The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in partnership with the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Commerce, says it plans to stand up a cross-agency program called Spectrum Efficient National Surveillance Radar (SENSR) that will assess the feasibility of acquiring new surveillance solutions that could result in the consolidation of incumbent legacy surveillance radars.
The new surveillance solutions could be radar or non-radar and the consolidation would include platforms such as long-range aircraft, short-range aircraft, and weather systems. The end result might also be a system of systems surveillance capability.
“If successful, this effort may result in making the 1300 to 1350 MHZ band available for reallocation to shared Federal and/or non-Federal use,” the FAA says in an Aug. 18 announcement in the FedBizOpps.gov site.
The FAA and its partners are developing a SENSR Spectrum Pipeline Plan to seek funds from the Spectrum Relocation Fund. The fund is managed by the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The fund pays federal entities for research and development activities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their use of electromagnetic spectrum under government station licenses to make frequencies available for reallocation to non-federal use, shared federal and non-federal use, a combination of such uses, and auctions.
The fund was created through the Spectrum Relocation Fund Act of 2015.
The FAA expects that the SENSR Spectrum Pipeline Plan will be submitted to a technical panel in September. The panel consists of representatives from OMB, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the Federal Communications Commission. The panel will have 120 days to approve or disapprove the plan, which must be submitted to Congress before OMB can make the requested payment to the agencies.
If the plan is approved and once Congress is notified, the SENSR program plans to issue a Request for Information and hold an Industry Day to initiate industry involvement. The RFI is expected to be issued in early FY ’17.