Solution Description:

ARTEMIS has successfully demonstrated SAR and real-time GMTI onboard balloons in the stratosphere. Solar-powered stratospheric platforms remain aloft for weeks at a time, providing wide-area persistent ISR from a distance that can aid in avoiding detection by the adversary. Unmanned, solar-powered, stratospheric airplanes have the advantages of long-duration (multi-week) flights with the ability to fly precisely where desired. HALE (meaning High-Altitude Long-Endurance) airplanes have the potential to supply more power to the payload than a balloon, and, unlike a satellite, can maintain persistence over an area of interest for days or weeks without gaps. Development of a capable, multi-function radar / RF sensor for use on HALE provides disruptive capabilities and long-range persistent ISR with real-time data dissemination, providing situational and battlefield awareness for denied and disrupted environments and for a variety of Air Force missions. The proposed project is for us to take our SBIR-developed SlimSDR technology and to develop and demonstrate its multi-function versatility and long-range capabilities on a HALE. The project enhances Air Force capabilities by immediately providing the new capabilities of the HALE platform, and the SAR, GMTI, direction finding (DF), signals analysis, and electronic warfare (EW) capabilities provided by the SlimSDR.