By John Knowles
The Air Force Research Lab’s Integrated Capabilities Directorate (AFRL/RST) (Wright-Patteron AFB, Ohio) is seeking white paper proposals from industry for its Ephemeral Paragon (E-Gon) program, which will improve the situational awareness and EW performance of individual weapons platforms.
According to a program description in the solicitation, ” E-Gon is an advanced software suite of tactical single-ship Electronic Warfare (EW) capabilities for the warfighter. The combined software suite provides an enhanced understanding of the Electromagnetic Operating Environment (EMOE) with a focus on algorithm adaptation, EW system management, and data management of the EMOE. The software will be developed, accelerated, integrated, and tested with Big Iron, Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA), and Open Mission systems (OMS) compliant hardware.”
The Integrated Capabilities Directorate has organized the E-Gon effort under five technical areas that were described in classified portions of the solicitation. The acquisition strategy calls for awarding five contracts – one for each technical area. Each contract will include a 15-month base contract under which the contractor will deliver a minimum viable product (MVP). “Stable releases of software will be iteratively evaluated utilizing the government-owned modeling and simulation (M&S) Advanced Research Concepts for Electronic Measures (ARCEM) toolset, Hardware-in-The Loop (HiTL), and chamber testing infrastructure, resulting in the delivery of an MVP.” If a given MVP is deemed successful, the directorate could award a 24-month option to deliver an “objective” software product, followed by a second option period to deliver an “exemplar” product.
Although the five software modules are being developed under separate contracts, program officials will establish data input/output (I/O) standards between each of the Technical Areas. This will enable the algorithms to work together as a suite. The solicitation adds that, “E-Gon will be delivered so that, under a separate effort, a single integrator can accept, transition, and integrate the software suite, or components of the software suite, onto E-Gon’s tactical platform partnerships” [i.e., tactical aircraft and other weapons systems].
The E-Gon program represents the first call for solicitations under AFRL’s larger Rapid Advanced Capability Transition (ReACT) Multiple Authority Announcement (FA2385-24-S-9701). The total E-Gon program budget is estimated to total $53 million over nearly four years.
The E-Gon solicitation (FA2385-24-S-9760) calls for White Paper proposals to be submitted by June 7. Program officials will review the White Papers and solicit further cost and technical proposals from selected vendors. Award notices are expected to be announced by August, with contracts awarded by December. The program manager is Paul Repasky, AFRL/RST, e-mail [email protected].
