FIRST RF Phase II — dual-band UHF/X-band airborne SAR
FA8650-11-C-1016 · $749,593 · start 26 Jan 2011 · topic AF093-138
Official SBIR: lightweight dual-band UHF/X-band SAR on a modified Artemis COTS radar plus FIRST RF single-aperture antenna. SWaP ~20 lb / 150 W. Design target included Shadow 200. A concrete alternative to treating Orion as the unnamed FY2013 RF Persistent Sensing platform.
USAF PB2014/PB2015 PE 0603203F Project 6369DF completed dual-band wide-angle continuously-staring hardware on an unnamed platform in FY2013. Taxonomy correction: that line item is RF Persistent Sensing (active RF, open/reconfigurable RF architectures), not the separate Wide-Angle Continuously-Staring EO/multi-wavelength effort. FIRST RF is a closer technological match than an EO/IR WAMI reading, but the SBIR abstract does not say ‘continuously staring,’ does not cite PE 0603203F, and does not report a completed Shadow flight integration. ISIS UHF/X-band test-facility work is a second independent alternative. Orion should be downgraded as the default candidate for that unnamed platform. Platform identity remains OPEN.
Sources
- USAF SBIR award FA8650-11-C-1016
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