radio frequency

Serco Inc., Herndon, Virginia, is awarded a $38,699,699 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with firm-fixed-price provisions for radio frequency distribution and control systems. Work will be performed in Herndon, Virginia, and is expected to be complete by September 2025. Fiscal 2020 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $181,762 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the beta.SAM.gov website with two offers received. The Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, is the contracting activity (N66604-20-D-R000).

First RF Corp.,* Boulder, Colorado, has been awarded a maximum $24,900,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with cost-plus-fixed-fee completion orders for radio frequency electronic antenna cancellation/beamforming technology software/hardware prototypes. This contract provides for research, development, testing, evaluating and deploying advanced radio frequency (RF) systems. These systems may support any of the various RF functions such as radar, communications, electronic warfare, signals intelligence, direction finding, etc. Work will be performed in Boulder, Colorado, and is expected to be completed August 13, 2026. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition.

To improve long-range radio frequency communications, researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory are working on a method of combining signals at the receiver level after multiple relays and a single transmitter. The solution is meant to extend line-of-sight communications. Finding an affordable alternative to beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) communications usually provided by satellites, aircraft or drones is an important priority for the Navy and the Defense Department, says Aaron Cohen, computer engineer and electrical engineer at the Naval Research Laboratory, known as the NRL.

NATO’s Science and Technology Organization took notice of the military potential of same-frequency simultaneous transmission and reception, or SF-STAR, capability employed with full-duplex radio technology, and in 2017 formed an exploratory team to examine the potential use in tactical communications and electronic warfare.

The modernization, proliferation and commoditization of electronics make contending with peer and near-peer adversaries more difficult, according to Chuck Hoppe, director of science, technology and engineering at the U.S. Army’s Combat Capability Development Command C5ISR Center. “For every good thing we bring out of technology, someone inevitability wants to use it for nefarious purposes. That has been the biggest change in the past 20 years, and it’s what made things significantly more deadly and lethal,” he says.

Keysight Technologies Inc., Englewood, Colorado, is being awarded a $9,850,400 indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for up to 350 radio frequency vector signal generators in support of the Naval Air Systems Command’s Metrology and Calibration Division.  Work will be performed in Singapore, and is expected to be completed in January 2026.  Fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $84,432 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals; two offers were received.

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 U.S. military is moving an advanced radio-frequency mapping capability from the laboratory into the hands of warfighters. Developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the technology will give land-based forces vital situational awareness of the radio spectrum as they fight on an increasingly digitized battlefield.

Facing daily threats in an ever-changing operating environment, warfighters need a quick way to assess the digital topography. And for modern-day soldiers and Marines fighting in dense urban environments, this means having a read on the spectrum.

BAE Systems Information and Electronic Technology Solutions, Burlington, Massachusetts, has been awarded a $9,286,398 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for radio frequency (RF) emissions made unique and separable/dynamic adaptive neurally-inspired control for efficient RF surveillance software. This effort is focused on developing foundations for applying machine learning to the RF spectrum domain and developing practical applications in emerging spectrum problems to develop vastly improved discrimination performance over today’s hand-engineered RF systems.  Work will be performed in Burlington, Massachusetts; Merrimack, Massachusetts; Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina; and Reston, Virginia. The work is expected to be complete by June 8, 2021.

The combination of so-called additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, electromagnetic simulation and mechanical design software is enabling innovative antenna and radio-frequency components. Engineers are harnessing these tools to design, fabricate, test and manufacture lightweight, highly complex antennas and radio-frequency products.

Andover, Massachusetts-based Mercury Systems, Incorporated will provide state-of-the-art radio frequency (RF) modules for missile defense systems, under a $2.2M defense prime contractor order. The modules will be integrated into a ballistic missile defense radar system using the company’s small form factor packaging of RF microelectronics. "Receiving this new order to support performance-enhancing upgrades for one of our nation’s ballistic missile defense programs underscores the success of Mercury’s next generation business model," said Kevin Beals, vice president and general manager of Mercury’s RF and Microwave group.

The KeyW Corp., Hanover, Maryland, has been awarded a $23,924,180 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Research to Advance Comprehensive Exploitation of Radio Frequency (RF) Research and Development (R&D) program. This contract provides for the R&D of RF exploitation technology with innovative algorithmic approaches for dynamic and flexible sensing, capable of leveraging all available information to maximize sensing and exploitation performance, to address concurrent detection, tracking, imaging, and classification/identification of targets within contested and challenging environments with singular and distributed sensing architectures.

First RF Corp., Boulder, Colo., is being awarded a $24,900,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Small Business Innovation Research Program (Phase III) effort to research, develop, test, evaluate and deploy advanced radio frequency systems. The location of the performance is Boulder, Colo. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013. Work is expected to be completed by March 2019. The contracting activity is the Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome, N.Y.

Alion Science and Technology, McLean, Va., was awarded a $1.5 million contract by the Spectrum Policy and Programs office, within the Defense Department’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, to study the impact of potentially reallocating or sharing the radio frequency bands between the military and commercial sector. Alion will assist in developing a long-term spectrum strategy that will anticipate, guide and respond to changes in technology, policy and regulation and ensure spectrum access for all current and future military systems.

The U.S. Air Force has awarded General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, Fairfax, Virginia, a nearly $8 million contract to develop an open system architecture (OSA) common back-end digital processor for the entire family of Air Force radio frequency electronic devices, to include radars, signals intelligence sensors, electronic-warfare and communication systems. General Dynamics will use open interface standards to develop modular, plug-and-play, multi-mission electronic back-end processors that leverage technologies developed under other OSA initiatives conducted by the Office of Naval Research.