The Army is looking for solutions to improve the identification of enemy movements and actions, crucial for mission planning against high-value targets
The U.S. Army is calling on industry leaders to develop advanced technologies to enhance battlefield situational awareness, reconnaissance, surveillance, and location capabilities for special forces.
Officials from the Army Contracting Command at Fort Detrick, Maryland, issued a sources-sought notice (W911SR-22-S-NGIA) on Monday for the Next Generation Identification and Awareness Initiative (NGIA). This initiative invites companies to participate in projects spearheaded by the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. The goal is to develop cutting-edge technologies for tagging, tracking, and locating; reconnaissance and surveillance; and unmanned systems, with an emphasis on creating special operations prototypes for demonstration and evaluation.
The Army is looking for solutions to improve the identification of enemy movements and actions, crucial for mission planning against high-value targets. Ideal solutions will offer over-the-horizon and line-of-sight tracking capabilities, operable day and night, using ground-based, airborne, or satellite sensors. Technologies that feature low-probability-of-intercept and low-probability-of-detection communications, methods to safely extract soldiers from the battlefield, and ways to endure challenging high-conflict environments are of particular interest.
Innovations are needed to gather intelligence in challenging environments characterized by difficult terrain, adverse weather, political sensitivities, and hostile forces. The Army seeks new types of unattended ground sensors equipped with machine vision and object recognition to capture audio and video intelligence. These sensors must be capable of evading enemy countermeasures to ensure continuous and reliable intelligence gathering.
The focus is on sensors deployed on the ground and on small uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) weighing no more than 55 pounds. These sensors must be resistant to enemy eavesdropping and jamming efforts. Enhancing machine autonomy on these small UAVs is crucial to reduce operator workload and enable the UAVs to avoid enemy jamming, capture, or destruction attempts.
The NGIA initiative is a significant opportunity for industry partners to contribute to the advancement of military technologies. Companies interested in participating are expected to bring forward innovative solutions that can be prototyped, demonstrated, and evaluated for their effectiveness in real-world scenarios.
By partnering with industry, the U.S. Army aims to leverage cutting-edge technologies to enhance the operational capabilities and safety of special forces warfighters. This collaboration will play a pivotal role in maintaining technological superiority on the battlefield.
