TReX II-RFI-24-D: Digital RF Battlespace Emulator (DRBE) Test & Evaluation (T&E) Transition Study
RFI Issue Date: 17 May 2024
Due Date: 14 June 2024 at 12:00 PM ET
Background & Problem Statement
Background
Under an ongoing program, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing DRBE: a real-time, large-scale, high-fidelity, fully interactive environment to support the development and test of future Electronic Warfare (EW), communications, and radar systems. DRBE uses a real-time high-performance computing system to synthesize a multi-port propagation environment that allows real radio frequency (RF) systems to interact at scale; DRBE does not directly generate RF signals; rather it provides the real-time RF propagation calculations and applies those effects between numerous entities at the digital in-phase quadrature (IQ) level based on spatial locations. DRBE connects to Systems-Under-Test (SUT) at RF or real-time digital twins through streaming digital IQ interfaces. SUTs can be: 1) open loop, i.e., transmitting RF signals into the RF environment or receiving signals from the RF environment, or 2) closed loop, i.e., executing representative real-time software to control its receiver and transmitter in response to a dynamic RF environment. DRBE allows end users to assess the effectiveness of EW techniques at scale, evaluating RF compatibility of diverse many-on-many systems in mission context, and providing a training environment for future EW systems that are capable of learning from experience.
Several T&E facilities have indicated interest in potentially transitioning DRBE into their lab T&E environments. These include:
- Electronic Combat Simulation and Evaluation Laboratory (ECSEL) at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pt. Mugu, California
- Next Generation Electronic Warfare Environment Generator (NEWEG) at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland
- Guided Weapons Evaluation Facility (GWEF) at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida
These facilities typically have a suite of RF assets and need to simulate or emulate many-on-many test scenarios. DRBE offers the potential to scale to much larger scenarios than previously possible. Generally, the scenarios are controlled with software such as Advanced Framework for Simulation, Integration and Modeling software (AFSIM), Next Generation Threat System (NGTS), or Integrated Threat Analysis and Simulation Environment (ITASE).
The Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) would like to understand which facilities would benefit most from integrating this technology, what technical challenges need to be addressed, and the effort required to support such integration. TRMC anticipates that different facilities may face different integration challenges and may additionally require distinct hardware and software components.
The final DRBE product is expected to be unclassified, while conversations with the T&E facilities will be classified at collateral SECRET or higher.
Goals
This request for information (RFI) has the following goals:
- Perform a feasibility study that identifies (i) a list of T&E facilities that would benefit most from DRBE, including supporting use cases, (ii) the integration challenges that these facilities would face, and (iii) an estimate of associated costs;
- Identify method(s) by which TRMC can validate how well DRBE will integrate into these facilities, such as simulation and/or model-based systems engineering (MBSE); and
- Identify which technical and legal agreements need to be in place to facilitate integration.
Vendors should provide:
- A description of the tasks needed to accomplish the above goals;
- A rough-order-of-magnitude cost and schedule estimate; and
- A list of relevant experience demonstrating that the vendor understands the T&E task, integration challenges and ability to produce future DRBE systems (with government provided design and technical data packages).
Technical Liaison: Trung Nguyen, (407) 208-3189, trung.d.nguyen2.civ@army.mil
Alternate Technical Liaison: Robert Williams, (623) 565-1640, robert.e.williams1377.civ@army.mil
