in 1998 and 1999. This effort will support the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Amphibious Operations Area (AOA) Mine Reconnaissance/Hunter program requirements, and, potentially, Dual Use Initiatives by the COASTSYSTA. Lockheed Martin-Arizona is uniquely qualified for this effort because they have developed a unique image compression technique and automatic target recognition algorithms designed to greatly reduce data handling requirements and still permit reliable mine classification in highly cluttered sonar imagery. Their algorithms have performed in an exemplay manner on limited government furnished sonar data. Lockheed Martin-Arizona has the unique knowledge base, the facilities, and the experienced personnel necessary to successfully conduct the work. The key personnel have invested over four years in gaining the unique knowledge, insight, and skills necessary. Additionally, the algorithms developed by Lockheed Martin represent many work-years under other Lockheed Martin/DOD contracts and Lockheed Martin's own independent research and development (IRAD). The algorithms are very sophisticated and require specialized knowledge to use properly thus they cannot be easily or cost-effectively duplicated by another vendor. Note 22 applies. (0354)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0001 19961223\A-0001.SOL)