Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Without the Global Positioning System (GPS)

Deployed military personnel are required to navigate, assess, and mitigate threats within complex, unknown structures located in hostile environments where access to satellite-transmitted GPS-based positioning signals may be limited, unavailable, or intentionally denied. The lack of accurate, real-time location data impacts mission-level situational awareness, particularly for operations that require the coordination of teams within spaces across large, difficult to navigate areas. Maintaining real-time, accurate accountability of personnel, weapons, and equipment within complex, dynamic environments during military response operations is critical to ensuring successful mission outcomes.   Over the past year, we have been working with SOCOM teams to adapt and evolve the Namatad FIREFLY platform into a complete location-aware, accountability system capable of being quickly deployed to identify and track the location of personnel, weapons, and equipment within GPS-denied environments. The FIREFLY system consists of small, lightweight location-aware tags that enable real-time tracking using field-deployable anchors, as well as an analytical hub and ATAK-based visualization application that enables unprecedented localization visibility in GPS-denied areas. Originally designed to enable the real-time tracking of firefighters with large, complex structures during fire response operations, we have incorporated warfighter-centric capabilities into FIREFLY to enable military teams to account for the real-time location of personnel, weapons, and equipment within complex tunnel systems across multiple entrances. In addition, we have integrated FIREFLY devices with currently deployed military radio systems such as the Persistent Systems MPU-5 radios used by Special Forces teams. We now have a solid system design for enhanced accountability and location awareness within the SOCOM subterranean use scenario and are currently completing final scalability tests. However, the FIREFLY Platform has further potential to augment a broad variety of Army operations. In this proposal we describe the key modifications and our plan to implement and integrate adaptations and system improvements into our system. These adaptations include design changes in the following five key areas: 1) Miniaturized, multi-modal AoA-capable devices using an array of multiple antennas, 2) enhanced geospatial visualization capabilities within our ATAK plug-in, and 3) integrated support for multiple operational domains. We outline the key design changes for each of these areas as well as a sequence of execution steps for completion. At the conclusion of the Sequential Phase II, we will have a ready-to-deploy, defense-focused version of the FIREFLY system for warfighters. The final product will directly benefit the Army and defense forces and significantly advance FIREFLY's features and capabilities for the public safety sector including firefighters, wildland fire crews, and law enforcement.