Holistic Wind Correction for Aviation Targeting

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM SBIR 21.4 Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Army Applied SBIR Opportunity (ASO) Announcement July 7, 2021: ASO issued for pre-release July 21, 2021: Army begins accepting proposals August 24, 2021: Deadline for receipt of proposals no later than 12:00 p.m. ET IMPORTANT Deadline for Receipt: Proposals must be completely submitted no later than 12:00 p.m. ET, August 24, 2021. Proposals submitted after 12:00 p.m. will not be evaluated. The final proposal submission includes successful completion of all firm level forms, all required volumes, and electronic corporate official certification. Classified proposals will not be accepted under the DoD SBIR Program. This BAA and the Defense SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP) sites are designed to reduce the time and cost required to prepare a formal proposal. The DSIP is the official portal for DoD SBIR/STTR proposal submission. Proposers are required to submit proposals via DSIP; proposals submitted by any other means will be disregarded. Proposers submitting through this site for the first time will be asked to register. Effective with this announcement, firms are required to register for a login.gov account and link it to their DSIP account. See section 4.14 for more information regarding registration. The Small Business Administration, through its SBIR/STTR Policy Directive, purposely departs from normal Government solicitation formats and requirements and authorizes agencies to simplify the SBIR/STTR award process and minimize the regulatory burden on small business. Therefore, consistent with the SBA SBIR/STTR Policy Directive, the Department of Defense is soliciting proposals as a Broad Agency Announcement. 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Questions should be limited to specific information related to improving the understanding of a particular topic's requirements. Proposing firms may not ask for advice or guidance on solution approach and you may not submit additional material to the topic author. If information provided during an exchange with the topic author is deemed necessary for proposal preparation, that information will be made available to all parties through Topic Q&A. Proposing firms are advised to monitor Topic Q&A during the BAA period for questions and answers. Proposing firms should also frequently monitor DSIP for updates and amendments to the topics. This Army Applied SBIR Opportunity (ASO) is issued under the Army Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for SBIR/STTR 21.4. All proposals in response to the technical area(s) described herein will be submitted in accordance with the instructions provided under 21.4, found here: https://beta.sam.gov/opp/b79ded14dcf54451bcfb11bddf5cd259/view?keywords=%22army%20sbir%22&sort=-relevance&index=opp&is_active=true&page=1. a. Eligibility The eligibility requirements for the SBIR/STTR programs are unique and do not correspond to those of other small business programs. Please refer to Section 3.1, Eligible Applicants, of BAA 21.4 for full eligibility requirements. b. Anticipated Structure/Award Information Please refer to Section 1, Funding Opportunity Description, provided in BAA 21.4 for detailed information regarding SBIR/STTR phase structure and flexibility. For this BAA, Department of the Army will accept Phase II proposals for the cost of up to $1,730,751 for an 18-month period of performance. Proposers should refer to Section 4, Application and Submission information, of BAA 21.4 for detailed proposal preparation instructions. Proposals that do not comply with the requirements detailed in BAA 21.4 and the research objectives of this ASO are considered non-conforming and therefore are not evaluated nor considered for award. TABA is not being offered for this topic. Phase II proposals shall not exceed the following contents: Volume 1: Proposal Cover Sheet (Auto-generated); Volume 2: Technical Volume (20 pages maximum; breakdown below); Feasibility and technical proposal: 15 pages maximum; Commercialization Strategy: 5 pages maximum; Volume 3: Cost Volume; Volume 4: Company Commercialization Report Volume 5: Supporting Documents (if applicable) Volume 6: Fraud, Waste and Abuse Training (optional). Content of the Technical Volume: (Volume 2) PART ONE: Feasibility and Technical Proposal (15 pages maximum) Provide documentation to substantiate that the scientific and technical merit and feasibility described in the Phase I section of the ASO has been met and describes the potential commercial applications. Documentation should include all relevant information including, but not limited to: technical reports (summary and citation), test data, prototype designs/models, and performance goals/results. If you have references, include a reference list or works cited list as the last page of the feasibility documentation. This will count towards the page limit. Work submitted within the feasibility documentation must have been substantially performed by the proposer and/or the PI. If technology in the feasibility documentation is subject to Intellectual Property (IP), the proposer must either own the IP, or must have obtained license rights to such technology prior to proposal submission, to enable it and its subcontractors to legally carry out the proposed work. Documentation of IP ownership or license rights shall be included in the Technical Volume of the proposal. At a minimum, the technical proposal should address: What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives without jargon. How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice? What is new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful? Who cares? If you are successful, what difference will it make? What are the risks? How much will it cost? How long will it take? How do you measure success? What team will accomplish your mission? What existing / related SBIR, STTR, or other research proposals support this technology? What is the commercialization strategy for the proposed technology? PART TWO: Commercialization Strategy (5 pages maximum). The Army is equally interested in dual use commercialization of SBIR/STTR projects that result in products sold to the U.S. military, the private sector market, or both. The Army expects explicit discussion of key activities to achieve this result in the commercialization strategy part of the proposal. The commercialization strategy should include the following elements: A summary of transition and commercialization activities, and the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) achieved. Discuss how the preliminary transition and commercialization path or paths may evolve during the Phase II project. Describe key proposed technical milestones during Phase II that will advance the technology towards product such as: prototype development, laboratory and systems testing, integration, testing in operational environment, and demonstrations. Description of Product(s) and/or System Application(s). Identify the commercial product(s) and/or DoD system(s), or system(s) under development, or potential new system(s). Identify the potential DoD end- users, Federal customers, and/or private sector customers who would likely use the technology. Business Model(s)/Procurement Mechanism(s). Discuss your current business model hypothesis for bringing the technology to market. Describe plans to license, partner, or self-produce your product. How do you plan to generate revenue? Understanding the Army's goal of creating and sustaining viable small businesses that support and generate advanced Army technologies, describe how you intend to develop your product and supply chains to enable this differentiation. Target Market. Describe the market and customer sets you propose to target, their size, their growth rate, and their key reasons they would consider procuring the technology. Describe competing technologies existent today on the market as well as those being developed in the lab. Funding Requirements. Describe your company's funding history. How much external financing have you raised? Describe your plans for future funding sources (internal, loan, angel, venture capital, etc.). Commercialization Risks. Describe the major technology, market and team risks associated with achieving successful transition of the Army funded technology. Expertise/Qualifications of Team/Company Readiness. Describe the expertise and qualifications of your management, marketing/business development and technical team that will support the transition of the technology from the prototype to the commercial market and into government operational environments. Has this team previously taken similar products/services to market? If the present team does not have this needed expertise, how do you intend to obtain it? What is the financial history and health of your company (e.g., availability of cash, profitability, revenue growth, etc.)? Anticipated Commercialization Results. Include a schedule showing the anticipated quantitative commercialization results from the Phase II project at one year after the start of Phase II, at the completion of Phase II, and after the completion of Phase II (i.e., amount of additional investment, sales revenue, etc.). After Phase II award, the company is required to report actual sales and investment data in its Company Commercialization Report at least annually. c. Evaluation of Proposals Section 5, Evaluation of Proposals, in BAA 21.4 provides detailed information on proposal evaluation and the selection process for this ASO. d. Due Date/Time Full proposal packages (Proposal Cover Sheet, Technical Volume, Price/Cost Volume, and Company Commercialization Report inclusive of supporting documentation) must be submitted via the DoD SBIR/STTR Proposal Submission website per the instructions outlined in BAA 21.4 Section 4.3 Electronic Submission no later than 12:00 p.m. ET, August 24, 2021. Army SBIR 21.4 Topic Index A214-039 Holistic Wind Correction for Aviation Targeting OBJECTIVE: Develop/demonstrate the capability to measure multi-directional winds from the aviation platform to the target, and accommodating platform motion in real time. Successful application of this capability could foundationally change the employment of aviation weapon systems and associated Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP). DESCRIPTION: The Army has implemented a holistic strategic synchronization and integration amongst the Army SBIR program and Army stakeholders including Program Executive Offices, Program Managers, Product Managers, and others, vectored on certain relevant technology ecosystems. Technology ecosystems emerge when startups develop a specific, more nascent technology as a product and other companies soon rise to compete in this space. As a technology ecosystem becomes more crowded, and key companies grow and/or are acquired, an ecosystem can develop into an industry sector. The Army SBIR program focuses on ecosystem-level technologies, the backbone of the future operating domain but technologies that have not yet evolved into fully developed industries. Technology ecosystem-focused Transition Broker Teams (TBT) focus on PEO-relevant capability gaps, technology insertion points, and milestone decision opportunities. The current topic is being released by the Army Sensors TBT. Novel technology that is capable of measuring path integrated 2D winds and range to target in real time in a small form factor. Initially, the system must be capable of being mounted within the firing platform sight/sensor supporting the attack/recon 20mm cannon with potential application to other weapons platforms in the future. When installed, the system must tolerate high relative airspeed, simultaneous movement along and rotation about all three axis's, and the low, medium, and high frequency vibrations and shock associated with air vehicle weapon system operations. The solution must allow the Fire Control System (FCS) to validate the calculated offset aim point cannon position with respect to the target day or night, and must be covert allowing the user to have high confidence in cannon accuracy before rounds are fired at targets 500m to 2000m in typical combat environmental conditions. PHASE I: Develop operational concept and construct for theory, mathematics, and/or algorithms that inform Holistic Wind Correction for Aviation Targeting identification, recruitment, selection, development and deployment/distribution. PHASE II: Develop a novel prototype system capable of measuring path integrated 2D winds and range to target in real time in a small form factor (Size, weight, power, and cost relevant to Aviation). Demonstrate the prototype system on a platform in relevant environment (TRL 6). Demonstration of the prototype system should allow the user to validate target hit improvements under typical wind conditions measured from a moving platform with the first round during day and night at ranges that support 7.62 to 30mm rounds. Solution package must be commensurate with aviation small size, light weight, and low power requirements, must tolerate weapons system shock and vibrations conditions, and must support barrel aim point validation. PHASE III: Besides the use for FVL CFT modernization efforts, this technology could also be used to address the needs of Non-DoD aviation customers like FBI, Secret Service and Police. Similarly, the solution would likely find applicability on DoD platforms with less stringent requirements than aviation specifically systems which could accommodate greater weight, space, and power requirements, or which induced lesser shock and vibration conditions. A Phase III would: - Mature the manufacturing of the system to achieve TRL 7/8 and MRL 8, - Establish a pilot line to realistically assess cost in volume production, - Refine size, weight, and power projections from phase II, - Fully document process parameters associated with producing the 2D wind sensing system, - Produce a small quantity of systems based on Phase II designs, and - Investigate Dual use applications KEYWORDS: Aviation, Weapon Systems, Targeting REFERENCES: AR 70-62: Airworthiness of Aircraft Systems ADS-20F-HDBK: Armament and Fire Control System Survey for Army Aircraft ADS-27A-SP: Requirements for Rotorcraft Vibration Specifications, Modeling and Testing ADS-37A-PRF: Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3) Performance and Verification Requirements ADS-44-HDBK: Armament Airworthiness Qualification for U.S. Army Aircraft ADS-45-HDBK: Data and Test Procedures for Airworthiness Release for U.S. Army Helicopter Armament Testing (Guns, Rockets, Missiles) ADS-65A-HDBK: Data and Test Guidance for Qualification of Sensor Systems on Aircraft ADS-71-SP Environmental Airworthiness and Qualification Requirements for Electronics, Avionics, and Mission Equipment Installed On Army Aircraft