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REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) FOR: April 25, 2022: RFI is hereby edited as follows- 2.1.5.d- Is your antenna able to parse AltNav signals? If not, what changes would have to be made? ANTI-JAM ANTI-SPO... REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) FOR: April 25, 2022: RFI is hereby edited as follows- 2.1.5.d- Is your antenna able to parse AltNav signals? If not, what changes would have to be made? ANTI-JAM ANTI-SPOOF (AJAS) ANTENNAS FOR ARMY GROUND VEHICLE PLATFORMS THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. THIS REQUEST IS FOR PLANNING PURPOSES, AND SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A SOLICITATION ANNOUNCEMENT, INVITATION FOR BIDS, REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS, QUOTES OR AN INDICATION THAT THE GOVERNMENT WILL CONTRACT FOR THE ITEMS CONTAINED IN THIS NOTICE. THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT REIMBURSE RESPONDENTS FOR ANY COST ASSOCIATED WITH THE SUBMISSION OF THE INFORMATION BEING REQUESTED OR REIMBURSE EXPENSES INCURRED TO THE INTERESTED PARTIES FOR RESPONSES. Additionally, your response will be treated only as information for the Government to consider. As previously stated, respondents will not be entitled to payment for direct or indirect costs that are incurred in responding to this RFI. Furthermore, this request does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated, or received for this effort. The information provided may be used by the Army as market research in developing its acquisition strategy, Statement of Work/Performance, Work Statements, and/or Statement of Objectives. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted, or competition sensitive information contained in their response accordingly. RFI Introduction The purpose of this RFI is to collect and catalogue information regarding the capabilities and performance of existing AJAS products as part of a study conducted by the DEVCOM Analysis Center (DAC). The DAC study will enable the United States Army to best decide what product may be used in future ground vehicle applications. Responses to this RFI will be used to populate this catalogue. The philosophy behind the RFI questions is to precisely solicit information required by DAC in order to perform analysis. The questions are designed with as little vagueness and ambiguity as possible in order to aid potential respondents in interpretation. The questions also provide context of how DAC intends to use the provided answers. This RFI is longer and more comprehensive than an “average” RFI, but the information requested is critical to the analysis to be conducted by DAC. In order to adequately support the study conducted by DAC, please consider various jamming scenarios, and provide the required technical information for each. A respondent may not be able to provide precise answers to some of the questions – this is acceptable. It is preferential for a respondent to make ballpark estimates or estimate a reasonable range of expected values rather than say that more information is required to give a precise answer. Respondents are the experts of these kinds of systems and the input by respondents is valued, even if precise answers cannot be provided to every question. Due to the nature of AJAS antennae, the answers to some questions may be classified. If so, please submit the classified answers separately to the classified email address. Your input is important. Please fill out a separate RFI for each antenna version evaluated. Requested Information The requested information consists of two sections. The first section concerns items that are constant regardless of how many jammers threaten the system. The second section contains questions about data that depends on jammer and satellite geometries, so those questions should be answered for each jamming scenario provided. General Information Number of Elements in Antenna Array How many elements are there in the product’s antenna array? This question assumes that your product uses an adaptive array. If it does not, answer “one” and specify what kind of antenna is used instead. Development Is your system ready to be delivered, or does it require more development or testing? If more development or testing is required, how much time and money must be spent to make the product market-ready? Assuming the product is market-ready, please provide anticipated costs for products proposed within the quantity ranges below. 1-100 Units 101-250 Units 251-499 Units 500-1000 Units Data Rights Is your company willing to provide or sell unlimited data rights to the Government? Ability to Provide Anti-Spoofing How might your antenna be integrated with a receiver to improve spoofing detection/mitigation? If applicable, what method does your antenna use to indicate that a spoofing attack is occurring? The purpose of this question is to get an initial idea of which kinds of spoofing attacks may be mitigated by your product. An in-depth analysis of anti-spoofing methods is not required. Ability to Handle Alternate Constellations In addition to GPS L1 and L2, can your antenna process M-Code? Does your antenna have the bandwidth to handle alternate GNSS constellations? If so, which ones? If not, what changes would have to be made to increase the bandwidth? What are the performance tradeoffs of having a wide enough bandwidth to process other constellations in addition to GPS? Is your antenna able to parse AltNav signals? If not, what changes would have to be made? Size and Power What is the product’s size? What is the product’s weight? What are the product’s power specifications? Government Access to Algorithms The Government is interested in building a library of adaptive algorithms to pull from depending on the situation. Does your company contribute to any library of algorithms? Would your company be willing to provide your array optimization algorithm to the Government for storage in a solutions library? Ability to Host Processing Outside the Antenna How much of the adaptive array processing has to be performed inside the antenna? How much can be moved to a separate piece of hardware that will be stored inside the vehicle? How might this be implemented? Could processing algorithms be hosted on a modular card so that the AJAS capability could be improved or upgraded without requiring a new antenna? Scenario-Specific Information The following questions require performance data from the provided set of scenarios (see Excel document: RFI Jammer Scenarios). Each scenario specifies the antenna’s location, the GPS and AltNav satellite locations, and the locations of a variable number of jammers. The jammer specifications are also provided – these are generic threats, so the set-up is not classified. The scenarios are set in a flat, open-air environment, where the path loss is not affected by foliage or buildings. It is also specified that the system noise temperature = 1750 K. All improvements will be relative to a 0dB isotropic fixed-reception pattern antenna (FRPA). Once DAC receives your metrics for the free space scenario, DAC will replicate the scenarios with two different modeling programs. One will calculate the path loss when foliage is added, and the other will calculate the path loss when buildings are added. In this way, a respondent’s direct data will allow DAC to gauge how the respondent’s product performs in a desert environment, and the simulations will allow DAC to approximate how the respondent’s product performs in jungle and urban environments. Jammer to Signal Ratio Improvement Assume the values given in the scenarios for jammer transmitted power, assume that the system noise temperature T = 1750 Kelvin, and show calculations: In each of these scenarios and for each satellite signal, what is the jamming-to-signal ratio (JSR) improvement of your antenna over that of a 0dB isotropic antenna? What are the null depths toward each of the jammers? What is the gain toward each of the desired signals? What bandwidth did you assume? We will use the following equation in our subsequent calculations: ?JSR=10log10(j=1mpTjplj10Gj10+kBT)-10log10(j=1mpTjplj+kBT)-Gs …where… ?JSR = the jamming-to-signal ratio improvement over that of a 0dB isotropic antenna, in decibels pTj = power transmitted by jammer j in Watts plj = path loss from jammer j to the antenna Gj = antenna gain presented to jammer j in dBi Gs = antenna gain presented to the satellite in dBi k = Boltzmann’s constant in SI units B = antenna bandwidth in Hertz T = system temperature in Kelvin = 1750 K Signal to Noise Ratio Improvement Assume that the total noise = kBT , as defined in section 2.2.1.6 – 2.2.1.8. In each of these scenarios, what is the signal to noise ratio (SNR) improvement of your antenna over that of a 0dB isotropic antenna? We will use the following equation in our subsequent calculations: ?SNR=Gvendor …where… ?SNR = the signal-to-noise ratio improvement over that of a 0dB isotropic antenna, in decibels Gvendor = the vendor’s antenna gain in dBi Angle of Arrival Precision In each of these scenarios, normalize the antenna factor. Over what azimuth and elevation angle ranges is the array factor below… -3dB? -6dB? -10dB? How could your antenna be used to determine angle of arrival of jamming signals? What is the expected azimuth bearing precision? Does your antenna provide a way to determine the distance between the user and a jammer? How? These scenarios will give the exact azimuth and elevation of each jammer in relation to the user. Ideally, the gain towards the jammers will be less than that toward the desired signals. It may be possible to use this gain difference to estimate each jamming signal’s angle of arrival. DAC may compare this accuracy and precision by comparing the horizontal and vertical beamwidth of nulls toward each jammer. DAC will only use the values from unobstructed terrain and will not consider the alternatives, simply because those calculations would be too involved for the purposes of this study. Submission Details Respondents able to provide the requested information for any of the attributes described are invited to submit a response describing their technology, and test data relevant to this RFI. Responses should be organized as listed below, and include the following information: Cover letter providing: Company Information Company name Date of incorporation Number of years in business Number of employees Primary location(s) where work is performed Mailing address Company website Commercial and Government entity codes (if the company has one) Company Point of Contact Name Title Mailing address Email address Phone number Technical Answers Interested parties are encouraged to submit their information electronically by 1500 (3:00PM) Eastern Daylight Time NO LATER THAN 6 MAY 2022 to the following: Technical Point of Contact (TPOC): Amy Davis: amy.c.davis30.civ@army.mil Mark Downes: mark.j.downes2.civ@army.mil Classified responses should go to: amy.c.davis30.civ@mail.smil.mil The subject line for the email submission should read: “RFI Submission: AJAS PNT Antenna – YOUR COMPANY”. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Responses to the RFI may be used to develop Government documentation. Questions All questions should be addressed to the following email address: Amy Davis, amy.c.davis30.civ@army.mil The subject line for the email should read: “Technical Question(s), RFI: AJAS PNT Antenna – YOUR COMPANY”. Technical questions will be sent to the appropriate Position, Navigation, and Timing Directorate TPOC and/or Subject Matter Experts. Proprietary Data Proprietary data may be included with the information provided. If so, it is the responsibility of the interested party submitting data to clearly identify and mark such proprietary information. All information marked as proprietary information will be safeguarded to prevent disclosures to non-government personnel and entities. Classified information is to be treated in a similar fashion. RFI Feedback After the Government reviews all vendor submissions there may be additional need for further follow-on questions. If so, the Government will contact each vendor to ask these follow-on questions on an individual one-on-one basis. This is a market survey requesting information only. The submission of this information is for planning purposes and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to procure any items/services, or for the Government to pay for the information received. No solicitation will be issued against this notice.