Naval Research Laboratory 

Broad Agency Announcement

TACTICAL COMMUNICATIONS

BAA 82-07-02

The Spacecraft Engineering Department (SED), Naval Center for Space Technology (NCST), Integrated Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (IC4I) Branch of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is seeking to advance the state of the art by fostering innovative ways to develop and mature tactical Wireless and Common Data Link communication systems for strategic and tactical military operations involving Space, Air, Sea and Land-Based maneuvers. This system will be used to increase war fighter connectivity, improve communications bandwidth and reduce system cost. Involvement will be in conjunction with several naval programs including phased arrays and remote sensing platforms.

Focus is on the consideration of: innovative ideas and approaches for increasing the communication bandwidth and/or reducing the cost of systems; novel ideas or architectures for transmitters, receivers, pre/post processing mechanisms and algorithms for more efficient extraction of information from the received signal in the presence of clutter and noise.

Prime focus areas include; Phased Aperture integration for satellite communications, Common Data Link (CDL), Remote Sensing platform applications for wideband communications and reach back, Tactical Communications Systems.

Important aspects include but are not limited to; flexible I/O, flexible software algorithms, spread spectrum, COMSEC security, expandability, lower weights and novel operating modes for efficient utilization of hardware resources. Dynamic access schemes, network management capability, bandwidth efficient modulations, power control algorithms, and related services will need to be addressed to provide seamless connectivity in an efficient manner.

Consideration will be given for software and system integration technical support as well as operational systems support during and after development/acquisition.

Address initial proposals to Code 8241, or e-mail, telephone (202) 767-4480. Allow at least one month before requesting confirmation of receipt of initial proposal, if confirmation is desired. Substantive contact should not take place prior to evaluation of an initial proposal by NRL. If necessary, NRL will initiate substantive contact.