Air Force posts sources sought for airborne ISR datalinks

On August 17, the U.S. Air Force posted a sources sought notice for Data Links for Airborne ISR capabilities. AFCLMC/WINI invites industry to submit unclassified white papers, limited to twenty (20) pages on their products at any time on or before 5:00pm EST on August 31.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Sensors Foreign Military Sales (AFLCMC/WINI) is conducting market research to identify data links for integration into airborne ISR capabilities. This system shall be presented as International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) compliant. All components are to have existing evidence of approved US Department of State DSP-5 documentation for release-ability into the theaters of operation. If available, please provide a list of countries with releasability for the data link system. Please specify whether or not the system is commercially available on the open market, if applicable.

The datalink proposed will be integrated into an ISR system comprised of an air and ground segment with standard commercial interfaces (Ethernet preferred). Intent of throughput is to transfer MPEG and JPEG imagery from airborne sensors to dedicated ground station. The ground segments consist of handheld tactical receivers and fixed ground operator console. The data link provides Line-of-Sight (LOS) connectivity between the aircraft and tactical receivers, or between the aircraft and ground operator consol. The proposed solution would identify an airborne datalink hardware and associated antennae, appropriate tactical receiver hardware, and complementary ground station datalink hardware and antenna.
The proposed datalink system will have communications capabilities sufficient for use in LOS tactical imagery operations. It will have the capability to operate in area of high moisture, humidity, and vegetation with 95% reliability under clear LoS operations. The proposed datalink solution should be compatible with standard commercial interfaces for throughput (Ethernet preferred).
The proposed datalink will consist of interface between the aircraft and ground operator console (directional LOS), or to handheld receivers (omni-directional LOS). Airborne to ground console transmission range will be no less than 80 NM slant range and 8 NM slant range to tactical receivers at a nominal 10 Mbps data rate. The ground station equipment (antenna and RFE) will be capable of being disassembled, transported by ground vehicle, and reassembled. Disassembly or setup should take two people no more than 30 minutes (60 minutes total time).
The proposed datalink solution will be incorporated as part of an integrated ISR capability. A single data link system consists of: one (1) externally mounted omni-directional antenna, one (1) externally mounted directional antenna, one (1) airborne datalink hardware set, one (1) ground datalink hardware set, one (1) ground directional antenna, and two (2) hand held tactical receivers. The airborne hardware components must be certified for flight use / operations.

Full information is available here.

Source: FedBizOpps