Target Systems Development

Engineering & Manufacturing Development phase activities for Towed Targets/Ancillary Devices.

Supports the research and development of Aerial Virtual Targets. Virtual Targets are employed by multiple Department of Defense agencies and weapon systems to facilitate simulations for Developmental and Operational Test planning, rehearsal, post-test analysis, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and execution of test events that are too costly or difficult to be conducted under actual field conditions.

Engineering & Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase activities for the Army Ground Aerial Target Control System in support of a modern current technology target control system for control of subscale and full-scale aerial, surface (ground/seaborne), Small Unmanned Aerial System (SUAS) and rotary wing targets.

Technical updates and life cycle management activities for the UAS-T and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) platforms to provide Threat representative support for test and experimentation missions. Includes technical support for development, demonstration, integration of payloads, and technical oversight of the targets' acquisition and ground support equipment.

Funds the EMD phase for the replacement of the aging MQM-107 with the new BQM-167A to provide a realistic aerial target capable of simulating the performance of enemy aircraft; technical and life cycle management activities for equipment, to include engineering change proposals, technology obsolescence, and safety and system data documentation for the High-Speed Aerial Target. The program requires technical support for investigation, demonstration, and integration of a more economical target. Technical oversight of the replacement targets' acquisition along with Ground Support Equipment (GSE) and other activities related to getting it operational is essential; provides a realistic aerial target capable of simulating the performance of enemy aircraft to aid in the research, development, test, and evaluation of weapons systems and aid in training operational units employing production missile systems.

Mobile Ground Target Operations (MGTO) provides oversight of five Primary Operating Centers including operation, storage, maintenance, repair, safety, and configuration management. The objective of the MGTO effort is to support the testing community as fully, efficiently, and effectively as possible. The MGTO centrally manages a fleet of foreign threat ground vehicles while maintaining the foreign integrity of the assets.

Mobile Ground Targets Hardware (MGTH) provides the maintenance and sustainment of ground threat maneuver forces, validated threat representative electronic warfare, and command, control, and communications capability supporting Army operational test and evaluation.

Ground Virtual Targets are employed by multiple Department of Defense agencies and weapon systems to facilitate simulations for developmental and operational test planning, rehearsal, post-test analysis, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and execution of test events that are too costly or difficult to be conducted under actual field conditions.

This proof-of-concept utilizes lower-cost Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology to demonstrate the feasibility of replicating a scalable, diverse, high-density Radio Frequency (RF) environment capable of supporting Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) within cost constraints. This proposed solution develops low-cost/low-risk radar solutions to emulate adversary high-dense RF environments using components developed for SDRs, coupled with available antennas and Commercial-Off-the-Shelf products to demonstrate operations. The SDR-based radar systems have been employed mainly in military operations, like target detection, target recognition, surveillance, and other specific applications, such as meteorology and air traffic control. However, in recent years, large-scale commercial applications are driving standard radar system operations at significant cost reductions with increased adaptability. Therefore, Software Defined Radar (SDRadar) represents new challenges in radar technology given the possibility of performing basic operations (i.e. mixing, filtering, modulation, and demodulation) by simply employing software modules to eliminate much of the radar specific processing hardware. The main goal of a software defined approach is related not only to a clear cost reduction, but also to a significant increase of the versatility of the system, since signal generation and signal processing parameters may be easily adapted to the task under consideration. Integration into test and training range and Home Station networks, such as the Threat Battle Command Force, provides significant Integrated Air Defense Systems capability utilizing multiple units. This program supports U.S. Army acquisition ability to adequately stress weapon systems undergoing both Developmental and Operational Tests, as well as Live, Virtual, and Constructive training. The low-cost systems emulate known threat radars across multiple radar bands and develop as many emitters as possible to create a dense, RF environment.