EVENT CANCELLED
Don’t miss the opportunity to meet with the Department of Defense’s Science and Technology (S&T) experts in Directed Energy and Non-Lethal Weapons technologies.
During the week of 23-27 January 2023, the Directed Energy and Non-Lethal Weapons (DE & NLW) Communities of Interest (CoIs) teams are staging their Independent Research & Development (IR&D) Technology Interchange Meetings (TIMs). This invitation is open to all industry with IR&D and corporate investments, including large and small businesses, academia, National Labs and FFRDCs. This engagement will be held at the Phillips Conference Center, Kirtland AFB NM.
Directed Energy is an umbrella term covering technologies that relate to the production of a beam of concentrated electromagnetic energy or atomic or subatomic particles. Examples include: high-efficiency laser sources and high-power RF systems, including pulsed power sources, micro-/millimeter wave sources, and antennas. Directed energy weapons use directed energy to incapacitate, damage, or destroy enemy equipment, facilities, and/or personnel.
Today, Directed Energy weapons are being developed by the US and its adversaries for land, sea, and air and space applications. On land, this includes base defense, where DE can provide a deep magazine, long-range engagement, and low cost-per-shot against proliferated threats. Other land-based applications include clandestine target engagement using the ability of high-power microwaves to penetrate structures, invisible to the naked-eye, and damage or interrupt electronics without harming humans. On the sea, in the air, and in space DE weapons can provide platform self-defense. In a world of expanding, potential, DE military capabilities, a determination of scenarios that bound potential futures is a key input to creation of a national strategy that will shape the future to the advantage of the US and prevent our rivals and adversaries from obtaining them.
EVENT SCOPE
The DE & NLW CoIs contains four directed energy technology development subareas: high energy lasers (HEL), high energy RF weapons, non-lethal weapons, and bio-effects. Below are the basic descriptors and scope for each of the focus areas:
This subarea coordinates all S&T including modeling, experimentation, and component/system development pertaining to laser weapons system and related areas including but not limited to the following: Laser sources from Continuous Wave (CW) to Ultrashort pulse lasers, with areas of interest from oscillator, gain medium and amplifiers; beam combining and conditioning technology; beam control with all aspects such as beam directors; pointing and tracking; beam transport; thermal management; power subsystems; command and control; laser beam propagation; laser weapon effects/lethality; test and evaluation; safety; security; laser weapon system architectures; laser countermeasures; counter-countermeasures; and data collection.
High Power Microwave (HPM) Technologies: This subarea coordinates all S&T pertaining to development of HPM technologies and research into their effect pertaining to development of HPM technologies and research into their effect against target electronics against target electronics. Focus areas for HPM technology development includes: HPM sources based on vacuum tube, solid state, or other technologies with matched antennas, prime-and pulse -- power systems, enabling component technologies and numerical simulation techniques for HPM source development. Other Focus areas for investigation of HPM effects includes: collecting target susceptibility data, development of predictive models which can predict susceptibility data, vulnerability of targets/target classes to these weapons, and effects of testing and vulnerability assessment methodologies.
Sensors and instrumentation which facilitate collection of target susceptibility data and understanding of target failure modes, as well as diagnostics for HPM system performance to include source diagnostics and radiation pattern system performance, are of prime importance in this technical area. Also of high import in this technology area are battle damage assessment (BDA) techniques and practices to evaluate time-out-of-action-techniques of target electronic systems and facilities.
This subarea coordinates all S&T pertaining to: (1) kinetic NLWs/Intermediate force capabilities (IFCs) - (blunt impact and marking munitions, riot control agents, etc.); (2) sound and light munitions, devices, and weapons; (3) conducted energy weapon systems; (4) human effects; and (5) non-lethal directed energy (focused acoustics, lasers [low power & ultra-short pulse laser systems], and high power RF systems) technologies. Note these subareas are being developed and employed to support both counter-personnel/counter-materiel intermediate force missions/applications. These NLW/IFC subareas include: (1) counter-personnel capabilities such as next-generation Active Denial Technologies (ADT), developing electronic beam-steering antenna systems for the Army’s solid state GaN ADT skid-plate demonstrator, and (2) counter-materiel capabilities such as high power microwave/HPRF weapon systems (e.g., maturing and demonstrating directed energy counter--electronic technologies) capable of stopping vehicles, vessels, and aircraft (includes counter--electronic attack on threat weapons systems such as threat unmanned systems). A key focus of the NLW/IFC S&T portfolio is the development of DEWs to achieve operationally-relevant standoff distances, durations of effects and volume of fire. This research also includes developing key DEW systems, subsystems, and components that have been optimized for reduced size, weight, and power consumption, thermal cooling and overall system cost (SWAP/C2).
This subarea coordinates all S&T pertaining to biological effects ranging from fundamental interactions at the cellular, molecular, and tissue levels to the, whole organism response. This includes investigating impacts to physiology, cognition and behavior. Applications for this subarea include optimized non-lethal & DE system designs, weaponeering tools, probabilistic risk assessment tools, and battlefield standards.
PARTICIPATION INTEREST
Please send your expression of interest and certified DD Form 2345 to the DE/NLW Email Inbox. Once your expression of interest is received and your DD Form 2345 is validated by our DAF IR&D planning team, you will be sent additional instructions on how to nominate your IR&D projects and corporate investments. In these instructions, we will ask you to identify the specific line items of the taxonomy that best align with the IR&D project. This will aid us in assuring we have the right Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to meet with you.
Detailed instructions for obtaining a DD2345 can be found in the Electronic Library.
If you do not hear back from the planning team within one week of your submission of interest, please resend the original email.
PLANNING SCHEDULE
For planning purposes, a high level schedule of milestones is being provided. Please note dates listed are subject to change.
Note: This webpage supplements the announcement in SAM.Gov. Future postings of changes and updates will only be posted on this page; therefore, companies are encouraged to check back often.
Many thanks to you for viewing this announcement. We look forward to your favorable consideration to engage in this exciting government-industry technology dialogue! Our nation’s warfighters count on you and your innovations! Any questions should be sent to the DE/NLW Email In-Box.
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| 19 Sep 2022 | Project Evaluations Begin |
| 30 Sep 2022 | Project Evaluations Complete |
| 7 Oct 2022 | Invitations sent to selected companies to present at TIM |
| 18 Nov 2022 | Company Briefings Due to DAF IR&D Team |
| 5-9 Dec 2022 | Execute DE & NLW COI IR&D TIMs |
DISCLAIMERS
1. COVID-19 – There are still uncertainties related to the pandemic that may affect the current plan to conduct this event as a face-to-face (F2F) engagement. State restrictions will be monitored closely and all health and safety protocols (masks and physical spacing) will be strictly enforced for an in-person event. Other options that may be considered include a hybrid form of F2F and virtual or one that is entirely virtual. Any updates will be posted to this page.
2. The government is not obligated to enter into a contract with any entity as results of IR&D collaborations from our dialogue. Data exchanges, as a result of these dialogue activities, follow restrictions of No Foreign Nationals (NOFORN) and International Traffic Arms Regulations (ITAR), and export control restrictions in accordance with Department of Defense Instruction 5230.24, Department of Defense Directive 5230.25, the Arms Export Control Act (Title 22, U.S.C., Sec 2751, et seq.), and/or the Export Administration Act of 1979 (Title 50, U.S.C., App. 2401 et seq.), as amended.
3. Government technical support contractors may be a part of the team of subject matter experts at the event; therefore, company-to-company Non-Disclosure Agreements may be necessary.
4. All unclassified company Proprietary Data and Intellectual Property will be treated as Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) f.k.a. For Official Use Only. Some information we intend to share may be classified or unclassified and will not be approved for unlimited public release.