The Electronic Warfare (EW) and Command, Control, Computers and Communication (C4) program is focused in the area of expeditionary, irregular and complex hybrid warfare. This program advances the state of art capabilities that support United States Marine Corps (USMC) and Special Forces in air, ground and littoral zones, such as those supported by Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) and Special Forces units.
The goal is to provide exceptional, revolutionary, advanced capabilities, rather than evolutionary advancements compared to current state of art.
Research Concentration Areas
Electronic Warfare (EW):
- An emphasis on electronic protection, electronic attack and electronic support, such as counter-measures and counter-counter-measure technologies
- Compact, resilient sensors
- Compact, robust positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) technologies for contested or denied areas
- Decentralized and networked EW
- Behavior learning and adaptive EW techniques
- Electromagnetic signature control and management
C4:
- Communication, electronic and photonic technologies and systems; multifunction and software defined radio technology; low probability of intercept (LPI); low probability of detect (LPD); secure long-haul relay technologies; enhanced unit and joint service interoperability; multi-classification inter-operability, antenna miniaturization; and resilient mobile add-hock network (MANET) architectures and technologies
- Secure C4
- Autonomous environmental sensing, control, machine learning and adaptation as applied to C4
- Quantum communications, sensing and processing sciences
- Distributed and decentralized computing and processing
Supporting technologies related to EW-C4:
- Multifunction technologies (e.g., electronics, photonics, signal processing, networking science, cyber technologies, computing) that enable combined EW-C4 technologies with reduced size, weight and power (SWaP)
- Miniaturization, prolonging battery life, energy harvesting, supporting advanced autonomic systems
- Novel system of systems architectures for combined, resilient EW-C4 capabilities
- Modeling and simulation of subsystems, systems, and systems of systems for assessing technology effectiveness in expeditionary and complex hybrid warfare scenarios
- Expeditionary and complex hybrid warfare technologies in prototyping, demonstrations and experimentation
- Mission planning tools and aids for improving mission effectiveness within the EW-C4 domains
- Anti-tamper technologies for tactical edge use in SWaP-restricted applications
- Robust and efficient cross-domain (e.g., cross-classification-domain) technologies
Research Challenges and Opportunities
- Combined integrated system of systems
- S&T development approaches that will "bake-in" capabilities as early as possible in the development
- Combined approaches that add capabilities and resiliency
How to Submit
For detailed application and submission information for this research topic, please refer to our broad agency announcement (BAA) No. N0001425SB001.
Contracts: All white papers and full proposals for contracts must be submitted through FedConnect; instructions are included in the BAA.
Grants: All white papers for grants must be submitted through FedConnect, and full proposals for grants must be submitted through grants.gov; instructions are included in the BAA.