Navy researchers look for company to upgrade software-defined radar for wide-area search

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. – U.S. Navy researchers are asking for industry's help to upgrade an advanced software-defined radar system designed for wide-area search and obscured target detection.

Officials of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) at Stennis Space Center, Miss., issued a sources-sought notice this week (NRL-18-WR03) for the Synthetic Aperture Radar Development - Resources project enhance the capabilities of the Northrop Grumman multi-band synthetic-aperture radar (MB-SAR).

Northrop Grumman Corp. developed the MB-SAR and delivered it the to the NRL in 2010. The Navy has used the system for a variety of advanced-detection projects such as Arctic sea ice mapping, counter-IED operations, downed World War II aircraft location in the Pacific and in Greenland, and special target imaging.

In 2010 NRL scientists completed the three-month Project Perseus quick-reaction capability deployment of the MB-SAR to help combat troops withdraw safely from Iraq by using the MB-SAR for wide-area counter-improvised explosive device (IED) operations.

In that mission NRL scientists and Northrop Grumman engineers worked together to install the MP-SAR aboard a Navy NP-3D four-engine turboprop research aircraft to detect potential IEDs and other threats over swaths nearly eight miles wide.

Related: L-3 to develop imaging radar prototype to give AC-130 gunship more punch in bad weather

In addition to wide-area IED detection, the MB-SAR also can perform foliage and building penetration, change detection, and wide area surveillance.

Now NRL researchers want to develop new capabilities in the MB-SAR's radar and optical data acquisition, processing, and analysis, and integrate these technologies aboard Navy aircraft for use in the field.

On NRL's agenda is developing and improving SAR data acquisition, signal-processing and -exploitation algorithms, data screening and compression techniques, and ways to disseminate this information to military users.

This requires developing hardware, software, and algorithms to exploit active and passive signals to detect, track, image, and identify targets within permissive and contested areas using either a single or distributed RF architecture, NRL officials say.

The MB-SAR system has particular benefits to the military. Legacy radar systems typically have been designed with specific applications in mind which limited the information from the sensor data.

Related: The challenge of controlling proliferating unmanned aircraft

The software-defined MB-SAR, however, offers more flexible RF sensing and multiple exploitation layers over a wide area from one sensor stream. In contested environments, moreover, the system may present opportunities to exploit passive sensing using signals of opportunity.

This upgrade project will involve improving the MB-SAR radar antenna subsystem to extend its range and cover additional portions of the frequency spectrum. NRL researchers also want to reduce the MB-SAR's size, weight and power (SWAP) requirements for use in unpressurized aircraft compartments or pods.

NRL also wants to develop and test new detection algorithms for single-look, coherent, and non-coherent change detection. Researchers also are interested in geolocation, and in tracking moving targets such as move-stop-move, low-velocity movers, and low-radar-cross-section objects.

NRL also is interested in new algorithms for advanced SAR imaging for targeting, classification, interferometric SAR, video SAR, ultra-fine resolution imagery, and 3D volumetric imagery -- particularly in congested and contested environments.

Related: DARPA to brief industry on through-clouds radar with imaging capability to match infrared

Also of interest is new software for compression, data integration, and visualization to preserve SAR change detection and target identification quality. NRL also wants deep-learning and neural network capability for the MB-SAR to automate different system functions.

NRL officials plan a five-year project to upgrade MB-SAR capabilities. Companies interested should email responses no later than 12 Jan. 2018 to the Navy's Ryan Wheelock at [email protected].

For questions or concerns contact Ryan Wheelock by email at [email protected], or by phone at 228-688-5434.

More information is online at http://www.fbodaily.com/archive/2018/01-January/04-Jan-2018/FBO-04778806.htm.

Ready to make a purchase? Search the Military & Aerospace Electronics Buyer's Guide for companies, new products, press releases, and videos