DEVELOPMENT OF COVERT COMMUNICATIONS APPLIQUE

THIS PROPOSAL DESCRIBES AN INVESTIGATION INTO DESIGN APPROACHES FOR A COVERT COMMUNICATIONS APPLIQUE FOR EXISTING NAVY VHF AND UHF RADIOS SUCH AS THE PRC-117, WSC-3 AND ARC-182. THE PROPOSAL DESCRIBES THE POTENTIAL REDUCTIONS IN DETECTABILITY DUE TO DECREASED TRANSMIT POWER OR DECREASED TRANSMIT POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY FOR POWER CONTROL AND SPREAD SPECTRUM APPROACHES. THE PROPOSAL ALSO CONSIDERS SOME OF THE TOP LEVEL DESIGN ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTING POWER CONTROL AND FEEDBACK CONTROL SYSTEMS, AND OFFERS CONCEPTUAL TRADE-OFFS BETWEEN COMPLEXITY AND PERFORMANCE GAINS. PHASE I PROGRAM OBJECTIVES INCLUDE DEFINITION OF COVERT PERFORMANCE METRICS, DEFINITION OF PLATFORM AND PROPAGATION CONSTRAINTS, IDENTIFICATION OF CANDIDATE APPROACHES, PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AGAINST THE DEFINED METRICS, TOP LEVEL DESIGN, EVALUATION AGAINST ECONOMIC CONSTRAINTS AND PREPARATION OF A FINAL REPORT. IF SUCCESSFUL, THE PROGRAM WOULD LEAD TO A PHASE II HARDWARE MODEL.