The problems encountered by the U.S. Air Force earlier this year in shooting down a slow flying, high-altitude Chinese balloon have led the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to launch a small business innovation research (SBIR) effort to identify new ways to capture such objects for further analysis. DoD has said that the balloon conducted reconnaissance of U.S. military sites.
DARPA’s goal under the Capturing Aerial Payloads to Unleash Reliable Exploitation (CAPTURE) program is to conduct a final design review for a prototype within six months and a final field test within a year after the SBIR award.
“Recent incursions of U.S. airspace demonstrated limitations of the ability to recover sensitive payloads from slow-speed high-altitude objects in a manner that is both effective for follow on exploitation and scalable to employment over diverse geographic areas,” according to DARPA’s CAPTURE solicitation.
“The military’s current ability to respond to slow-moving, high-altitude objects is constrained by physics and the capabilities of current weapons systems,” DARPA said. “For example, the F-22 is one of few aircraft able to operate at an altitude above 50,000 feet. Additionally, these aircraft travel at hundreds of miles per hour while attempting to identify and target slow-moving or stationary objects. Aerial systems of interest are typically downed in areas of lower risk to humans. These constraints, coupled with current technical capabilities, result in limited engagement opportunities and difficult recovery operations.”
In February, Raytheon Technologies [RTX]-built AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles fired from Air Force fighters took down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina and three other unidentified objects off the coast of Alaska, in the Yukon territory of Canada and over Lake Huron (Defense Daily, Feb. 16).
DARPA said that potential bidders interested in CAPTURE should address how they will maintain the seized payloads, how to control descent to minimize risk to life and property, and how to capture such objects within hours of “an engagement decision.”
Potential CAPTURE systems should be between 500 pounds and 1,500 pounds and should be able to operate at altitudes between 60,000 and 75,000 feet, the agency said.
“Ultimately, DARPA is interested in the capability to down these systems and recover their payloads as intact as possible,” Kyler Woerner, the program manager of DARPA’s tactical technology office, said in a LinkedIn video.