The US Army desires to prototype advanced test and assessment processes and methodologies to support the development, demonstration, and assessment of a Hardware in the Loop (HWIL) Technology Advancement Testbed (TAT) comprised of a family of systems and simulated environments. The HWIL TAT prototype project will seek to advance and accelerate the testing of proposed and emerging technological systems by enabling simulations of core capabilities in a modular and replicable environment. These systems and simulated environments will include hypersonic, missile defense, Directed Energy (DE), and small satellites. The HWIL TAT prototype project will further seek to advance the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s (SMDC) portfolio of future weapons and sensors by combining the essential elements required to form doctrine and Measures of Effectiveness (MOE).
The HWIL TAT prototype will be a multi-purpose testbed replicating realistic environments and component/subsystem performance through high-fidelity physics-based models, hardware (H/W), and test fixtures through the use of a standardized and tested prototyping architecture and data flow. The HWIL TAT prototype will facilitate Analysis of Alternatives (AoAs) and trade studies for shaping future offensive hypersonic, missile defense, DE, and small satellite solutions. The HWIL TAT prototype family of systems and prototyping ecosystem will allow for a modular and agile creation of unique and diverse resourced solutions. The HWIL TAT prototype will demonstrate a common HWIL Test and Evaluation (T&E) framework to analyze capabilities and limitations of weapons, sensors, and doctrine. Poor choices early in technology development drive major life cycle costs. Simulating and emulating as realistic an environment as possible will provide greater insight and higher confidence in technology selection. By viewing HWIL TAT as a common HWIL architecture and process/testbed for SMDC across multiple technology initiatives, cost sharing with common components will be realized and common interface standards can be established. When the architecture and testing methodology is realized, the insurgence of prototypes can be realized quickly and with fewer resources.
The HWIL TAT prototype project is a one-of-a-kind development activity that is directly relevant to enhancing and improving the operational effectiveness of HWIL T&E capabilities in a common and uniform prototyping approach to find success or failure as effectively as possible. The implementation of the HWIL TAT prototype systems project will be agile sprints focused on specific technologies, processes, methodologies, and concepts once the base architecture and data inputs, outputs, interfaces, and dependencies are created.
Any questions regarding this soon to be released opportunity should be directed to [email protected].