Electro-Optical/Infrared Tactical Decision Aid

SBIR topic DON27BZ02-NV013 (U.S. Department of Defense – Navy), Phase I and II. Open to U.S. small businesses. Opens: December 2, 2026. Closes: January 6, 2027. The United States Navy (USN) requires the capability to rapidly predict the performance of sensors that depend on the propagation of electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) radiation (i.e., wavelengths from 0.4 to 12 micron) in air. Sensor performance is subject to environmental/meteorologic conditions, as well as sensor, platform, background/clutter, and target characteristics. For a given sensor on a platform and a target in background/clutter, a forecaster should be able to determine key performance metrics; for example, maximum detection range based on the forecasted meteorological conditions. In this way, USN commanders can make tactical decisions based on the predicted sensor performance given ambient/forecast weather conditions. Key modeling components within a TDA include the land/maritime surface background, target signature, radiative transfer, and sensor performance models. These models are often interdependent, requiring feedback between them (e.g., radiative transfer between target and background models is needed to compute the contrast of the target in the background, which then feeds into a sensor performance model). Target Acquisition Weapons Software (TAWS), a successor to Electro-Optic Tactical Decision Aid (EOTDA), was originally developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and released in 1998. Later a target scene model improvement for selected high-resolution targets was implemented with Multi-Service Electro-optics Signature (MuSES). The USN is looking for an innovative and accurate EO/IR TDA, which would be an alternative/improvement to TAWS. Improvements could include support for three dimensional meteorological inputs. The primary challenge for implementing an EO/IR TDA is the methodical verification and validation (V&V) of the constituent models and submodels being developed.…