AFRL posts BAA for SIGINT collection, processing, and exploitation

The Air Force Research Laboratory posted the following broad agency announcement for SIGINT Collection, Processing and Exploitation (BAA #11-04-RIKA). For consideration in FY16, white papers are due by February 14, 2016.

The objective of an effort under this Master BAA is the development of real-time processing technology to improve the extraction, identification, analysis and reporting of tactical information. The processed information will support the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission, protect blue coalition forces with command, control, computer and intelligence applications, and support battlespace awareness for the warfighter.

In the area of ISR information extraction for Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) issues, new and innovative methods and processing techniques will provide decision-makers with ISR information in as near real-time as possible. SIGINT technologies process information on various communications mediums, operate in environments in low signal-to-noise ratio areas and conduct operations against uncooperative targets where the noise types and channel conditions are frequently varying from message to message. As time is critical and ISR mission analysts’ workload is high, the automation of the SIGINT collection, processing and exploitation capabilities in both tasking and training is a major goal.

The SIGINT research and development is grouped into three broad technology areas: Information Extraction, Signal Processing and Automation Enhancements. The first, Information Extraction, extracts information from the broadband signal to identify and catalog Signals of Interest (SOI). The second area, Signal Processing, processes the signal to improve signal processor performance for the above information extraction capabilities. This represents research in removing noise and interference in a channel or in multiple channels from signals. The third broad area, Automation Enhancements, uses signal processing techniques to automate the manual techniques that are current practice. This automation may be used to manipulate the SOI for storage and transmission or to synthesize the signal for a variety of purposes.

Full details are available here.

Source: FedBizOpps