JIEDDO Holds Competition for New Counter-IED Systems
Military experts and defense contractors are testing technologies to thwart the preponderance of roadside bombs that hamper U.S. military and coalition forces' combat and resupply missions. Participating defense contractors are competing for an existing $49.5 million contract.
The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) has partnered with the U.S. Army Research Lab and the Maneuver Battle Lab to host at Fort Benning, Georgia, a 10-day “Culvert Denial Challenge” that ends October 10.
Ten teams are doing what has been classified as a surveillance challenge, in which they will use unmanned systems, microradar technologies, seismic sensors and hyperspectral imaging, or imaging collected from across the electromagnetic spectrum. Ten other teams are doing an inspection challenge.
“Once we’ve secured a culvert, we wanted technology that can maintain security over that area,” says Matthew Way, a JIEDDO program integrator. “The competition really focuses on their ability to distinguish, per the solicitation, between nefarious activity and something that is benign—just regular patterns of life.”
Vendors in the inspection challenge are supposed to demonstrate potential solutions using quadcopter (four rotor helicopter) ground robots, canines and electromagnetic sensors. “We are really measuring how quickly they can get into a culvert area and tell me if it's clear or not clear,” Way says. “The second component that we are scoring them on is, once they’ve done that, how accurately can they identify particular items that may be threats in the region.”
Officials hope new technology might provide better detection and thus protection against the threat of roadside bombs.
JIEDDO officials are expected to declare winners roughly 30 days after the competition. The surveillance teams are: Advanced Recon Corp, Applied Research Associates, A-T Solutions, CyPhy Works, EFW (Elbit), L-3 Communications, Niitek, Primal Innovation, QinetiQ and Roboteam. The inspection teams are: Applied Research Associates, ATSC (Inuktun), iRobot, K2 Solutions, Lockheed Martin, Pearson Engineering, QinetiQ, Roboteam, Science and Engineering Services, and Stolar Research.
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IED defeat
I received a patent in 2017 on a device that defeats a 3G detonator's A/J capability. I specialized in E3 M&S (including 3GPP cell phones) at Joint Spectrum Center (JSC) for 25 years under Mike Williams, I left to teach EE at a Lynchburg, VA University in 2007 where I attended a JIEDDO symposium. I received a research grant through JIEDDO attendees to develop what became the jammer patent. The design permitted a large reduction in size and required jamming power. The Dean of engineering (a business major who got his name on my patent) took the patent to a local company where they built it with my patent description and guidance. Once, e.g.,the Dean and EE Department Chair asked me why the prototype wasn't working and I had to give the Chair a tutorial presentation. I do not know any more but the company recently said they got out of the JIEDDO business. I would like to know if my patent helped save lives. Could you tell me? PS, when at the JSC I joined AFCEA. I am retired now so you will need my home address for my magazine delivery.
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