Nuclear event detection sensing will be focus of USAF industry event in Florida on Feb. 13
By Loren Blinde
January 30, 2014
The U.S. Air Force is planning to hold a classified Industry Day event at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida on February 13, so it can describe for prospective contractors the operations support and studies that it will require at the Air Force Technical Applications Center, which maintains a global network of nuclear event detection sensors.
The Technical Applications Center is the only Defense Department agency that operates and maintains this global network of sensors, which is officially called the U.S. Atomic Energy Detection System, or USAEDS.
“Once USAEDS detects an event underground, underwater, in the atmosphere, or in space, AFTAC analysts review the event for nuclear identification and report their findings to national decision-makers through Headquarters Air Force,” explains a notice published on January 29 by the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency (AF ISR).
The vendor chosen by the Air Force to support the Technical Applications Center will be expected to sustain software and hardware architectures; perform integration of third party efforts from the Department of Energy and other Air Force labs; provide 24/7 on-call support to ensure 99 percent operational availability; conduct engineering and scientific studies; and ensure that all applicable upgrades to relevant systems are made at Patrick, Goodfellow and Lackland Air Force Bases.
A maximum of three people per company will be allowed to attend the Industry Day event on February 13, on a first-come, first-served basis, says the notice. Interested parties should email their requests to Holly Sopiak at holly.sopiak@us.af.mil and Patricia Bosinger at patricia.bosinger@us.af.mil by February 7.
“The primary purpose of this program overview is to elaborate on the technical requirements of the US NDC OSS [U.S. National Data Center operations support & studies] effort and provide partnering opportunities between large and small businesses,” says the AFISR notice. “Classification of this event will be at the SECRET level.”
