Electric-Field (Efield) Gunshot Detection System (GDS)

Soldiers and Marines manning the Objective Gunner Protection Kit (OGPK) need an accurate, real-time notification system to detect small-arms threat locations even in complex firefight environments involving multiple shooters, different weapons (single fire to full automatic, silenced guns, subsonic bullets), background detonations and explosions, and man-made noise/interference. Existing first-shot detection systems based on acoustic sensing may lose effectiveness because of reverberation and multipath propagation, multiple threat scenarios, high levels of acoustic noise, and vibration on vehicles. Gun-fired bullets and projectiles passing through open-air regions carry electric charges which can be sensed by an electric field (E-field) sensor to determine direction of travel. QUASAR Federal Systems (QFS) has demonstrated a new class of electric field sensor with significantly reduced size and adequate sensitivity for detection of gun-fired bullets. QFS proposes to develop an E-field Gunshot Detection System (GDS) prototype optimized for the OGPK. Phase I will be a feasibility study of a design for an OGPK E-field GDS. We will also perform an outline design for the Phase II prototype during the Phase I Option phase. In Phase II, we will design and develop an integrated scientific prototype and demonstrate its performance through gunshot tests.