Tech Area Of Interest: CASINO PED Ground Station

CASINO PED Ground Station:

The Department of Defense seeks novel, commercial solutions to prototype the processing, exploitation, and dissemination of data collected off commercial spacecraft and downlinked through commercial gateway inject points.  This prototype effort aligns directly with DARPA’s BLACKJACK program that will take advantage of integrating a government sensor payload onto a commoditized commercial bus.

The intent for this prototype is to deliver processed data in a format usable by tactical users deployed to forward operating locations. Currently, there are no established gateways or processes to ingest data collected from DARPA’s BLACKJACK-capable spacecraft and distribute that data through a commercial gateway and seamlessly deliver it to a location in theater that needs it most on timescales that matter without significant human-machine interface and latency. This prototype effort will result in the generation of a process recommendation, along with an associated hardware and software solution using Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) data as a test case delivering capability to users in any CONUS or forward operating location.

The commercial solution to this prototype project will:

  • Recommend a systems architecture and associated delivery process and procedure that harnesses raw data at a commercial gateway, processes that data en route at select locations before ultimately delivering a tactical product to in-theater users in tactically relevant timescales with minimal human-machine interface. This prototype must initially be capable of ingesting data from up to 20 overhead satellites but have the potential to scale to hundreds.
  • Integrate with DARPA BLACKJACK payload data downlinked through commercial gateways.
  • Ingest OPIR data as an initial test case with the ultimate goal of processing other data to include, but not limited to, electro-optical and near wave Infrared(IR), alternate navigation signals, radar, and communication signals.
  • The first ground instantiation will not rely on the Enterprise Ground Service (EGS) support, but will develop the infrastructure to eventually allow for a path to EGS compliance.
  • Minimize or eliminate dedicated or exclusive communications gateways that move and process data. Solutions must rely heavily on commercial pathways to include cloud and web services where appropriate with scalability and redundancy inherent throughout the architecture.

Other specified requirements include:

  • Integrator shall be able to perform work at the collateral classified clearance level.
  • The prototype must be delivered fully integrated and ready for data capture within 18 months of award, with 12 months preferred.
  • Integrate into existing OPIR government enterprise and have appropriate cyber and security protections integrated.
  • This effort is open to US companies only.

Solutions which can partially achieve the above objectives will be considered if they are sufficiently innovative; however, in these cases, partnering with another organization to achieve the full range of desired capabilities is encouraged.

Companies are advised that any Prototype Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) awarded in response to this Area of Interest may result in the award of a follow-on production contract or transaction without the use of further competitive procedures. Follow-on production activities will result from successful prototype completion and may include, but are not limited to providing equipment to support build out of Mission Operations Centers (MOC) and Data Management Centers (DMC); producing hardware and integration into existing government facilities; developing operational software; and technical refresh of software.

The follow-on production contract or transaction will be available for use by one or more organizations in the Department of Defense and, as a result, the magnitude of the follow-on production contract or agreement could be significantly larger than that of the Prototype OTA.  As such, any Prototype Other Transaction Agreement will include the following statement relative to the potential for follow-on production: "In accordance with 10 U.S.C. 2371b(f), and upon a determination that the prototype project for this transaction has been successfully completed, this competitively awarded prototype OTA may result in the award of a follow-on production contract or transaction without the use of competitive procedures."

PLEASE NOTE: This Area of Interest solicitation will be awarded in accordance with the Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) process detailed within W15QKN-19-X-04L1 posted to FedBizOps 16 Nov 2018. This document can be found within the DIU Library at https://www.diu.mil/library as "ACC-NJ CSO."

Submissions accepted from 04/09/2019 12:30 to 04/22/2019 23:59 PT

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