SBIR-STTR Award

The proposed effort will be based on sensor, communications, information security, information management and display technologies that are commercially available. The proposed effort will demonstrate the Future Sensor Technology System (FSTS) which provides immediate target information using no terrestrial infrastructure, requiring no operator training, and minimal operational planning. Once sensors are placed or dropped into an area of interest, the situation awareness is available to many distributed users on their standard display platforms. McQ will provide a Phase I SBIR plan to use existing commercial technologies and develop a derivative product for the Air Force that will communicate through the Iridium NEXT satellite communication constellation. The plan for incorporating McQ OWL and McQ RANGER commercial sensors with Iridium satellite modems will be described in technical detail in the Phase I SBIR effort. The Phase I SBIR plan will also address hardening both the RANGER and the OWL sensors for airdrop operations to fulfill some of the mission requirements. McQ has developed military application sensors for hardened air drop operations. Both sensors will be upgraded to the Satcom derivative capability in a Phase II SBIR ready to go into production following a demonstration of TRL-8 status.Secure Cloud,unattended ground sensors,Iridium Satcom,Information Security,SURVEILLANCE,Data Fusion,Global network,Situation awareness

The FSTS proposed technology is an important technology step into the future. One of the important features of the proposed AFWERX FSTS SBIR solution is it marries completely with the future. The new Iridium NEXT communications constellation was just completed this year and has a 20 to 30 year expected life. The new constellation has important security; anti jam; satellite timing and location (STL), total global coverage, extremely low latency, and low power consumption ground sensors to communicate from anywhere in the world. McQ has two new commercial sensors it will demonstrate sending target information through Iridium. The proposed SBIR approach removes the large cost and operational difficulty of setting up terrestrial communications by using the global Iridium communications network. Target data is available immediately when sensors are deployed. Secure distribution of situation awareness information is available as soon as a sensor mission begins. This architecture permits very fast Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Fusion processing that can quickly screen large Big Data information. Geo referenced data is then tailored in seconds for reporting to Command Centers and field operators at the edge. Multi source information fusion and AI can provide new advances in ISR information under the proposed concept.