Future Sensor Technology Systems (FSTS)

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 OWLâ„¢ and McQ RANGERâ„¢ 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.