99 -- AUTOMATIC TARGET RECOGNITION FOR COUNTER BATTERY ATTACK MISSILE

Notice Date

April 16, 2001

Contracting Office

Commander, Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division, Code 210000D, 1 Administration Circle, China Lake, CA 93555-6100

ZIP Code

93555-6100

Solicitation Number

N68936-01-R-0073

Response Due

July 30, 2001

Point of Contact

Jerry Manley, Contract Specialist, 760-939-4273, Doreen Robbins, Contracting Officer, 760-939-9665

Description

The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division is seeking sources capable of providing information on advanced technologies in Automatic Target Recognition as it applies to the Counter Battery Attack Missile (CBAM) project. Of particular interest are algorithmic approaches, which may be well suited to the notional concept of operations for CBAM. The information that is collected will be used to aid the development of subsystem requirements. CBAM is a S&T demonstration program funded under the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Time Critical Strike (TCS) Future Naval Capabilities (FNC) project. The objective of CBAM is to demonstrate the capability to counter-attack a Transporter Erector Launcher. The CBAM project starts in the fiscal year 2002 and completes in fiscal year 2006. A notional concept of operation for a CBAM is as follows: A TBM launch is detected using either an E2-C or AEGIS radar system. Those systems perform a track-back function and locate the launch point within a given accuracy. That launch point is used as a targeting resource to a CBAM missile located aboard a ship. In response to the TBM launch, a CBAM missile is launched at the TEL located in the vicinity of the TBM launch point. CBAM flies out to that calculated launch point and begins imaging the area using a seeker. An ATR function is performed on the imagery produced by CBAM and the TEL is thus located. Once the TEL is located, the CBAM missile will engage the TEL destroying it. The following are important notes regarding the CBAM concept of operations: Due to the very short dwell time of the TEL post launch, the CBAM fly-out must be very fast. It is envisioned that the weapon will fly supersonic to the launch point and then slow to just over mach 1 for the end game. This will limit the amount of time the ATR system has to search the target area, locate potential targets, and select the TEL. Interaction with a UAV during the CBAM missile fly-out may reduce the search area by mid-course target updates. Nevertheless, the search area could be quite large. Weapon fly-out profiles have yet to be determined. However, weapon profiles will likely be at a steep dive during the terminal phase of flight. No sensor technology is to be assumed. In other words, provided ATR solutions must also indicate the sensor technology requirements. ATR solutions must be robust given that there will likely be vehicles with similar characteristics in the area. Examples are oil trucks, tractor-trailer rigs, school buses and decoys. The target can be at any aspect angle and may or may not be moving. The search area can be constrained given local terrain features and vehicle characteristics. Mid-course UAV updates may provide more than just target coordinates and may also provide imagery of the target. Output from the ATR system will be used as input to the missile Guidance and Control to help guide the missile to the target. Information of interest includes the following: a) contact; b) company; c) brief technical description of the approach; d) brief description; e) brief description of how the approach has been applied to other applications; f) brief description of how the approach has been tested; g) brief description of the approach performance. Item c through g must not exceed 15 pages in total length. The above information will be used to assess the following: a) applicability to CBAM; b) maturity of the approach; c) external information required for the algorithm and format; d) amount of required user interaction, if any; and e) approach performance assessment. The information collected will be used to support the planning process for identifying ATR technologies that meet the requirements for the potential CBAM Follow-on program. Interested parties shall provide their information to Commander (Code 210000D), NAWCWD (Attn.: Jerry Manley), 1 Administration Circle, China Lake, CA 93555-6100 no later than COB 30 July 2001. Contractors should appropriately mark any data that are proprietary or that has [have] restricted data rights. Additional technical information may be obtained through the point of contact at NAWCWD, Valerie Rogers, and (760) 939-3515. This sources sought is not a formal request for proposals and in no way obligates the Government in an award of any contract.

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010418/99SOL008.HTM (W-106 SN50J349)