For Official Use Only

FOPEN-GXP Program Overview

Vincent Sabio

Program Manager

9/22/2010

For Official Use Only

Outline

• Motivation

• Architecture/CONOPS

• Participants

• Schedule

• Summary

For Official Use Only

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

• 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 Coverage for a YMQ-18A (A160T) at 15 kft

Max range ~15 km for

dismounts under foliage

Antenna steering allows coverage of 90° sector

For Official Use Only

• Ft. A.P. Hill, Virginia – Jan-Oct 2007• FORESTER on Black Hawk• Single canopy

• Mocoron, Honduras – Sept-Oct 2008• FORESTER on Black Hawk• Double canopy

FORESTER Data Collections

• 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”• FORESTER on YMQ-18A (A160T)• Double canopy

For Official Use Only

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

1. Discriminate persistent false alarmsfrom activity

2. Discriminate humans from animals

3. Determine group position, size,and direction of travel

4. 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

FORESTER Success Motivates FOPEN-GXP

FORESTER detects groups of dismounts movingbetween NAIs under foliage

Ft. Stewart, 2009, ~30 mins of detection data displayed

For Official Use Only

The Challenge

Are they people or animals?If people, how many are there?

Where are they going?What are they doing?

For Official Use Only

Outline

• Motivation

• Architecture/CONOPS

• Participants

• Schedule

• Summary

For Official Use Only

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

Architecture

Group State

Estimator

To be developed on F-GXP

Doppler Discriminat

or

Classificationlikelihoods

Group state estimates (pos, direction, size)

Activity Detector

Platform & Sensor Planner*

Platformcontroller

Doppler signatures

GMTI detections(incl. BF Tags)

Radar service requests

Elevation, land cover, LOC

modelsActivity modelsActivity estimates

Platform controls (waypoints, surv-eillance positions)

Target deck & mission

constraints

Not modified

Key

Data

A-160 Ground Station FOPEN-GXPFunctional

Architecture

Prioritized information needs

Radar

*Phase 2

For Official Use Only

CONOPS

Understanding the potential FORESTER OCONUS CONOPS will help tailor the solution to the desired mission capability

• Questions asked of SOCOM/SOUTHCOM:o What IPB is typically available when the platform is

dispatched/chopped to a new AOI?o How does the platform assist in refining the initial IPB, outside of its

standard/defined mission?o How are NAIs defined within the intended operational context of the

FORESTER system?o How are NAIs nominated? Are they typically known in advance? Are

they discovered during operations? Both?o Typically how many NAIs will there be within a single AOI? Single

digits? Tens? Hundreds?o 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.

For Official Use Only

Outline

• Motivation

• Architecture/CONOPS

• Participants

• Schedule

• Summary

For Official Use Only

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

o Distinguish Human/Animal/Cluttero Down-select to single contractor for integration in 6-8 months

• Module B: Group State Estimatoro Track group movemento Estimate group compositiono Down-select to single contractor for integration in 10-12 months

• Module C: Activity Detectoro Characterize all human activity in areao Single contractor

Multiple approaches will be down-selected prior to Phase 2

Program Structure

For Official Use Only

System Integration and Analysis

Integration Framework

Performers’ Roles

Group State Estimator

Module A:Doppler

Discriminator

Activity Detector

ASIISL†

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

For Official Use Only

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 CarenderRon Goodman

Systems Analysis,IV&V Support and Analysis

CERDEC Peter LamannaKevin O’Hanlon

System Verification (IV&V),FORESTER test planning

MIT LL Jen JaoMike Yamaguchi

Advanced Radar Modes Analysis,Future GXP Capabilities

For Official Use Only

Outline

• Motivation

• Architecture/CONOPS

• Participants

• Schedule

• Summary

For Official Use Only

Schedule

Ft Stewart

and Hondura

sData

System

Demos

Insert

Sys v

2.0

BAA

Ind. Day

Awards

Contracts

F-GXP v2.0Demo &

Test

Data

Inserts

Country-2 Tests/Ops

Insert

Sys v

1.0

Country-1

Tests

Doppler Discriminator

Data to Support FOPEN-GXPDevelopment & Testing

Version 2.0

Group StateEstimator

Activity Detector

System Integration

Down-

Selec

tDow

n-Sel

ect

F-GXP v1.0Demo &

Test

FY10 FY11 FY12Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Phase 1 Phase 2

For Official Use Only

• 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

deployedo 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

FORESTER Data

For Official Use Only

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

o Fort Stewart and Honduras only for Module A

o Potentially for Belize data for Module B

o Entire segments

• Functionality will be assessed by independent reviewers on the government team, with appropriate recusal

Phase 1 Down-Select

For Official Use Only

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

o “FORESTER On The Move” (FOTM)

• SINR Improvement for Doppler Discrimination

o Deterministic motion compensation via on-board accelerometers

• “Bald Earth” Maps for Group-State Estimation and Activity Detection

o Bald-Earth mapgen from IF-SAR collection geometries

FOPEN-GXP Phase 2

Data to support FOTM and IFSAR were gathered in C-1

For Official Use Only

Outline

• Motivation

• Architecture/CONOPS

• Participants

• Schedule

• Summary

For Official Use Only

• 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

Summary

FOPEN-GXP is an exciting

program that will develop a

truly groundbreaking new

capability!

For Official Use Only

Back-Up

For Official Use Only

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

FORESTER Detection & Exploitation Processing Challenges

UNCLASSIFIED/FOUO

Dismount signatures vary with movement, group size, observation geometry, and foliage conditions

dBm2

Ran

ge (

m)

Torso

Limb harmonics

Single dismount Doppler signature

Radial Velocity (m/s)

100

50

0

50-5 -3 -1 1 3 5-4 -2 0 2 4

0

-20

-40

-60

-10

-30

-50CPI: 5 s