listopportunitiesFULLTEXT

1) Shipboard Chemical, Biological, and Explosives Sensors: S&T in this area should develop
highly accurate sensors to be used with organic ISR systems and Visit, Search, Board, and Seizure
(VBSS) teams that produce craft threat analyses in support of GWOT and expanded maritime
interdiction operations. S&T development should include remote detection and identification of
chemical and biological threats to provide standoff protection. In addition to explosives, potential
enemies and adversaries possess or could gain access to chemical and biological weapons that could
be used against Navy assets. The Navy requires sensors and ISR analysis systems to detect and
identify those weapons to defend itself against them. A potential research area includes
nanotechnology advances in integrated multifunctional sensors and communications.

2) Transparent Seas Technology: S&T in this area should develop technology to detect, track,
identify and engage underwater threats, which includes submarines, mines, buried mines, swimmers,
autonomous underwater vehicles, and torpedoes. The Navy must be able to “see” through the sea to
detect and identify those threats and defend itself against them. S&T development should include
alternatives to acoustics techniques where applicable. Particularly difficult is the ability to “see”
buried mines located in the surfzone where the water turbidity makes transmission of RF energy a
very hard problem.

3) Next Generation Autonomous Vehicles: S&T in this area should accelerate development of
storage and power systems for off-board sensors and vehicles, particularly for closed systems (no
exhaust, intake, or vent); increased payload capacities; reduced footprint for sensors and
communications systems; common command and control architecture and systems; and robust
automated launch and recovery systems suitable for use in high sea states. Command and control
capabilities must be able to operate with a high degree of independence and increasing levels of
autonomy. Autonomy should allow a vehicle full cognizance of its environment; the ability to
coordinate independently with other vehicles in the battle space; and the ability to reach independent
decisions with respect to external influences, which includes target information.

4) Common Displays for Platforms: S&T in this area should identify critical characteristics of
human visual perception, cognition, and decision making to develop technologies to support rapid and
accurate human decision-making performance based on information received from visual displays.
The research and S&T developed through this effort will be leveraged to create policies that will
establish optimal common displays and presentation (colors, symbols, fonts, etc.) to convey data to
users with different information needs. This effort should also develop vindicated common display
elements in conjunction with Open Architecture initiatives to optimize the human machine interface,
support affordability, promote interoperability, increase warfighting capability, and enable cross-
discipline use.

5) Soft-Kill and Equipment Disabling Weapons: S&T in this area should develop standoff
personnel and electro-mechanical equipment disabling weapons. The Navy must have the capability
to non-lethally neutralize potential threats in modern warfare.

6) Naval Fires Support: S&T should determine what alternatives are available to provide Naval fires
support of USMC and joint maneuver, and which alternative would provide the most cost-effective
fires with respect to volume of fires, range, lethality, and the ability to logistically support the systems
on board ship. S&T is also needed to develop the ability to dynamically target a weapon during the
terminal guidance phase to enable smaller, fast-moving targets (cars, small boat, etc.) to be
addressed. The Navy must have an inexpensive, long-range, pinpoint accurate high explosive, arming
piercing projectile to support Marines, Army, and joint forces ashore from Navy platforms at sea at
the extreme edge of littoral regions.

7) On-Demand Logistics: S&T should integrate the development of a capability to effectively
provide “on-demand” logistics support of spare and repair parts with the architecture and software
tools that enables remote monitoring and distance support diagnostics and repairs of typical military
equipment. S&T in this area should initially determine the practicality, feasibility and cost-benefit of
just in-time “Logistics-in-Place” manufacturing for spare and repair parts. The S&T efforts should
lead to creating organic parts manufacturing capability (On Demand Manufacturing) in response to
demand rather than relying on advanced procurements based on failure rate predictions, multiple
storage locations, and supply system distribution pipelines. The effort should include extending the
technology to shipboard capability in the sea based or land-based capability (such as the Intermediate
Staging Base) in the battle space for direct support of forces and equipment.

8) Alternative Fuels and Power Sources: The source and availability of petroleum-based fuels are
likely to be economically limited in the near future. Further, the transport and delivery of large
volumes of liquid and gaseous petroleum fuel is a major impediment to the cost and the ability to
rapidly move forces. S&T should focus on an integrated energy program to increase energy
conversion efficiency of traditional fuels; identify and develop alternative fuels; and redouble energy
conservation efforts within the Fleet without reducing readiness. S&T efforts should include
accelerated development of hydrocarbon and hydrogen fuel cell technology for shipboard power
production and should leverage significant work from the auto industry and focus on medium-sized
marine fuel cells, hybrid technologies, and related energy technology such as “scavenged fuels” to
meet military fuel demands. For example, nanomaterials woven into clothing that can capture solar
energy to provide power for the individual soldier, and can do so with higher solar efficiency than
traditional crystalline materials.

9) Environmental Quality for Sustained Naval Operations: S&T in this area should develop
organic shipboard capabilities necessary to conduct sustained naval operations in compliance with
national and international environmental policies and regulations, with no adverse effect on human
health, and minimal shore dependence and environmental degradation. S&T efforts should
encompass pollution prevention, waste management, emissions, and energy efficiency.

10) Ship Survivability: Survivability (Susceptibility, Vulnerability, & Recoverability) improvement is
essential to improving ship effectiveness. Events have demonstrated that current ship survivability is
inadequate compared to previous decades. Both in-service and emerging optimally manned ships
require improvements to meet current and emerging threats. S&T in this area should focus on
reducing susceptibility to EM threats, reducing ship radar detection and classification ranges, reducing
acoustic detection range, as well as focusing on technology that will minimize and or assist in
surviving severe damage. A potential focus area includes nanotechnology research on high strength,
lightweight, antiballistic materials (nanoaluminum alloys and nanocomposites).