DARPA

Raytheon Co., Tewksbury, Massachusetts, has been awarded a $7,580,414 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Airspace TacticaL Automation System (ATLAS) effort supporting the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Air Space Total Awareness for Rapid Tactical Execution (ASTARTE) program, Phase One. This contract provides for the research, development and demonstration of virtual and live testbed for airspace management systems, a series of algorithms for airspace planning and operations and a sensor network for delivering real-time spatial and temporal tracking of airborne platforms.

Lockheed Martin Corp., Missiles and Fire Control, Grand Prairie, Texas, is being awarded a $58,905,062 modification (P00006) to previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract HR0011-20-C-0038 to exercise the contract line item number 0003 option for development of the integrated OpFires system. This includes risk reduction testing to achieve a system-level critical design maturity. Fiscal 2020 and 2021 research and development funds in the amount of $18,505,167 will be obligated at the time of award. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Texas (57%); Huntsville, Alabama (11%); and Elkton, Maryland (32%), with an estimated completion date of January 2022.

The fourth and final phase of the Gremlins unmanned aerial system program will include collaborative autonomy software that allows one person to control multiple unmanned air vehicles. The technology extends the capability of unmanned aircraft systems to conduct long-distance engagements of mobile ground and maritime targets in areas with poor communications or limited navigational signals.

Applied Physical Sciences Corp., Groton, Connecticut, has been awarded a $13,876,535 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to support the Sea Train Phase 1 program, which will develop and demonstrate approaches to overcome the range limitations inherent in medium unmanned surface vessels by exploiting wave-making resistance reductions. Fiscal 2020 research and development funds in the amount of $1,317,264 are being obligated at the time of award. Work will be performed in Hunt Valley, Maryland (43%); Groton, Connecticut (26%); Hanover, Maryland (23%); Concord, Massachusetts (5%); Arlington, Virginia (1%); Reading, Massachusetts (less than 1%); Jeanerette, Louisiana (less than 1%); and San Diego, California (less than 1%), with an estimated comple

Radiance Technologies Inc,* Huntsville, Alabama, was awarded a $10,110,811 cost-plus-fixed-fee completion contract for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency research project for the Secure Advanced Framework for Simulation and Modeling (SAFE-SiM) program. SAFE-SiM seeks to build a government-owned and controlled, faster-than-real time modeling and simulation (M&S) capability for theater-wide, mission-level M&S. This capability would enable rapid analysis supporting senior-level decisions for concept of operations development, force structure composition, resource allocation and targeted technology insertion.

New research areas and greater emphasis on existing sciences define the way ahead for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Longstanding areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum sciences and directed energy systems now are sharing the spotlight with antiviral research, space systems and operational biotechnology as the agency aims deeper into the new decade.

PAR Government Systems Corp., Rome, New York, was awarded an $11,920,160 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for a research project under the Semantic Forensics (SemaFor) program. The SemaFor program will develop methods that exploit semantic inconsistencies in falsified media to perform tasks across media modalities and at scale. Work will be performed in Rome, New York, with an expected completion date of June 2024. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funding in the amount of $1,500,000 are being obligated at time of award. This contract was a competitive acquisition under a full and open broad agency announcement and 37 proposals were received.

Agile Defense Inc.,* Reston, Virginia, has been awarded a $31,225,244 modification (P00052) to previously awarded task order HR0011-15-F-0002 for unclassified information technology services. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the task order from $176,513,865 to $207,739,109. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia, with an expected completion date of February 2021. Fiscal 2019 and 2020 research and development funds in the amount of $12,224,558 are being obligated at time of award. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity. *Small Business

Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, California, was awarded a $30,114,182 cost reimbursement contract for a research project to study the securing of our national internet infrastructure using measurement, control, and verification for closed-loop control of networks, also known as the Pronto project. The Pronto project will research the creation and deployment of a network, to include 5G, under verifiable closed-loop control as an exemplar for others in government, industry, and education to replicate. Work will be performed in Stanford, California (17%); Menlo Park, California (68%); Ithaca, New York (8%); and Princeton, New Jersey (7%), with an expected completion date of May 2023.

A U.S. Defense Department research program that has not yet even officially begun may contribute advanced testing devices for COVID-19 and other future pandemics.

The program is being run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and is called the Detect It with Gene Editing Technologies. The acronym, DIGET, is pronounced “dig it.”

RadiaBeam Technologies LLC,* Santa Monica, California, has been awarded a $10,202,941 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Gamma Ray Inspection Technology (GRIT) program. In Phase I, RadiaBeam Technologies LLC proposes a Laser-Compton approach for meeting GRIT program objectives and carrying out relevant system demonstrations. Work will be performed in Santa Monica, California (80%); Menlo Park, California (9%); Los Angeles, California (7%); and Paris, France (4%), with an estimated completion date of March 2021.  Fiscal year 2019 and 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $3,718,701 are being obligated at time of award.

ECS Federal LLC, Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded an $85,422,289 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development of artificial intelligence algorithms. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Fairfax, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of January 26, 2023. Fiscal year 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds, Army in the amount of $85,422,289 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911QX-20-C-0019).

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is experimenting with underground robotic capabilities through its three-year contest—the Subterranean Challenge, also called SubT. This competition aims to spur tactical communications, mapping and search-related robotic technologies for use in subterranean environments.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeing initial success from its Blackjack program, according to Paul “Rusty” Thomas, program manager. The research agency is developing a subset of a constellation, 20 low Earth orbit (LEO) globe-to-globe satellites, to demonstrate a new way of building out space systems.

“We are looking at how we might do space architecture differently,” said Thomas. “We want to limit the integration time, so we can actually get to the point where a payload might not even know what bus it is going to go on, and you can actually think of the payload as the mission.”

Packet Forensics LLC, Virginia Beach, Virginia, was awarded a $10,000,000 modification (P00004) to previously awarded HR0011-18-C-0056 for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Harnessing Autonomy for Countering Cyberadversary Systems (HACCS) research project. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $21,200,000 from $11,200,000. Work will be performed at Virginia Beach, Virginia, with an expected completion date of August 2020. Fiscal year 2019 research and development funds in the amount of $10,000,000 are being obligated at time of award. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

In a dark, wet and rocky research coal mine in western Pennsylvania, teams from around the globe put their robotic systems to the test in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s, or DARPA’s, latest contest. The agency designed the Subterranean Challenge, also known as the SubT Challenge, to spur the advancement of technologies that work well underground, including autonomous and other robotic systems, which could benefit first responders and the military, explained Timothy Chung, program manager, Tactical Technology Office, DARPA, to the media in attendance at the event.

Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, was awarded a $9,107,025 cost-no-fee contract for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency-based proposal titled "Diagnostic Epigenetics of Infectious agents and Chemical Toxicity." Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Tempe, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of July 21, 2021. Fiscal year 2018 and 2019 Defense Advanced Research Project Agency funds in the amount of $5,222,714 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911NF-19-C-0039).

The colossal reliance on semiconductor chips by the military and commercial industry reaches across weapons, machines and systems that perform key defense and national security functions. And while the Defense Department and the industry use secure chips, they are expensive and hard to design. To remedy that, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, is looking to automatically include defense mechanisms into the design of microchips. The agency is creating tools to manage the supply chain custody throughout the life cycle of a microchip and increase the availability and economics of secure microelectronics.

Air Force officers in charge of creating air tasking orders have long developed mission plans at air operations centers, known as AOCs, or centralized hubs in a specific command. The Air Force is looking at diversifying and decentralizing how and where those plans are created to add depth and resiliency to the process. This may be needed as designing air battle plans against potential peer threats will only grow in complexity in the future, experts say.

Galois Inc., Portland, Oregon, was awarded a $16,479,920 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for a research project under the Safe Documents (SafeDocs) program. The SafeDocs program aims to develop novel verified programming methodologies for building high assurance parsers for extant electronic data formats, and novel methodologies for comprehending, simplifying, and reducing these formats to their safe, unambiguous, verification-friendly subsets (safe sub-setting). SafeDocs will address the ambiguity and complexity obstacles to the application of verified programming posed by extant electronic data formats. Work will be performed in Portland, Oregon, with an expected completion date of May 2023.

Agile Defense Inc.,* Reston, Virginia, has been awarded a $33,095,787 modification (P00043) to previously awarded task order HR0011-15-F-0002 for unclassified information technology services. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the task order to $172,149,790 from $139,054,004. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia, with an expected completion date of June 2020. Fiscal year 2019 research and development funds in the amount of $20,741,665 are being obligated at time of award. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

 *Small Business

A U.S. military-funded artificial intelligence (AI) contest that wraps up later this year may result in radio devices capable of autonomously and collaboratively sharing radio frequency spectrum for the next generation of mobile devices.

Fifth-generation (5G) cellular services are widely expected to hail a new era of greater speed, reduced latency and the ability to connect many more devices—think smart cities and the Internet of Things—and move vastly more data. The wireless revolution is fueling a voracious global demand for access to the radio frequency spectrum, but managing that increasing demand in a way that avoids interference is a challenge.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is in the midst of reviewing proposals for the Make-It program, which aims to automate the discovery and synthesis of small molecules, offering a range of potential benefits, including dramatically accelerating the rate at which scientists cure diseases.

DARPA awarded Raytheon Company, in Tucson, Arizona, a $63.3 million contract to help continue the advancement of the Tactical Boost Glide hypersonic weapons program, which includes a design review, the company noted. The effort is a joint DARPA and U.S. Air Force program.

"This latest contract adds to Raytheon's growing number of hypersonic weapons programs," said Thomas Bussing, vice president, Raytheon Advanced Missile Systems. "Raytheon is working closely with our customers to quickly field these advanced weapon systems and provide our nation's military with the tools they need to stay ahead of the escalating threat."