Multi-spectrum Combat Identification Target Silhouette (MCITS)

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM SBIR 21.4 Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Army Applied SBIR Opportunity (ASO) Announcement April 1, 2021: ASO issued for pre-release April 14, 2021: Army begins accepting proposals May 20, 2021: Deadline for receipt of proposals no later than 12:00 p.m. ET IMPORTANT Deadline for Receipt : Proposals must be completely submitted no later than 12:00 p.m. ET, May 20, 2021. Proposals submitted after 12:00 p.m. will not be evaluated. The final proposal submission includes successful completion of all firm level forms, all required volumes, and electronic corporate official certification. Classified proposals will not be accepted under the DoD SBIR Program. This BAA and the Defense SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP) sites are designed to reduce the time and cost required to prepare a formal proposal. The DSIP is the official portal for DoD SBIR/STTR proposal submission. Proposers are required to submit proposals via DSIP; proposals submitted by any other means will be disregarded. Proposers submitting through this site for the first time will be asked to register. Effective with this announcement, firms are required to register for a login.gov account and link it to their DSIP account. See section 4.14 for more information regarding registration. The Small Business Administration, through its SBIR/STTR Policy Directive, purposely departs from normal Government solicitation formats and requirements and authorizes agencies to simplify the SBIR/STTR award process and minimize the regulatory burden on small business. Therefore, consistent with the SBA SBIR/STTR Policy Directive, the Department of Defense is soliciting proposals as a Broad Agency Announcement. SBIR/STTR Updates and Notices: To be notified of SBIR/STTR opportunities and to receive e-mail updates on the DoD SBIR and STTR Programs, you are invited to subscribe to our Listserv by emailing [email protected]. Help Desk: If you have questions about the Defense Department's SBIR or STTR Programs, please call the DoD SBIR/STTR Help Desk at 1-703-214-1333, or email to [email protected]. Topic Q&A : The Topic Q&A for this BAA opens on April 1, 2021 and closes to new questions on May 4, 2021 at 12:00 PM ET. Proposers may submit written questions through Topic Q&A at https://www.dodsbirsttr.mil/submissions/login or through the SBIR Mailbox at usarmy.pentagon.hqda-asa-alt.mbx.army-applied-sbir-program@mail.mil. In Topic Q&A, the questioner and respondent remain anonymous and all questions and answers are posted electronically for general viewing. Once the BAA closes to proposal submission, no communication of any kind with the topic author or through Topic Q&A regarding your submitted proposal is allowed. Questions should be limited to specific information related to improving the understanding of a particular topic’s requirements. Proposing firms may not ask for advice or guidance on solution approach and you may not submit additional material to the topic author. If information provided during an exchange with the topic author is deemed necessary for proposal preparation, that information will be made available to all parties through Topic Q&A. Proposing firms are advised to monitor Topic Q&A during the BAA period for questions and answers. Proposing firms should also frequently monitor DSIP for updates and amendments to the topics. This Army Applied SBIR Opportunity (ASO) is issued under the Army Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for SBIR/STTR 21.4. All proposals in response to the technical area(s) described herein will be submitted in accordance with the instructions provided under 21.4, found here: https://beta.sam.gov/opp/b79ded14dcf54451bcfb11bddf5cd259/view?keywords=%22army%20sbir%22&sort=-relevance&index=opp&is_active=true&page=1. a. Eligibility The eligibility requirements for the SBIR/STTR programs are unique and do not correspond to those of other small business programs. Please refer to Section 3.1, Eligible Applicants, of BAA 21.4 for full eligibility requirements. b. Anticipated Structure/Award Information Please refer to Section 1, Funding Opportunity Description, provided in BAA 21.4 for detailed information regarding SBIR/STTR phase structure and flexibility. For this BAA, Department of the Army will accept Phase I proposals for the cost of up to $259,613 for a 6-month period of performance. Proposers should refer to Section 4, Application and Submission information, of BAA 21.4 for detailed proposal preparation instructions. Proposals that do not comply with the requirements detailed in BAA 21.4 and the research objectives of this ASO are considered non-conforming and therefore are not evaluated nor considered for award. Phase I proposals shall not exceed 5 pages. Phase I commercialization strategy shall not exceed 2 pages. This should be the last section of the Technical Volume and will not count against the 5-page limit. Please refer to Appendix A of BAA 21.4 for detailed instructions on Phase I proposal preparation. c. Evaluation of Proposals Section 5, Evaluation of Proposals, in BAA 21.4 provides detailed information on proposal evaluation and the selection process for this ASO. d. Due Date/Time Full proposal packages (Proposal Cover Sheet, Technical Volume, Price/Cost Volume, and Company Commercialization Report inclusive of supporting documentation) must be submitted via the DoD SBIR/STTR Proposal Submission website per the instructions outlined in BAA 21.4 Section 4.3 Electronic Submission no later than 12:00 p.m. ET, May 20, 2021. Army SBIR 21.4 Topic Index A214-021 Multi-spectrum Combat Identification Target Silhouette (MCITS) OBJECTIVE: Design and develop a technology approach/solution to create and provide realistic multi-spectral (i.e. infrared (IR), radar, Identification of Friend/Foe (IFF), electro-magnetic (EM), etc.) and other visual Combat Identification signatures in support of the live fire training domain. The capability must support armor and aviation gunnery training doctrine. The capability must be modular, low cost to procure and maintain and most importantly, not damaged by live fire engagements against the silhouettes. DESCRIPTION: During combat vehicle and aviation live fire gunnery training events, there hasn’t been technology to provide accurate hostile/neutral/friendly multi-spectral representations to the training unit. Current training dogma does not allow the training unit to utilize all of the resources and capabilities of the combat systems to maximize training opportunities. This technology will: Align to the train as you fight philosophy Provide radar reflectivity signatures Provide electro-magnetic signatures/responses Provide real-time infrared/thermal signatures Incorporate Identification of Friend/Foe (IFF) responses to interrogations The technology will allow the target silhouettes to provide realistic representation of actual vehicles across multi-spectral tactical equipment. The target silhouette should ‘look’ like the real vehicle relative to radar reflectivity, infrared signatures, electro-magnetic signatures, and IFF responses. Since the training ranges, and target systems support many training events, the technology must allow for the programming of effects/responses. The same silhouette must be able to replicate a T-72, a battel tank, in one training event and a Stryker, a helicopter, in the next with nothing more than software parameter modifications. The dynamic configuration of the target silhouettes will enable active links between Live Fire Training and the Synthetic Training Environment (STE). This will allow STE enabled training systems to 'drive' the threat representations without need for live fire training range reconfiguration. The technology solution will be utilized worldwide within the open air live fire training environments throughout a year (exposed to rain, snow, solar effects, wind, dust, etc.). The technology solution will be permanently installed in a target emplacement. Currently, Armor Live Fire Target Silhouettes are utilized on approximately 200 ranges; with 30 systems each with the silhouettes replaced every 20 days (10 times a year). The technology and research elements should utilize a Modular Open System Approach (MOSA) toward fulfillment of the performance objectives; could be one box or many as long as interoperability is achieved. The S&T of the effort is the mechanism, processes, and approaches to achieve the effects. The solution(s) must support an eventual safety certification. Space limitations will apply, and will be driven to the space available within a live fire target emplacement (refer to TC 25-8 and CEHNC 1110-1-23). No hazardous materials will be used within the approach or solution. The design must support normal training operations of three to five days between maintenance actions (number of actuations will vary by training event and signature replication). PHASE I: Determine the feasibility and approach of developing a modular multi-spectrum Combat Identification Target Silhouette (MCITS) solution. The study shall explore and determine the solutions for creating the realistic signatures for the multi-spectrum elements. The study shall determine the design capacity based on the various training use cases, and develop the design approach to ensure training requirements can be supported. The study shall consider the environmental impacts and ballistic protection schemas as required. PHASE II: Continuation and realization of the research and development constructs investigated during Phase I. The Phase II efforts will focus on the lab development of proof of principle concepts supporting the generation of realistic multi-spectral signatures. The individual modular elements will be integrated together to ensure compatibility of the technologies into a singular prototype solution. Develop a prototype Modular Combat Identification Target Silhouette (MCITS) technology solution for integration with existing FASIT Stationary Armor Target (SAT) and Moving Armor Target (MAT) Presentation Devices (i.e., target lifters). At a minimum, the prototypes will consist of one each frontal and flank target silhouette. The prototype will demonstrate the technology’s ability to create accurate multi-spectral responses back to the training unit/vehicle/airframe in support of threat and combat identification based on scenario parameters. The prototype will demonstrate the technology’s ability to align with the Live Training Transformation (LT2) product line in terms of common command and control (via Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) interfaces/contracts). The prototype demonstration of the technology will be performed at an existing Army live fire training range prior to the completion of the Phase II activities. The expectation is to achieve a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 upon Phase II completion. PHASE III: Transition technology to the Army Program of Record (POR) called Future Army System of Integrated Targets (FASIT). The technology would be viable for both digital and non-digital ranges, and other live fire training ranges where accurate multi-spectral target representations are required to support combat identification. The developed technology would have applicability to both the force-on-force training domain, and live fire test and evaluation environments. To the maximum extent practicable, models should leverage Synthetic Training Environment (STE) representations, or be driven by them in a training event. Commercial applications include gaming and law enforcement applications. KEYWORDS: Multi-spectrum; Infrared signature; Radar signature; Electro-magnetic signature; Thermal signature; Target silhouette; Combat Identification REFERENCES: TC 3-04.3 Aviation Gunnery TC 3-20.31 Crew Training and Qualification Worden, Brian P.; “Increasing Realism in Virtual Marksmanship Simulators”; NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA DEPT OF INFORMATION SCIENCES Rick Evertsz, et al; "Enhanced Behavioral Realism for Live Fire Targets"; Proceedings of the 23rd Conference on Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation. P. Talbot, A. M. Konn and C. Brosseau, "Electromagnetic characterization of fine-scale particulate composite materials", Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, vol. 249, no. 3, pp. 481-485, Sep. 2002 W.J. Gajda, Jr., "A Foundamental Study of the Electromagnetic Propertieis of Advanced Composite Materials", RADC-TR-78-158, July, 1978, A059029 J.L. Allen et al, "Electronmagnetic Properties and Effects of Advanced Composite Materials: Measurement and Modeling, RADC-TR-78-156, June, 1978, A058.