Navy eyes cooperative shipboard radar systems to counter heavy missile and ballistic missile attacks

DAHLGREN, Va., 1 July 2011. U.S. Navy researchers are asking industry for ideas on ways to manage Navy radar systems aboard many different surface warships collaboratively to create new kind of integrated air and missile defense technology that can defend against a broad variety of missile attacks -- including mixed raids that involve a combination of high-performance air-breathing missiles and ballistic missiles.The Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren Division in Dahlgren, Va., issued a broad agency announcement (N0017811Q2903) Thursday for the Radar Resource Management for Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) capability (ResMan) program to develop the ability to allocate radar tasks dynamically among surface warships to counter a mixed raid of airborne and ballistic missiles.The NSWC Dahlgren is issuing the cooperative radar solicitation for shipboard radar on behalf of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Missile Defense Future Naval Capabilities (FNC) in Arlington, Va.

Companies interested in participating in the Navy ResMan program should address how to manage radar tasking such that several warships, each with several different radar sensors, can search, detect, track, identify, and attack incoming enemy missiles cooperatively in heavy missile attacks.

The initial effort seeks white papers that discuss how to develop advanced algorithms for collaborative management of radar resources. Navy officials will evaluate the white papers and invite only the organizations submitting approved white papers to submit formal proposals. Ultimately, Navy officials say they anticipate making several research contract awards.

NSWC Dahlgren researchers will conduct industry day briefings to industry beginning at 9 a.m. on 20 July 2011 at the Fredericksburg Hospitality House & Conference Center at 2801 Plank Road, in Fredericksburg, Va. Those interested in attending the industry day unclassified briefings should send an e-mail to the Navy's James Platner at [email protected] no later than 15 July -- just two weeks away.

The ResMan cooperative radar architecture must be able to respond to dynamically changing threats, to addition or loss of sensors, limitations on communications, and other adverse conditions, Navy researchers say. ResMan will be applicable to current and future naval radar systems and near-term expected communications capability.

Navy researchers say the most difficult challenges should include variations in sensor locations, capabilities, and constraints; balancing computational complexity and loading with real-time requirements; coordinated raids combining ballistic and airborne threats; and communication constraints and the need to degrade gracefully in the face of decreasing communication availability.

The ResMan program should be a five-year effort in three phases. The first phase involves concept and mathematical development, algorithm coding, and analysis to demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach.

The second phase will further develop and refine proposed solutions, and incorporate them into a high fidelity end-to-end simulation. The third phase will be a real-time, hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) demonstration of the algorithm.

E-mail initial white papers to the Navy's James Platner at [email protected]. For questions or concerns contact the Navy's James Platner by phone at 540-653-2974, by fax at 540-653-4089, by post at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, 17362 Dahlgren Road Suite 157, Dahlgren, VA 22448-5110, or by e-mail at [email protected].

More information is online at https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DON/NAVSEA/N00178/N0017811Q2903/listing.html.