Officials of the US Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) Smart Collection Office in Washington has issued a broad agency announcement for the initial phase of the Great Horned Owl (GHO) programme.
The programme seeks to develop fuel-to-electricity systems that couple advanced combustion engines to alternators or generators, as well as electricity-to-thrust devices that use electric motor propulsion systems.
The Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) role for UAVs is dependent upon the ability of the UAV to do its mission without the adversary being able to counter it. For many such ISR applications, the acoustic signature of the UAV alerts the adversary to the UAV’s presence and can interfere with the mission. Battery powered UAVs are very quiet but lack endurance and payload capability. Better, more efficient, quiet power sources and propulsion techniques are needed to engineer the next generation UAVs for ISR mission applications.
The overall GHO programme seeks to develop technologies able to extend the endurance and payload capabilities of ISR UAVs. Technologies for quiet, covert UAV flight are involved in the first 15-month phase of the program. The overall GHO program should begin in February 2012 and end by June 2016.
The second phase of the GHO programme will involve air vehicle system concept development and testing, while the third phase will involve validation and flight demonstration. The second and third phases will be covered in a separate solicitation. Several contracts most likely will be awarded.
Source: FedBizOpps