FY99 ADVANCED CONCEPT TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATIONS ANNOUNCED

Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology Jacques S. Gansler announced today 11 new fiscal year 1999 Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) programs designed to evaluate mature technology to meet warfighter needs. The President's FY99 budget includes $89.83 million for on-going and new FY99 ACTD programs. This amount leverages underlying Department of Defense (DoD), military services and defense agency science and technology investments.

Numerous proposals were submitted by the military Services, theater commanders and Joint Staff. Review of the proposed ACTDs was conducted by the military services and unified commanders, with final reviews and recommendations from the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) and Office of the Secretary of Defense staff. The JROC also recommended prospective user sponsors and lead Services/agencies for the programs. A total of 11 finalists were rank-ordered by the JROC, and have been approved for start in FY99.

Marrying new operational concepts with new technologies, ACTDs are aimed at fielding new systems within two to four years. The ACTD is the Department's approach to capturing and harnessing technology and innovation rapidly for military use at reduced costs. ACTDs are designed to directly foster an alliance between the technologists and the warfighters, eliminating barriers and improving the management of these critical efforts.

Descriptions of the ACTDs selected for initiation in FY99 follow:

*Joint theater logistics visualizes the combat support system compared with the executing operations plan and the common operations picture, to enhance the command and control of combat support at the Joint Task Force.

*Common spectral MASINT (measurement and signature intelligence) exploitation applies emerging multi- and hyper-spectral imagery processing techniques to support targeting, sea-air rescue, counter-drug ops, etc.

*Theater Air and Missile Defense interoperability integrates the Patriot and Aegis theater air missile systems, resulting in an integrated air picture and extended engagement zones.

*Joint medical operations/telemedicine uses digital imaging devices and information technology to create 'telemedicine teams' to enhance diagnosis and treatments, and reduce evacuations and size of medical teams.

*Human intelligence support tools uses targeting, collection and dissemination technologies to enhance human intelligence, force protection and forensic intelligence missions.

*Battle damage assessment in joint targeting tools integrates automated combat assessment of fixed and mobile targets into the joint targeting tools system to produce physical, functional, and campaign-level assessments.

*Personnel recovery mission software integrates semi-automated image, intelligence, and passive detection tools to increase capabilities of joint search and rescue operations.

*Force medical protection/dosimeter uses personal sensors and field analyzers to detect chemical (and possibly biological) agents, resulting in casualty prevention and management through agent surveillance.

*Small unit logistics applies web-based, internet, data-interface and neural technologies to enable better command and control of tactical logistics forces.

*Compact environmental anomaly sensor uses advanced, miniaturized sensors integrated onto a Defense Support Program satellite to provide warnings of dangerous space environment conditions.

*Coherent analytical computing environment provides decision management tools for aviation assets to support AV-8B and Joint Strike Fighter 'autonomic logistics,' thereby reducing total ownership costs.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan1999/b01151999_bt016-99.html