Multipath Environment for Advanced Surveillance and Reconnaissance (MEASuRe)

Problem: Objective 1.4 of the DoD Electromagnetic Spectrum Superiority Strategy outlines the need to develop robust Electromagnetic Battle Management (EMBM) capabilities - including the ability to “monitor, identify, characterize, and adapt to the operational environment”. As adversary capabilities, tactics, and techniques continue to improve (e.g., proliferation of small RF platforms and communication links, masking or blanking modes of operation when known or perceived collection is occurring, etc.), enhanced techniques for conducting covert surveillance and reconnaissance of RF signals is required to achieve the knowledge necessary for effective EMBM. Examples of enhanced collection techniques include leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) and/or dispersed sensor systems to conduct collections. One of the most difficult, complex, and critical factors to understanding the EMS environment for enhanced collection techniques is multipath effects - when signals reflect off of various objects and coincidentally arrive at a receiver from multiple paths. Current methods for evaluating this phenomenon are primarily conducted in siloed software suites for electromagnetic simulation and do not take into account the larger geospatial context important for mission planning and execution. Opportunity: MapLarge will conduct applied research and development (R&D) of an application extension that applies EMS multipath propagation to a geospatial, mission planning operating picture in support of enhanced collection techniques described above. In the initial phase of this effort, MapLarge will conduct R&D to determine the feasibility of the proposed solution by conducting customer discovery, requirements definition, and incremental development with the goal of achieving end-user validation of the solution in preparation for Phase II. In subsequent phases, MapLarge will develop full-prototype capability to support mission planners in orchestrating optimal collection layouts (e.g., avoiding potential dead zones) and eventually supporting tactical deployment by demonstrating live, near-real time collection modifications based on changing conditions utilizing MapLarge software deployed on collection platforms (i.e., at the edge).