MARK YOUR CALENDARS For February 2022!
Nomination Period Closed
During the week of 7-11 February 2022, the Air Force Independent Research and Development (IR&D) Office in concert with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Personnel Recovery Mission Area (PRMA) community are staging the 2022 PR Modernization IR&D Technology Interchange Meeting (TIM). This invitation is open to all industry with IR&D and corporate investments, including large and small businesses, academia, National Labs and FFRDCs with a certified DD2345 (Military Critical Technical Data Agreement).
Don’t miss the opportunity to meet with the Air Force’s Science and Technology (S&T) experts in Personnel Recovery. The venue is being finalized and will be announced on this website 45 – 60 days prior to the event.
Event Scope
The 2022 PR IR&D TIM will focus on Air Combat Command's (ACC’s) all-domain PR and Combat Rescue mission area as it applies to near-peer denied, highly contested, and semi-permissive environments. Moreover, it will include crosscutting topics that may be applicable to more than one aspect of the PR mission and/or future modernization efforts including training programs and equipment for sustainment, survivability and recovery of isolated personnel (IP)*.
Problem Statement: Future PR Force Planning projects a lack of capacity for global Combat Rescue force posturing and capability across the competition continuum. The future operating environment presents multiple dilemmas for Combat Rescue forces within the competitive battle space from both near-peer capabilities and threats to environmentally challenging conditions. Regional employment/deployment responsiveness demands the capability to rapidly identify/sustain/recover IP and/or Airman within Highly Contested Environments (HCE) and/or Non-Permissive Environments (NPE).
IP and Airmen who become separated and/or isolated within and along the periphery of the HCE must be able to survive with pre-mission preparation, training, and issued survival equipment and evade enemy capture while reducing signature/noise, and rapidly report their location to initiate the PR chain of events leading to recovery and reintegration*.
The Air Force is focused on the future of personnel recovery through the lens of four Lines of Effort (LOEs); Communication Architecture, IP Survivability, Recovery Methods, and Rescue Trained Airmen, to ensure any potential shortfalls across the recovery chain are addressed through various COTS, tech development and acquisition efforts. Emphasis is on technology to advance the state-of-the-art in these LOEs and the following key areas:
- Technology leading to the reporting task, active and/or passive position/location, and positive ID of downed IP. Must be flexible, networked, enduring, and secure for anticipated long periods of survival and evasion (S&E) (Target 14+ days)
- Training aids and S&E equipment must ensure IP’s are provided the foundation and means for sustainment during periods of S&E and recovery (~ 14+ days)
- New technology must consider clandestine and survivable assets (manned and unmanned) to affect successful recovery and safely egress recovery zones
IP Needs (No Specific Order)
- Innovative first-aid and medical equipment/devices with minimal Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) for monitoring medically relevant parameters; preferably integrated into flight equipment or one-handed to be utilized by IP to preserve life/limb.
- Implementation of hardware technologies complimenting software monitoring and reporting applications.
- Decision-Support, Monitoring, and Reporting Software Solutions
- Allows IP to capture, assess, reference, and transmit IP medical conditions and provides local/remote guidance for the care and coordination amongst PR assets throughout the stages of recovery mission execution.
- Provide secure communication pathway to display/transmit hardware information from IP to PR Teams.
- Water Procurement & Sustainment
- Atmospheric Water Extraction (AWE)
- Investigating new technologies to provide water procurement options for wide range of ambient conditions.
- Forward Osmosis Technology
- Can it be made better to yield more water, multi-uses per pack?
- Compact Water Generators
- Long shot. AWE ideology, made with batteries and/or solar that can induce water collection.
- Atmospheric Water Extraction (AWE)
- Food/Vitamin Nourishment
- Chewable/Gummies that require little to no water for consumption/digestion.
- Pills/Powders
- Arctic, Desert, Tropical, Mountainous, and Maritime Operations
- Provide equipment, 2D/3D Clothing, etc., that can be utilized in multi-terrain, multi-biomes (two-sided/reversible, 2D/3D clothing, etc.).
- Signature, Noise, & Smell Reduction
- Cloaking fabrics (Clothing & Shelter) and signature reduction solutions (Clothing & Shelter) that display a significantly reduced and tunable multi-spectral signature in the following ranges for aircrew:
- Visual
- Thermal
- NIR/SWIR/MWIR/LWIR
- Radar/Synthetic Aperture Radar (sAR)
- Electromagnetic (EM) energy
- Noise Reduction Clothing
- Olfactory/Scent Blocking
- Cloaking fabrics (Clothing & Shelter) and signature reduction solutions (Clothing & Shelter) that display a significantly reduced and tunable multi-spectral signature in the following ranges for aircrew:
- Scentless Camo Paint/Sticks
- Impregnated insect repellant that may provide visual, thermal, IR, etc., reduction while also concealing the IP and deterring insects.
Note: Lightweight, Durable, Hydrophobic Clothing and Shelters that possess capabilities above
- Creating and/or Extending Power
- Extended life for batteries and/or power generation/harvesting. Combining functionality of current vest/seat kit to reduce size/weight while improving capability (~14+ days on ground).
- Report, Locate, Authenticate, and Sustain
- Communications, Radio, MWIR Beacon, MWIR Laser, Ground-to-Air Signal (GTAS) – Improve IP’s ability to communicate with friendly forces while simultaneously increasing difficulty of low probability of exploitation and/or detection by enemy forces.
- IR (EMS) and Covert Marking Devices:
- Sea dye, signaling, marking proof of life, Spec Ops, etc.
- Navigation
- Devices/tech solutions (phones, watches, small handheld GPS) that can aid an IP on the ground in evasion to avoid threats, move to a safe location/hide site that offers better LOS/Eyes on for friendly forces, and/or provides encrypted ping “bread crumbs” to the device indicating which direction the IP can move in order to make it to a safer area for rescue (land, water, or designated area for rescue/pickup).
- Information
- Applications/devices to provide survival information from safe, edible food sources to mapping/location data.
Participation Interest
Please send your expression of interest and certified DD2345 to Personnel Recovery email inbox. Once your expression of interest is received you will be sent additional instructions on how to nominate your IR&D projects and corporate investments. In these instructions, we will request you review the technical content of the IR&D projects and corporate investments you intend to nominate. We will ask you to specify the specific line items of the taxonomy, to aid us in assuring we have the right SMEs to meet with you. Our hope is that the topics nominated are clear text on technologies being addressed.
Please note -- If you do not hear back from the planning team within one week, please resend the original email.
Planning Schedule
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| 4 November 2021 | Window closes for IR&D Abstract Nominations |
| 24 Nov 2021 | Evaluations Completed |
| 3 Dec 2021 | Invitations sent to selected companies to present at the TIM |
| 26 Jan 2022 | Industry briefings due |
| 7-11 Feb 2022 | Execute Personnel Recovery IR&D TIM |
Note: This webpage supplements the announcement on SAM.gov . Future postings of changes and updates including final venue details will only be posted on this site; 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 directed to Personnel Recovery Inbox.
Disclaimers
- COVID-19 – The pandemic and the importance of exercising safety protocols is still a priority. Although we are planning this event as a face-to-face (F2F) engagement (with masks and physical spacing), other options for this event, such as a hybrid form of F2F and virtual, or one that is entirely virtual are being considered.
- The government is not obligated to enter into a contract with any entity as a result 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.
- Government technical support contractors may be a part of the team of SMEs at the event; therefore, company-to-company Non-Disclosure Agreements may be necessary.
- All unclassified company Proprietary Data and Intellectual Property will be treated as Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). Some information we intend to share may be classified or unclassified and will not be approved for unlimited public release.
* Definitions Per DoDI 3002.03
- Personnel Recovery: The sum of military, diplomatic, and civil efforts to prepare for and execute the recovery and reintegration of isolated personnel.
- Isolated Personnel: U.S. military, DoD civilians and contractor personnel (and others designated by the President or Secretary of Defense) who are separated from their unit (as an individual or a group) while participating in a U.S. sponsored military activity or mission and are, or may be, in a situation where they must survive, evade, resist, or escape.
- Reintegration: The DoD process of coordinating multiple activities with a recovered person, while protecting their health and welfare, with the goal of returning a physically and emotionally healthy DoD member to duty as expeditiously as possible. Reintegration includes, but is not limited to, medical care, decompression, and debriefing.