Advanced Components for EW (ACE) Program Lays Out Plans for New EW Capabilities

摘要

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Sensors Directorate (Wright Patterson AFB, OH) has completed the first phase (Phase 0) of its comprehensive Advanced Components for EW (ACE) program, and it has made recommendations on how to move forward with the exponentially-rapid, EW technology development effort. Ten contracts totaling $3M were awarded to nine contractors under the program last June to create advanced components to "revolutionize future US EW capabilities that leap-ahead of the systems capabilities of others that use globally-available commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components." As described by Dr. Stephen Hary, principal engineer, AFRL Sensors Directorate, and ACE Program Phase 0 program manager, "the focus of ACE was not to invent new technology, but to leap ahead and rapidly harvest technology - to take it and mature it beyond the 'on-the-laboratory-shelf state into EW-relevant brassboard systems ready for technology insertion at the end of a four-year time period." While Hary observes that some advancement in EW capabilities can be achieved through better Concept of Operations (CONOPS) and improved operating techniques and tactics, "the ACE program recognizes that focused investments in fundamental technology areas that don't pull from the same COTS tech base that everyone else is pulling from," are what is needed for rapid capability improvements.