FOPEN-GXP Program Overview Vincent Sabio Program Manager 9/22/2010

Outline Motivation Architecture/CONOPS Participants Schedule Summary

Motivation: FORESTER Program Objective: Standoff capability to detect dismounts moving under foliage to deny enemy ability to hide under foliage Solution: UHF Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) radar installed on helicopter UHF to penetrate the foliage Helicopter flies into the winds and maintains zero ground speed to enable detection of low velocity targets (dismounts) Transition to SOCOM, October 2009 SOCOM has 2 year program to demonstrate YMQ-18A/FORESTER OCONUS DARPA will build, test 3rd FORESTER and deliver to SOCOM FORESTER Coverage for a YMQ-18A (A160T) at 15 kft Antenna steering allows coverage of 90° sector Max range ~15 km for dismounts under foliage Real-time Detection of dismounts under foliage and detections transmitted down data link Continuous coverage over 90° sector Area coverage: 145 km2 Revisit area every 20 seconds

FORESTER Data Collections Ft. A.P. Hill, Virginia – Jan-Oct 2007 FORESTER on Black Hawk Single canopy Mocoron, Honduras – Sept-Oct 2008 Double canopy Ft. Stewart, Georgia – November 2009 FORESTER on YMQ-18A (A160T) Single canopy Central Camp, Belize – August 2010  Referred to as “Country 1,” or just “C-1” Double canopy

FORESTER Success Motivates FOPEN-GXP FORESTER detects moving dismounts under foliage at standoff ranges Successful tests at Mocoron, Honduras on Black Hawk in Mar 2008 Successful NAI tests at FT Stewart, Georgia on A160 in Sep 2009 FOPEN-GXP will meet SOUTHCOM/SOCOM needs for exploitation tools Discriminate persistent false alarms from activity Discriminate humans from animals Determine group position, size, and direction of travel Identify activities of particular interest FOPEN-GXP will build a FORESTER exploitation system Transform ‘dots’ into actionable information Integrate with existing ground control station and radar operator tools Make interoperable with DCGS-A, NGA tools, and MASINT dissemination Ft. Stewart, 2009, ~30 mins of detection data displayed FORESTER detects groups of dismounts moving between NAIs under foliage

Are they people or animals? If people, how many are there? The Challenge Are they people or animals? If people, how many are there? Where are they going? What are they doing?

Outline Motivation Architecture/CONOPS Participants Schedule Summary

Architecture FOPEN-GXP Functional Architecture A-160 Ground Station Platform controller Radar Doppler signatures Doppler Discriminator Platform controls (waypoints, surv-eillance positions) Radar service requests GMTI detections (incl. BF Tags) Classification likelihoods Key To be developed on F-GXP Platform & Sensor Planner* Group State Estimator Not modified Prioritized information needs Activity Detector Group state estimates (pos, direction, size) Data Target deck & mission constraints Elevation, land cover, LOC models Activity estimates Activity models *Phase 2 FOPEN-GXP Phase 1 Goals: Create working versions of Doppler Discriminator, Group State Estimator and Activity Detector Integrate modules Demonstrate integrated functionality on FORESTER data

CONOPS Understanding the potential FORESTER OCONUS CONOPS will help tailor the solution to the desired mission capability Questions asked of SOCOM/SOUTHCOM: What IPB is typically available when the platform is dispatched/chopped to a new AOI? How does the platform assist in refining the initial IPB, outside of its standard/defined mission? How are NAIs defined within the intended operational context of the FORESTER system? How are NAIs nominated? Are they typically known in advance? Are they discovered during operations? Both? Typically how many NAIs will there be within a single AOI? Single digits? Tens? Hundreds? Without GXP, how long will the FORESTER typically be expected to stare at single AOR, before stowing the radar and moving on to the next AOR? Answers may come… Meanwhile, we know that analysts favor a toolbox of tested, reliable, algorithms that they can choose to apply to make sense of the data.

Outline Motivation Architecture/CONOPS Participants Schedule Summary

Program Structure Associate Contractors: Single System Integrator (SRC) responsible for producing a system with the best-of-breed algorithms from associate contractors Multiple Contractors developing each module: Module A: Doppler Discriminator Distinguish Human/Animal/Clutter Down-select to single contractor for integration in 6-8 months Module B: Group State Estimator Track group movement Estimate group composition Down-select to single contractor for integration in 10-12 months Module C: Activity Detector Characterize all human activity in area Single contractor Multiple approaches will be down-selected prior to Phase 2

Performers’ Roles System Integration and Analysis Integration Framework Module A: Doppler Discriminator Group State Estimator Activity Detector ASI ISL† TSC† BAE* LM BAE* BAE* SRC, BRSC*, TSC* Contractor team will need to maintain cooperative/associate relationship within a partially competitive environment Government team will assure fairness * SRC Subcontractors † SBIR Contractor

Government Team Organization Key Personnel Role DARPA Vince Sabio Government Program Manager, Chief Bottle Washer RDECOM STTC Frank Tucker Jerry Speer Contracting Officer’s Representatives Schafer, CACI Rob Carlisle Susan Carothers DARPA Technical SETA, DARPA Financial SETA (BFM) MEDavis Consulting Mark Davis Subject Matter Expert IAI Neil Carender Ron Goodman Systems Analysis, IV&V Support and Analysis CERDEC Peter Lamanna Kevin O’Hanlon System Verification (IV&V), FORESTER test planning MIT LL Jen Jao Mike Yamaguchi Advanced Radar Modes Analysis, Future GXP Capabilities

Outline Motivation Architecture/CONOPS Participants Schedule Summary

Ft Stewart and Honduras Data Data to Support FOPEN-GXP Schedule FY10 FY11 FY12 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Ft Stewart and Honduras Data Country-1 Tests Country-2 Tests/Ops Data to Support FOPEN-GXP Development & Testing Insert Sys v1.0 Insert Sys v2.0 Down-Select Doppler Discriminator Data Down-Select Group State Estimator Inserts F-GXP v1.0 Demo & Test Demos F-GXP v2.0 Demo & Test Activity Detector BAA Ind. Day Awards Contracts System Version 2.0 System Integration Phase 1 Phase 2

FORESTER Data Contractors will be provided with FORESTER data and ground truth ~40% of “good” data gathered in Honduras and at Fort Stewart Representative data of every target placed and every configuration of dismounts deployed No guarantee that every phenomenon is viewed from every azimuth for every parameter in dataset A portion of C-1 data and ground truth will be provided when it becomes available Data will be provided in multiple formats STANAG 4607 FORESTER RDM Data will be provided with different pre-processing algorithms applied SRC’s default FORESTER format MIT LL’s format with clutter mitigation applied

Phase 1 Down-Select Down-selects will be based on the demonstrated functionalities of the modules All modules will be hosted on CERDEC’s test bed Modules will largely be evaluated “in isolation” Determine which module best serves the government’s need for optimal functionality in a working exploitation system at the end of Phases 1 and 2 Modules will be run against sequestered data from the same flights as provided data Fort Stewart and Honduras only for Module A Potentially for Belize data for Module B Entire segments Functionality will be assessed by independent reviewers on the government team, with appropriate recusal

Data to support FOTM and IFSAR were gathered in C-1 FOPEN-GXP Phase 2 Phase 2 will focus on: Complete integration of FOPEN-GXP system Integration of system with available planning tools Phase 2 may also address some key challenges in FORESTER exploitation Platform Endurance “FORESTER On The Move” (FOTM) SINR Improvement for Doppler Discrimination Deterministic motion compensation via on-board accelerometers “Bald Earth” Maps for Group-State Estimation and Activity Detection Bald-Earth mapgen from IF-SAR collection geometries Data to support FOTM and IFSAR were gathered in C-1

Outline Motivation Architecture/CONOPS Participants Schedule Summary

Summary Key challenge for FOPEN-GXP Phase 1 participants will be to advance their development on schedule to meet the intended down-selects Module A and B performers will need to lean forward DARPA will continue to work with transition partners, SOCOM and SOUTHCOM, so that FOPEN-GXP development is focused on their exploitation requirements FOPEN-GXP is an exciting program that will develop a truly groundbreaking new capability!

Back-Up

FORESTER Detection & Exploitation Processing Challenges dBm2 Range (m) Torso Limb harmonics Single dismount Doppler signature Radial Velocity (m/s) 100 50 -5 -3 -1 1 3 5 -4 -2 2 4 -20 -40 -60 -10 -30 -50 CPI: 5 s Principal challenges Complex dismount signatures Doppler signatures are aspect dependent, attenuated by foliage, time varying and complex, due to required dwell times Human & wildlife must be distinguished Airborne platform motion Platform-antenna interactions Wind-blown clutter Clutter false alarms Target discrimination Dismount signatures vary with movement, group size, observation geometry, and foliage conditions UNCLASSIFIED/FOUO