CECOM Acquisiton Center, Washington Operations Office, AMSEL-AC-WB-B,Hoffman 1, 2461 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22331-0700

A -- MINE HUNTER KILLER MARKET SURVEY POC Steve Schaedel, 703-704-2445, Project Engineer and Patricia Davis, Contract Specialist, 703-325-1713 MARKET SURVEY for the MINE HUNTER/KILLER ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION (ATD) Purpose of Market Survey. NVESD is conducting a market survey to identify: (a) Available products that satisfy the requirements stated below; (b) Available products at the component level that might contribute to satisfying those requirements; (c) Available products at the system or component levels that could be readily modified to satisfy or contribute to satisfying the requirements; (d) Performance specifications, costs, and lead times of these products; (e) Maintenance and other required support for these products; (f) Safety and health concerns, if any, associated with these products; (g) Potential suppliers of these products; (h) Sources capable of performing research, development, hardware and software design, integration, modelling and simulation, fabrication, and testing and evaluation to satisfy the require-ments; (i) Sources with innovative concepts for satisfying the requirements; and (j) The extent of competition in the market-place. NVESD requests that interested parties respond to this market survey by transmitting hard copy information on their relevant and specific products, capabilities and qualifications to: Commander, US Army Communications-Electronics Command, Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, ATTN: AMSEL-RD-NV-CD-MN (Steve Schaedel), 10221 Burbeck Road, Suite 430, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-5806. Advanced Technology Demonstration. The Mine Hunter/Killer (MH/K) program is in the Concept Exploration phase of materiel acquisition. It is being managed for the Army by the Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate of the Communications-Electronics Command. Spearheading the program is the MH/K Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD), which has the objectives of: (a) Demonstrating the performance of combined detection and neutralization technologies installed on a combat vehicle; and (b) Demonstrating the potential for a capable, safe, supportable, survivable, and affordable MH/K system for development during future acquisition phases. Mission Needs. The US Army needs high capabilities to breach a lane through a minefield and to clear a supply route of landmines. The Mine Hunter/Killer (MH/K) concept would provide these capabilities by both detecting and neutralizing individual landmines from a moving platform. The advantages of this approach over other countermine systems are anticipated to be higher probability of kill, higher mobility and tempo, lower life cycle cost, and higher cost-effectiveness. Performance Requirements. The primary threat is on-route ("belly-attack" or "overpass"), metallic and non-metallic antitank mines deployed in patterned and unpatterned minefields, surface-laid or buried to a depth of 5 inches (8 inches desired) of soil or sand overburden. The secondary threat is unexploded ordnance (UXO). The MH/K system will be required to (a) Be capable of detecting and neutralizing mines and UXO within a lane or path 5 meters wide (8 meters desired) at 16 kilometers/hour (32 kph desired) with a minimum 95% probability of neutralizing all mines and UXO in the lane; (b) Be reliable and logistically supportable; (c) Present no uncontrolled hazards; (d) Not degrade host vehicle mobility or interfere with other critical host vehicle functions and missions; (e) Be survivable against the mines it neutralizes and conventional small arms weapons; and (f) Be adaptable for use on a wide variety of host vehicles. Functions. Mounted on a moving, remotely-controlled combat vehicle, the MH/K system will operate semi-autonomously during its mission. The system has the following minimum functions: (a) Detect, identify, locate and track individual mines and UXO; (b) Control a weapon to aim at an individual target; (c) After authorization by the operator, fire the weapon for rapid destruction of the target; (d) Physically mark the areas containing mines or UXO; and (e) Electronically communicate the locations of those areas. Components and Technologies. Examples of the types of components and technologies that might be employed in such a system are forward-looking infrared (IR) sensors, forward looking/ground-penetrating radar (GPR), video equipment, conventional direct fire weapons and ammunition, unconventional weapons, signal processing electronics, automatic target recognition software, sensor fusion, neural network, platform stabilization and fire control, built-in test, Global Positioning System, inertial navigation, remote controls and displays, individual mine marking, and cleared lane marking. (0175)

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