Agency: Other Defense Agencies
Office: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Location: Contracts Management Office
Synopsis:
Added: Jul 08, 2010 12:08 pm
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will host an unclassified Proposer's Day Workshop in support of a planned Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) program. The Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) program will demonstrate dramatic capability improvements in the Close Air Support (CAS) mission.
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Related PDF:
Solicitation Number:
DARPA-SN-10-58
Notice Type:
Special Notice
Synopsis:
DARPA-SN-10-58
Proposer's Day Workshop Announcement
Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS)
Tactical Technology Office
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will host an unclassified Proposers' Day Workshop in support of a planned Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) program. The workshop will occur at 0700-1500 EST on July 23, 2010, at the Westin Arlington Gateway, 801 North Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22203.
This Special Notice is issued solely for information and program planning purposes. The Proposers' Day Workshop is intended to introduce to the research community the PCAS program vision, goals and objectives, and opportunities associated with the development of interdisciplinary teams to respond to an anticipated Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). The workshop does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals or proposal abstracts. Attendance at the workshop is voluntary and is not required to propose to any potential related Broad Agency Announcements or potential research solicitations on this topic. DARPA will not provide reimbursement for any costs incurred to participate in this workshop.
The Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) program will demonstrate dramatic capability improvements in the Close Air Support (CAS) mission. The program goal is to provide Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTAC) the ability to visualize, select and employ weapons at the time of their choosing from an optionally manned/unmanned A-10 demonstration aircraft.
This technical capability will revolutionize how a JTAC is able to request and control near-instantaneous airborne fire support.
The current method of performing the CAS mission is limited by the following issues:
- The majority of CAS is coordinated by voice over the radio
- CAS platform talk-ons can be lengthy and full of errors
- Due to pilot talk-on complexity only one target set can be handled at a time
- Mission completion times can be lengthy (30-60 minutes)
- Supporting aircraft have limited loiter times due to human restrictions
- JTAC equipment is a limited integration assembly of independent purpose equipment
- Estimating collateral damage can be difficult
Within the PCAS program, DARPA seeks to: 1) Develop autonomous flight controls for an optionally manned/unmanned A-10 demonstration aircraft that will employ weapons based on a JTAC's direct request 2) Identify and mature the critical
enabling technologies necessary to enable JTAC interfaces at the tactical level to be able to accurately visualize and employ weapons on target from the A-10 aircraft, and 3) Conclude the program with a live-fire demonstration in which the JTAC
commands weapons release from an optionally manned/unmanned A-10 demonstration platform.
To facilitate maximum participation DARPA will host a PCAS Proposers' Day Workshop. The workshop will: (a) Introduce the research community (industry, academia, and Government) to the PCAS program vision and objectives; (b) Explain the
mechanics of a DARPA program and the milestones and metrics of this potential effort; and (c) Promote teaming arrangements among organizations having relevant expertise, facilities, and capabilities to execute an interdisciplinary research program responsive to the PCAS program goals. The workshop will include overview presentations by Government personnel and a poster session to facilitate interaction and team building among the session participants.
Potential participants should note that formation of teams with sufficient expertise to address all technical areas is critical.
Workshop participants are strongly encouraged to prepare posters describing areas of capabilities in order to facilitate discussions during the poster session.
There is no fee to attend the PCAS Proposers' Day Workshop. Registration for the workshop is limited by the venue capacity. To maximize the number of organizations participating, there is a limit of three persons per organization. Early
registration is strongly recommended. The poster session will be limited to 1 poster per organization with a cut-off of 100 posters total. The registration cutoff date is 4:00PM ET, July 19, 2010.
The PCAS Proposers' Day Workshop will be unclassified but restricted in attendance to U.S. citizens and permanent residents representing U.S. entities due to the inclusion of information controlled under the International Traffic in Arms
Regulations (ITAR). Workshop attendees must check-in at the registration desk located outside the conference room area at the Westin Arlington Gateway on the second floor of the hotel. Workshop attendees will not be admitted to the Workshop
without proper proof of U.S. citizenship or permanent residency. Also, workshop attendees will not be admitted unless they have registered prior on the workshop website listed below.
Workshop details including registration, poster session, meeting location, and lodging are provided on the registration website.
Workshop Details:
Time: July 23, 2010, 7:00am-3:00pm
Location: Westin Arlington Gateway
801 North Glebe Road
Arlington, VA 22203
(703) 717-6200 (Hotel Operator)
Registration Website: http://www.sa-meetings.com/PCAS
For any questions related to this workshop please e-mail DARPA-SN-10-58@darpa.mil.
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Related public feedback:
Darpa Plots Death From Above, On-Demand
By Noah Shachtman
July 12, 2010, 7:52 am
Categories: DarpaWatch
Wired News (Danger Room)
Before a bomb gets dropped in Afghanistan, dozens of people weigh in: air controllers bark coordinates over a radio; officers double-check the target's location against digital maps; pilots survey the scene with cameras from on high; far-flung intelligence analysts scour the plane's footage and discuss it in a secure chat room; military lawyers make sure the strike complies with the rules of war; commanders weigh the potential combat benefits of a bomb against the risks of civilian deaths.
Darpa would like to cut out all those middle men. Instead, the Pentagon's R&D arm wants to build an air strike network with exactly two nodes: the air controller on the ground, and the robotic, heavily-armed airplane in the sky. Darpa calls the project Persistent Close Air Support, or PCAS. Think of it as death-from-above — on demand.
The goal, Darpa says in an announcement to prospective researchers, is to give the Joint Terminal Attack Controller — that's the guy who usually coordinates air strikes in an infantry unit — "the ability to visualize, select and employ weapons at the time of their choosing."
The JTAC will dial up these munitions from an "optionally manned/unmanned" A-10 "Warthog." Armed with an array of rockets, missiles, bombs, and a 30mm gatling gun, it's one of the most brutally effective airplanes ever invented for hitting ground targets. In a firefight in early 2008, a single Special Forces sergeant called in Warthogs for more than 70 air strikes, incapacitating as many as 240 insurgents.
But that's not how U.S. troops roll these days. Concerned that civilian casualties were handing the Taliban propaganda victories, General Stanley McChrystal issued tight new restrictions on the use of air power in Afghanistan; everyone from the very top of the chain of command down to the grunt can get involved in the decision to drop a bomb. Incoming commander General David Petraeus may change those guidelines a bit, but he almost certainly won't rescind 'em.
It's only one of a number of inefficiencies Darpa sees in today's close air support (CAS) missions. "The majority of CAS is coordinated by voice over the radio. CAS platform talk-ons can be lengthy and full of errors. Due to pilot talk-on complexity only one target set can be handled at a time."
A garbled radio request can lead to a wrong set of coordinates passed. And that can lead to an attack going astray, with innocents killed and property smashed. No one wants that, of course. But in Afghanistan, the bugs are, in a sense, used as features, slowing down (and double-checking) air strike requests. Calling a bomb can happen in as little as a few minutes, depending on location of the plane and the urgency of the request. A few extra minutes of so-called "tactical patience" can lead to a resolution of the conflict, with no air strike at all.
That's the attitude today. In future conflicts, it could change. So Darpa is aiming to give the air controller the ability to "request and control near-instantaneous airborne fire support."
The program kicks off with a workshop in two weeks. The next step is to "identify and mature the critical enabling technologies necessary to enable JTAC interfaces at the tactical level to be able to accurately visualize and employ weapons on target from the A-10 aircraft." At the end of the effort, Darpa plans to conclude "with a live-fire demonstration."
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DARPA Wants Instant, On-Demand Airstrikes, Removing Middlemen from the Bomb-Dropping Process
By Clay Dillow
Posted 07.12.2010 at 11:40 am
popsci.com (Popular Science)
Calling in Close Air Support Currently, soldiers requesting air support have to call in and request it from higher-ups, setting off a time-intensive process of permissions and clearances. DARPA wants to reduce that process to a two-party communication: the soldier on the ground requests an air strike, and a robotic A-10 Warthog above obliges.
Like renewing your driver's license at the DMV or getting someone from the cable company out to your place, calling in close air support can be a real process for troops on the ground. A request for an air strike from a commander on the ground goes through various higher-ups, analysts, lawyers, and other commanders, slowing the response time to a crawl. That's why DARPA is launching the Persistent Close Air Support Program (PCAS), under which the scheme is simplified: ground troops ask for a strike, and a robotic warplane brings the ruckus, no middlemen necessary.
The weapon of choice would be an optionally manned/unmanned A-10 Warthog, those destructive and somewhat ugly slow-flying aircraft that can deploy a battery of weapons against enemies below. Fast-acting A-10s would give Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTAC) -- the soldiers within units that call in air strikes -- the ability to "to visualize, select and employ weapons at the time of their choosing." DARPA thinks this will "revolutionize how a JTAC is able to request and control near-instantaneous airborne fire support."
But wait; doesn't this kind of air-strike-on-demand go against the military's current strategy of limited air power and reduced civilian casualties as dictated in Af/Pak by the recently ousted General Stanley McChrystal? It absolutely does. But keep in mind this is DARPA, and it's innovating for battles a decade down the road. The goal of PCAS is to create tools that will reduce the time lag between request for support and an actual air strike from half an hour or more to a matter of minutes.
So don't read this as a change in policy, but rather as an initiative to remedy what DARPA sees as inefficiencies in the close air support chain. Right now, a radio communication (which may not come in completely clear) sets in motion a machine with a lot of moving parts, any one of which might make a mistake -- commanders deciding the necessity and consequences of a strike, intelligence analysts examining footage of the battlefield, legal brass ensuring the strike is in line with the rules of engagement, etc.
DARPA wants to automate this process where possible and condense or remove parts of the process that slow down the close air support process. After all, we (hopefully) won't be in Afghanistan forever, and on the battlefields of the future the ability to call in instantaneous robotic close air support could be a powerful and potentially devastating tool in America's arsenal.
[FedBizOpps via Danger Room]
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