DARPA to brief industry on Cancun program to study ionosphere and boost situational awareness of HF radio
ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. military researchers will brief industry next month on an upcoming project to measure high frequency (HF) radio waves to improve warfighter radio spectrum situational awareness.
Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., will detail the Cancun program for industry from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. eastern time on 5 Jan. 2023 at the DARPA Conference Center, 675 N. Randolph St., in Arlington Va.
The Cancun program seeks to create distributable nodes to measure HF radio waves for improved warfighter situational awareness. The low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) of these nodes will enable cost-effective wide-area deployments.
The Cancun nodes will measure the state of the ionosphere using a sounding function, as well as record and relay portions of the HF radio band for analysis.
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The primary challenge in Cancun is coordinating many Cancun units deployed over distances farther than 620 miles. Cancun will provide a command and control (C2) network and planning tools to address this challenge.
The C2 hardware solution may involve existing wired or wireless infrastructure. Communications latency will be an important parameter for this network. The mission planning tool will be developed with warfighter input to optimize functionality.
Technologies developed under the Cancun program will move over to the U.S. military services.
Industry briefings on the Cancun program will promote teaming arrangements among researchers, provide information on whether and how to respond to the government’s research solicitations, and increase efficiency in proposal preparation.
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Companies interested in attending should register for the Cancun industry briefings by email at [email protected] no later than 30 Dec. 2022. Registration is free.
Briefings will be at the secret classification level, and are open only to U.S. citizens with a secret government security clearance or higher. Email questions or concerns to [email protected].
More information is online at https://sam.gov/opp/b0739de800344f9492dda7621b0cdc19/view.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
