On 24 August 2022, in accordance with 10 U.S. Code - 4022, the Army Contracting Command - Orlando has awarded an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) via the Training and Readiness Accelerator (TReX) for the Electronic Warfare Test (EWT) Topic: Advanced T2OURNAMINT Technology Development (AT3D) prototype project. A Request for White Paper for these efforts was issued through TReX on 17 February 2022, which resulted in the submittal of 3 total responses. As a result of the competition, the prototype project was awarded to National Security Technology Accelerator Strategic and Spectrum Mission Advanced Managing as the managing prime to Vadum, Inc. located in Raleigh, C.C. The total value of this prototype project, if all milestones and options are exercised, is $7,426,863.78. The Department of Defense (DoD) Test Resources Management Center (TRMC) Test and Evaluation (T&E)/Science and Technology (S&T) Program desires to invest in innovative technologies that revolutionize or accelerate testing capabilities and development of T&E. The Advanced T2OURNAMINT Technology Development (AT3D) effort is being established to push the technology beyond its current capabilities so that the next generation of Electronic Warfare (EW) systems will be able to operate more effectively through advancements in the technology. TRMC's overarching strategy is to create a new translation technology capability through an iterative technology research and demonstration approach, utilizing Other Transactions (OTs) This prototype project is directly relevant to enhancing the mission effectiveness of the TRMC community. The EW development community has a growing requirement to expand the current real-time radio frequency (RF) Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) capabilities to provide effective test of EW systems in dynamic "many versus many" environments so EW systems can be tested in a congested RF environment, and the net effects for detrimental or additive behavior of the systems be evaluated. The HITL environment simulation architecture, EW Arena, developed in the 2012-2015 timeframe is a multi-channel, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) based digital to RF converter includes modern radar characteristics and effects (phase, Doppler, time delay, clutter), bandwidths and wide dynamic power ranges applicable to modern radar scenarios, providing coherent input RF to output RF through the channels and maintains a coordinated air-picture with accurate Doppler and delay per-path for moving entities. The current architecture has defined interfaces to allow connection to existing radar simulators and EW platform hardware and incorporate their functional aspects. Digital computer and RF technologies, including high bandwidth FPGAs and memory, are desired to upgrade the current EW Arena architecture to address key performance limitations in the areas of increased number of bits, reduced bit error rate, signal isolation, bands and instantaneous bandwidth, dynamic range, and range delay. In addition, the current 16-channel prototype is sought with the technology capable of being upgraded to 24 channels or more. Technology solutions are desired for: -RF input/output (I/O) channel pair to be capable of operation over the frequency range from 80MHz to 18GHz with each channel frequency selectable with up to 1GHz selectable Instantaneous Bandwidth per channel. -Individual input/output channel pairs to be combined into unique frequency bands allowing multiple frequency bands per simulation to support entities which radiate at different RF bands. -Ability to propagate the signal with accurate doppler and two-way propagation of the signal with range and space loss attenuation over a range of 1km to 1000km. -Dynamic range of the environment be greater than 100 dB. -The EW Arena prototype environment must be capable of digitally combining, for each RF output, propagated RF signals from all transmitters and reflectors in the environment before converting back to analog RF and providing to the system under test or threat simulator connected to that output. The purpose of the ATeD effort is to push the technology beyond its current capabilities so that the next generation of EW systems will be able to operate more effectively through advancements in the technology. Upon successful completion of this prototype effort, the Government anticipates that a follow-on production effort may be awarded via either contract or transaction, without the use of competitive procedures if the participants in this transaction successfully complete the prototype project as awarded. Successful completion will occur when the prototypes have been validated and are accepted by the Government. Further, the government reserves the right to determine part, or all of the prototype project is successfully completed if the vendor shows a particularly favorable or unexpected result justifying the transition to production. Note: Should the selected vendors fail to demonstrate progress or be unsuccessful in the accomplishment of the goals of this prototyping effort, the Government reserves the right to return to the results of this competition and award additional Other Transaction Agreements to one or more of the vendors that responded to the initial Request for Solutions, as appropriate within the scope and evaluated results of the competition.
