The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Advanced Technology Office, and Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) Sensors Directorate will be hosting an Industry Day for the Synthetic Aperture Lidar for Tactical Imaging (SALTI) program. An industry day classified briefing of the SALTI program for interested representatives of Government and industry will be held on Tuesday, 4 June 2002. The briefing will be held from 9 AM to 1 PM at The Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory, Warfare Analysis Laboratory (Bldg 26), 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD. 20723-6099. A Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) solicitation will be released shortly after the Industry Day. Information contained in the BAA announcement takes precedence over any information obtained from the Industry Day or any other sources. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Advanced Technology Office (ATO) and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is intending to further pursue enabling detector and laser Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technologies via the Synthetic Aperture Lidar for Tactical Imaging (SALTI) Program. This industry day is intended to provide potential sources with advanced information that may be useful in preparing proposals when the BAA solicitation is issued for this program. The objective of the DARPA/AFRL SALTI program is to conduct a proof-of-concept airborne demonstration of a sensor and associated ground data processing which generates high-resolution 2D and 3D imagery combining the interpretability of electro-optics, the long-range day/night access of high-altitude X-band synthetic aperture radar, and the exploitability of 3-dimensional lidar. The proposed sensor system is anticipated to have a multi-channel multicolor coherent laser transceiver capable of day/night operation and operation in partially degraded weather, which would collect coherent optical phase history data and range-Doppler data. This data would be processed into synthetic aperture optical imagery. The proposed sensor system also would have an alternate operating mode, in which it generates optical range-Doppler imagery and accomplishes ground moving target identification (GMTI) by active optical means with excellent geolocation accuracy. The primary technical accomplishments necessary for a successful end product include, but are not limited to: 1) Developing coherent laser sources with the appropriate power and waveform to collect high resolution imagery at long slant range, 2) Developing broadband heterodyne optical receivers capable of collecting high resolution imagery over a wide-field-of-view, 3) Developing optical synthetic aperture image formation signal processing capabilities, including motion compensation techniques, 4) Exploiting broad laser bandwidth and diverse waveforms to recover accurate 3D imagery from interferometric synthetic optical aperture data with tactically significant unambiguous height measurement, and 5) Developing and executing an integrated airborne demonstration to produce high quality 2-D and 3-D imagery and GMTI from data collected at long range on a high-altitude airborne platform. A significant system engineering challenge exists to implement this capability. It is anticipated that SALTI will require significant innovation in sensor system architectures and concepts of operation, laser and coherent receiver architectures and subsystems, and signal processing algorithms. It is anticipated that the DARPA/AFRL procurement of the SALTI system will occur in two phases over a 51-month period. In Phase 1, system trade studies, subsystem technology development, laboratory and field experiments and data analysis will be used to (a) refine the SALTI system concept, (b) develop the preliminary design for the integrated airborne demonstration in Phase 2, and (c) demonstrate readiness of the underlying technology for the integrated demonstration. In Phase 2, an end-to-end synthetic aperture lidar demonstration systemwill be critically designed, built, integrated, flight qualified and tested, operated and demonstrated on a high-altitude airborne platform. The Phase 2 demonstration system will integrate significant pieces of hardware and software developed and tested in Phase 1, as well as additional critical subsystems manufactured in Phase 2. Due to the diverse nature of the technologies and activities involved in SALTI, the government strongly encourages the use of contractor teams to integrate best-in-class capabilities into an end-to-end SALTI system solution. Organizations wishing to send representatives should register via the SALTI Industry Day Registration web site (preferred) http://schafercorp-ballston.com/salti, via e-mail, by fax or in writing. The registration web site contains the Industry Day agenda and visit request information. The registration point of contact is Attn: Ms. India Woods, Schafer Corporation, 3811 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22203 (Phone:
+1 (555) 000-0000, Fax:
+1 (555) 000-0000, E-Mail:
contact@example.gov). Registration is limited to persons with U.S. security clearances. Registration requests should be received not later than 31 May 2002. Registration will be confirmed by 3 June 2002. The number of representatives from each organization may be limited based on the response to this announcement. Visit Requests should be forwarded to The Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD. 20723-6099,
+1 (555) 000-0000 (fax),
+1 (555) 000-0000 (verify). For directions to JHU/APL go to: http://www.jhuapl.edu/newsEvents/visitor/direcMap.htm. Other Technical POCs: Paul McManamon, Email
contact@example.gov, and Matthew Dierking Email
contact@example.gov, Air Force Research Laboratory. Points of contact for contractual type questions may be addressed to Sharma Wilkins via email at
contact@example.gov, telephone
+1 (555) 000-0000. This Industry Day is for informational purposes only for any and all DOD contractors and colleges and universities. Currently we do not anticipate allowing for foreign participation at the prime contractor level in any contracts resulting from this program. Participation is totally voluntary, and the Government will not reimburse the attendees for any cost associated with participation and is under no obligation to award any related contract associated with this event.
