Hybrid Space Architecture II (HSA II)

Applications Due: 12/11/2023

Apply Here (Scroll to bottom of the link for the application)

Project Description

The Problem

The integration of commercial and government space-based capabilities poses a significant challenge that must be addressed to preserve operational and informational security while enabling collaboration between services, allies and other strategic partners. In the space communications arena, legacy government systems are extremely capable but are reliant on proprietary data architectures that are not scalable or easily integrated. New commercial space systems leverage modern information architectures based on open standards which improve speed, latency, scalability, and interoperability. In response, the Department of Defense (DoD) seeks additional capabilities for a Hybrid Space Architecture (HSA) to integrate emergent commercial sensor and communications capabilities with U.S. Government space systems while incorporating best-in-class commercial practices to secure and defend the network across multiple domains.?

To realize meaningful and transformative demonstration, four areas of interest are addressed in this second HSA solicitation (hereafter “HSA II”):

Persistent sensing

Data transport

High-performance edge compute (in situ)

Data fusion

Use cases span the full range of commercial, civil, national security and allied communications. This includes military operations in support of warfighters at the tactical edge and across all domains, be it land, sea, or air, transmitting or receiving time-sensitive situational awareness and decision-making information to yield effects across the strategic, operational and tactical levels through multiple communication layers and battle management command, control and communications (BMC3) architectures.

Desired Solution Attributes

The DoD seeks a hybrid space architecture to integrate emergent commercial space sensor and communications capabilities with bespoke U.S. Government space systems while incorporating best-in-class commercial practices to secure and defend the network across multiple domains. This HSA will provide secure, assured, low latency, and multi-path communications across a scalable, resilient and multi-domain network. The HSA must also be flexible enough to remain relevant and trusted during times of rapid technological change and dynamic threat environments. Software-defined networking, mission management, controls, interfaces, security and the adoption of open standards are foundational to sustaining this agility. The HSA applies state-of-the-art commercial technology at speed and scale to integrate existing and emergent capabilities across disparate government and commercial networks to include allied and friendly foreign systems. This is the second iteration of the original HSA solicitation posted in Oct 2021.

Responses to this HSA II solicitation must address at least one of the four focus areas detailed below to include the bulleted requirements or desirements listed beneath each. Submissions should state clearly how the bulleted items are satisfied with the proposed solution.

Persistent Sensing

This focus area covers commercial solutions for space-based sensing as well as solutions for centrally routing and managing commercial collection requests necessary for global ordering, storing, and accessing commercial sensor data. Additionally:

• Persistent sensing solutions should be technically mature and ready to scale, preferably with some sensors already on-orbit and available for integration into the broader HSA family of solutions within six (6) months of contract award.?
• Persistent sensing and collection management solutions must be optimized for global access and use through the HSA network and accommodate mission-planning and tasking tools that account for commercial space and terrestrial sensor availability, priority, and pricing. Cloud connectivity must provide secure data storage and low-latency intelligence and commercial information dissemination.
• Persistent sensing solutions must address a willingness to accommodate common standards and interfaces (existing or prototyped through participation in HSA) that will simplify tasking, reporting status of mission availability, preparation for transport, receipt, decoding, ingestion, storage, retrieval, search, filtering, processing, and dissemination to end-users.
• Persistent sensing solutions which demonstrate a strong balance between fidelity, coverage, and frequency of revisit may be viewed favorably.
• Persistent sensing solutions that can showcase low latency, multi-sensor revisit, or cross cue correlation to dynamically track a specific object of interest may be viewed favorably.

Resilient Data Transport

This focus area covers resilient satellite/stratollite communications systems and free space optical components that are scalable to enable low latency, persistent broad- and narrowband line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight communications either independently or via multi-path routing. In this context, resiliency will be assessed as the ability to rapidly constitute and reconstitute production-quality space systems in mission-designed orbits providing flexible spectrum requirements at an affordable cost, speed and scale to meet mission needs. This focus area includes commercial solutions for multi-modal and multi-spectrum transport of information necessary to support and sustain the proliferation of satellites across a variety of orbits, optical switching and free space optical communications (to, from or through space), the ability to incorporate Internet of Military Things (IoMT) devices, the ability to use existing ground terminals or mobile communication devices (to include 5G or future non terrestrial cellular standards) without modification, and the ability to implement government Software Defined Network interfaces for dynamic routing. Additionally:

• Transport solutions already on-orbit must be accessible for demonstration and support broader HSA prototyping at time of contract award. Future features and enhancements described within the submission should be available for on-orbit demonstration within 6-12 months of contract award.
• On-orbit solutions demonstrating multi-band waveforms, cross satellite connections, low-observable links, or global coverage may be viewed favorably.
• Transport submissions offering optical communication solutions capable of real-time endpoint switching and live on-orbit communications within 6-12 months of contract award may be viewed favorably.
• Transport submissions must describe current efforts or future plans for post-quantum cybersecurity and encryption key distribution that will support and enhance a secure and agile communication architecture.
• Transport submissions should clearly indicate the extent to which they are willing to team and collaborate with other HSA-awarded companies. As part of the prototyping and demonstration processes, this may entail adopting government or commercial standards and interfaces for cross-communication, and sharing of essential (but not sensitive) information necessary for test, integration and demonstration.?
• Free Space Optics (FSO) solutions should provide continuous, high bandwidth, secure, and novel solutions that increase resiliency and flexibility for multipath communications.

High Performance Edge Compute

This focus area covers commercial solutions necessary for the autonomous processing of advanced analytics (to include computer vision) and workflow algorithms at the edge (or in situ)for more timely delivery of information to end-users. Desired solutions will enable cross cueing suggestions or taskings to be made on orbit, drastically reducing the latency of terrestrial systems that typically traverse multiple uplinks and downlinks to coordinate the actions of different on-orbit sensors. Edge computing submissions must also:?

• Be available for prototyping and demonstration within 6 months of award.?
• Be able to support and accelerate computational performance within one or more of the following categories, detailing improvements in service delivery: image tagging, sorting, and pattern-of-life analysis; voice and video communications; position, navigation, and timing (PNT); radiation mapping and forecasting; geolocation; weather mapping and forecasting; space domain awareness, RF signal analysis, cross cueing recommendations or taskings; or missile defense solutions leveraging proliferated communications and sensing.

Fusion

This focus area covers commercial solutions necessary for secure data aggregation and analysis to provide or enable modeling and simulation, mission planning, mission management, and execution decision point criteria for end users and decision makers.

• Fusion solutions must be mature and accessible for demonstration and suitable for adaptation and additional prototyping upon contract award. This prototyping will primarily consist of integration into the larger fabric of HSA solutions and connecting backend and frontend capabilities to support the evolution of the architecture.
• Fusion submissions that describe mature automated network realization tools and can identify user connectivity limitations (including bandwidth and classification) and convert remote sensor data into appropriate formats for end users may be viewed favorably.
• Fusion submissions that describe mature means for low latency, multi-sensor, and cross data source fusion to demonstrate the tracking of specific objects of interest may be viewed favorably.
• Software solutions enabling computations to be performed on data while in an encrypted state are desired.

Additional notes or instructions (applicable to all submissions):

• IMPORTANT: In order to expedite review and selection and to meet the desired project timeline, responding companies will be limited to one total submission per focus area. Submissions which address multiple focus areas or describe a variety of options or teaming arrangements should attempt to do so within the same submission. Updates to a solution may be provided during the response window, and only the most recently received submission will be reviewed.
• Submissions must explicitly state whether the proposed solution is available for live demonstration within 3 months of award. This timeline does not need to account for launch to orbit for space-based platforms or capabilities, but full direct or surrogate demonstration within 3 months is a primary consideration for selection. Prototype schedule and cost will be considered independently of launch schedule and cost.
• Companies are requested to identify any partnerships necessary to realize the solution described in their proposal.?
• The government may facilitate teaming arrangements among submissions offering complementary capabilities to achieve desired effect. Companies are also welcome to present their own teaming arrangements in their solution brief but must integrate those arrangements within a single submission.
• Companies are encouraged to leverage existing commercial or government systems in their submissions.
• See this video , produced by the United States Space Force, for more information and about the overarching vision for a Hybrid Space Architecture.
• Companies without a CAGE code will be required to register via SAM.gov if selected. The Government recommends that prospective Companies begin this process as early as possible.
• Resellers, integrators, and academic research proposals are not desired.
• Any resulting agreement from this AOI will include language requiring your Company to confirm compliance with Section 889 of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (Pub. L. 115-232). If you are unable to confirm compliance with the referenced law, the Government is unable to enter into an Agreement with your Company.
• Requests for Prototype Proposal (RPP) may not be issued to selected vendors if there is insufficient coverage across available solutions such that the objectives of the project cannot be achieved. In this scenario, the project will not proceed to an award phase.

Eligibility Requirements

Submissions are encouraged from U.S. and international companies that are not financially backed by public or private investors affiliated with sanctioned states or entities.

Awarding Process

DIU

Article Source: DIU Submission - Hybrid Space Architecture II (HSA II)