Eglin AFB-based Munitions Directorate seeking new bomb and missile technologies

EGLIN AFB — The Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, part of the of the Air Force Research Laboratory, is set to spend the next five years harvesting ideas from industry, academia and other sources for new bomb and missile technologies.

Late last month, the Munitions Directorate — which works to discover, develop and deliver weapons and other technologies to Air Force and Space Force air, space and cyberspace operations — issued a "Broad Agency Announcement" setting up what will become a five-year review and selection of proposed research proposals.

A Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is a tool to obtain proposals for research and development aimed at advancing or evaluating cutting-edge technologies. BAAs may, or may not, lead to federal government contracts for implementing new technologies.

The BAA issued by the Munitions Directorate seeks research in 20 areas under the broad title of "Air Delivered Effects."

Shrimp, bees and ballistics: Look inside Eglin AFB's cutting-edge research lab

What's up with WSEP? Largest-ever maritime Weapons System Evaluation Program set for Eglin

Development of long-range 'hypersonic' weapons

Among the areas of interest to the Munitions Directorate listed in the announcement are technologies to enable the development of long-range "hypersonic" weapons, which can travel at multiple times the speed of sound and be difficult for adversaries to defend against.

U.S. military research and development of hypersonic weapons, in which Eglin is involved, has lagged behind China and Russia, both of which already have operational hypersonic weapons.

China, in particular, has been identified in the latest U.S. national defense strategy as this country's "pacing threat," a reference to its ability to challenge the United States in the economic, technological, political and military realms.

Among the more interesting of the research areas Munitions Directorate is seeking input through its BAA is what the announcement calls "bioprincipics," defined as the study and application of the principles under which biological systems work.

The Munitions Directorate already is working in bioprincipics in the Air Force Research Laboratory's Nature-Inspired Research Facility (NIRF), where ongoing work includes understanding how bees use the Earth's magnetic field to help them navigate from one place to another in a process involving tiny nodules of magnetite, an iron oxide mineral, embedded in their bodies.

Work in the NIRF also includes research into the visual capabilities of the mantis shrimp, a marine invertebrate that can see into the ultraviolet light range beyond the range of human vision.

Understanding, and perhaps "reverse engineering" the capabilities of bees could have implications for development of weapons guidance systems.

Similarly, understanding and reverse engineering the mantis shrimp's visual range could assist in allowing a missing military member to signal his or her whereabouts to rescuers without alerting enemy forces, or alternatively, allowing searchers to independently locate the person without alerting opposing forces.

But specifically in connection with the March 22-issued BAA, what the Munitions Directorate is seeking in terms of bioprincipics is "to use what is understood about the natural sensors to build small and affordable autonomous munitions sensors."

Mounted on the actual munitions, those sensors could precisely guide the weapons to their targets. Beyond that, according to the BAA, the Munitions Directorate is interested in munitions sensors employing bioprincipics that can "show speed and accuracy advantages over pure digital processing."

Weapons development: $99 million contract awarded for weapons development work at Eglin AFB

Military news: Defense spending plan authorizes $93M for Eglin AFB construction projects, $450M for Tyndall

Electronic graphics for virtual weapons testing

Also identified as a research need by the Munitions Directorate is a more robust package of electronic graphics for virtual weapons testing. Such simulation is a centerpiece of the Munitions Directorate's work.

The Air Force Research Laboratory's facilities at Eglin include the $12 million Virtual Warfare Munitions Server (VWaMS). The VWaMS includes an Immersive Decision Theater, a large room dominated by a large video screen in front of tiered sets of seats, each with its own video display monitor, and all sitting atop a massive array of computing equipment under the facility's floor.

The VWaMS is designed to provide massive capacity for modeling, simulation and analysis of weapons systems and their various applications, bringing military personnel, contractors and other parties together in a common environment.

But according to the Munitions Directorate announcement, "(n)ew scene generation techniques are needed in the areas of characterization of ... threats, urban environments, chemical/biological effects, ... multiple sensor views and advanced computing techniques."

Improved testing realism, according to the Munitions Directorate announcement, "will provide confidence that the munitions will perform as expected under a much wider variety of combat conditions than previously possible."

The announcement also tells interested parties that any work toward "scene generation" improvements "must be designed to streamline the process for evaluating guided munitions concepts from initial design to final implementation, lowering development costs and shortening time from drawing board to battlefield."

Across the remainder of the 20 research areas outlined in the Munitions Directorate announcement are highly technical enterprises such as anti-jamming technologies to protect the integrity of Global Positioning System capabilities; improving warhead materials; development of more energy-dense explosive materials; new facilities for in-house work by the Armament Directorate for what the announcement calls "... world-class research, development, integration, fabrication and testing of emerging ordnance technologies... "; improved radar technology and development of hardware and software to facilitate the autonomous operation of weapons.

A first step for entities interested in pursuing research as outlined in the Munitions Directorate announcement is the submission of a five-page "white paper," an informational document promoting the features of proposed solutions to the issues outlined in the announcement. The Munitions Directorate will accepting white papers through March 21, 2027.

More information on the announcement is available online at https://bit.ly/3r3CUvI.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Munitions Directorate at Eglin seeks bomb, missile technologies ideas