The Navy is seeking industry input in its ongoing analysis of alternatives for a new, ship-based electronic warfare countermeasures system that service officials hope to have on the water by fiscal year 2018, a recent command notice states.
The service released additional specifics yesterday regarding the request for information (RFI) for the Ship-launched Persistent Integrated Countermeasures for Electronic Warfare (SPICE) program issue in March. Industry proposals are due to Navy officials by May 13.
The SPICE program, as envisioned, will either be an unmanned aerial or underwater vehicle able to carry a counter-EW payload between 35 to 50 pounds and be “capable of autonomous operation and have communications capability for minimal interaction with the launch [and] control platform to receive mission updates and report health and location status,” according to the command notice posted on FederalBusinessOpportunities.com.
Once deployed, the SPICE platforms will be fielded on the Navy’s fleet of cruisers and destroyers, as well as the Littoral Combat Ships. Industry participants were instructed not to include any developmental information on the EW payload for the platform, according to the notice. Service officials plan to issue a separate RFI for the SPICE EW payload, it added.
That said, Navy planners are looking to achieve an “unobstructed” 90 degree field on board the counter EW sensor payload. However, field of view for that requirement “will be heavily concept of operations and threat dependent,” the notice states.
In terms of command and control, the SPICE system will be able to control and monitor up to three separate unmanned vehicles simultaneously from a single control station. Those rotating UAVs or UUVs are expected to be on station for up to 24 hours, conducting counter EW and fleet protection operations, the notice states.
All technologies proposed for SPICE development will be weighed heavily against the home ship’s manning requirements, in that any application should not require additional manpower on board.
“Conclusions drawn from the AoA will form a portion of the basis for a Milestone B decision, currently planned for FY ’13,” it adds. “Funding for this effort is expected to be available in FY ’12 with a low-rate initial production planned for FY ’18.”
Additionally, those future technologies will be derived from “the state-of-the art [applications] available today and innovative solutions that can be shown to be expected to be mature in the allotted timeframe” and must hit Technology Readiness Level 6 (TRL 6) by the Milestone B deadline of FY ’13, Navy officials write.