The Department of Defense has expressed interest in "emerging and game changing" intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms and associated sensor technologies.
In a notice issued for an industry collaboration day from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, DoD said it is interested in these solutions for Group 4 and above — meaning larger aerial platforms — to improve Special Operations support.
The meeting is aimed at informing and influencing industry's "internal investment decisions" in areas that might address sensitive and urgent needs of the department.
The notice provided a list of interests and needs in this space, which include:
Sensor Enhancements
- Multimodal sensor resolution improvements
- Through the weather
- All terrain/topology to include foliage penetration and cccluded geometries
- Multipoint command and control
- Gimbal improvement to include behavior at nadir
- Gimbal and sensor components modularity
Data
- Bandwidth management
> Data transmission (long haul and multiple terrains)
> Image resolution/processing
- Multipoint data distribution
- Onboard processing
- Lossless compression algorithms
- On-demand data retrieval
The department's "highest priority with regard to this Special Notice is in identifying near (1-2 years) and mid (3-5 years) term solutions relative to the Group 4 and above ISR platforms," documents associated with the notice said. "Second in importance are ideas for new platforms, technologies, sensors and concepts in the out years (6 years +). Finally, DOD remains interested in new technologies and capabilities associated with Group 3 and below ISR platforms — near, mid and far term."
Mark Pomerleau is a reporter for C4ISRNET, covering information warfare and cyberspace.
