The Department of Defense (DOD) is seeking proposals for the topic of "Coordinated Effectiveness Assessment" as part of their SBIR 24.1 BAA. The Navy branch is specifically interested in developing an automated Tactical Effectiveness Service for Electromagnetic Effectors (TES-EE) within the decision support services of the Integrated Combat System. The objective is to provide consistent and accurate real-time effectiveness assessment of coordinated engagements among hardkill and softkill effectors across the force.
Typical engagements conducted by Naval platforms involve either hardkill effectors (such as missiles or naval guns) or softkill effectors (such as lasers or electronic attack mechanisms). The effects of kinetic engagements are easily observable, while the effects of electromagnetic engagements may not be directly observable by naval sensor suites. The challenge is to determine the effectiveness of electromagnetic weapons in real-time and to assess their impact on engagements. Currently, there is no commercial means to make this assessment.
The Navy needs a means to assess the real-time effectiveness of electromagnetic weapons against threats and make decisions about additional engagement resources. The solution should leverage all available sensor and data feeds on a surface ship to assess the effectiveness of electromagnetic effectors and communicate that information to the Integrated Combat System. The solution should also provide a description of mechanisms for assessing the real-time performance of electromagnetic effectors against nominal threats and a system modeling language model to represent the TES-EE concept.
The prototype TES-EE should demonstrate software algorithms, present real-time effectiveness data to the warfighter, provide data demonstrating kinetic weapon expenditure reduction through effective electromagnetic weapon employment, and describe its extensibility to supporting force-level engagements. The work under this effort may be classified under Phase II.
In Phase III, the selected contractor will support the Navy in transitioning the technology to Navy use. The final product will be a set of containerized applications that make up the TES-EE, along with the necessary product-level objective quality evidence to support authorization for demonstrations and certification as part of the Integrated Combat System.
The TES-EE will provide a critical Decision Support Service as part of the Integrated Combat System architecture, paving the way for integrated kinetic/electromagnetic coordination. There are also potential commercial applications in the communications sector and site security assessments.
The Phase I deadline for proposals is February 21, 2024. More information can be found on the grants.gov website or the DOD SBIR/STTR Opportunities page.