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 A214-025 TPQ-53 Managed Comms/ Radar Functionality OBJECTIVE: Develop and demonstrate a Comms capability and Multi-Function resource manager for the AN/TPQ-53 radar system. The AN/TPQ-53 radar system detects, classifies, tracks, and determines the location of enemy indirect fire in either 360- or 90-degree modes. DESCRIPTION: With the emergence of digital array technologies capable of supporting Multi-Function capabilities, the Army is interested in developing and integrating a Comms capability into the AN/TPQ-53 radar system, as well as a Multi-Function resource manager to efficiently manage the Comms and Radar functionality. The main purpose of this effort is to investigate, develop, and demonstrate concepts/algorithms to enable timely data sharing between multiple radar systems for improved Target Location Accuracies and Probability of Detection. Effective deployment of these advanced concepts/algorithms may serve to enhance the performance of current and future Army CTA radar systems, such as the AN/TPQ-53 for improved TLE and Pd, as well as enabling future ‘cooperative’ radar concepts. This Program of Record is funded annually for modernization efforts, commonly referred to as Modernization Development Efforts (MDE), which provide a conduit for the integration of improved hardware and emerging software algorithms. This includes initial design and development efforts, laboratory design, productization into the software baseline, and field-testing. PHASE I: Identify and develop an initial comms capability for the TPQ-53 DDREX radar and investigate candidate Machine Learning (ML) based techniques to manage Radar/Comms functionality with minimal impact to Radar performance. Specific considerations: Investigate comms mode implementation (including encryption); benefit of comms to the Counter-fire Target Acquisition (CTA) mission; conduct studies on size, power consumption, speed, and complexity of candidate comms modes and radar/comms management algorithms; and perform modeling & simulation on viability of candidate modes and algorithms. At end of phase I, prepare and present a study report to: (1) identify comms mode and radar/comms management algorithms, (2) present use cases for combined radar/comms capability for CTA mission, (3) identify size, power consumption, speed, and complexity of selected modes/algorithms, and (4) demonstration plan for Phase II. PHASE II: Develop and demonstrate a prototype comms mode and radar/comms management algorithms utilizing surrogate radar systems. PHASE III: Productization of improvements into the software baseline: provide analysis, design updates, implementation support, and systems engineering testing for proposed algorithmic updates developed under Phase I and demonstrated in Phase II. Additionally, update the software and firmware to accommodate the final design and provide the following: software source code and executable files, system/subsystem specification updates, and performance specification document updates. Lastly, prepare lab tests, engineering test plans, and procedures to demonstrate the performance of the algorithms during a test event. KEYWORDS: CTA Radar Systems; Multi-Function; Cooperative Radar REFERENCES: E. William, J. Vesecky, and K. Pister. Agile Multi-Function Arrays. Defense Technical Information Center, 2007. Stutzman, Warren L., and Thiele, Gary A. Antenna Theory and Design 3rd edition. John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Skolnik, Merrill. Radar Handbook 3rd Edition. McGraw Hill, 2008