Army reaches out to industry for transponder technology to separate friend from foe
ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md., 6 May 2013. U.S. Army researchers are asking for industry's help in finding new kinds of small transponder and interrogator technologies for infantry soldiers to help separate friend from foe on the battlefield.
Officials of the Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., have issued a request for information (RFI W15P7T-13-R-A926) for the Advanced Combat Identification Technologies or Systems program, which seeks technologies to provide the Army with advanced combat identification technologies or systems to identify friend or foe.
These soldier-systems technologies are to identify and pinpoint individual and groups of friendly soldiers and vehicles from the air or on the ground using transponder and interrogator kinds of technologies, Army researchers say. The request for information is on behalf of the Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate (CERDEC I2WD).
These technologies must be secure if stolen or captured, and resist jamming and spoofing. The interrogator could be new, stand-alone equipment, a hardware modification to an existing system, or a software or processor modification of an existing system.
The transponder could be a new or modified active or passive device, an alteration of some portion of the soldier's uniform or equipment, a synthetic signature that could be created chemically, or similar approaches.
Army researchers would like to keep size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) to a minimum, while making the most of reliability and system lifetime. Information gathered from this solicitation will help researchers develop future combat identification requirement for new programs.
Companies or government agencies interested should email 10-page white papers no later than 24 June 2013 to [email protected].
For questions or concerns contact the Army's Dana Nunley by phone at 443-861-4683. More information is online at https://www.fbo.gov/notices/01521509083d6c9def77940d69d69cad.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
