In his first appearance in front of lawmakers, the director of the Pentagon’s shadowy Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) unveiled a number of technology initiatives that had not previously been disclosed to the public, including a mobile, ground-based version of a fighter jet radar that can defend forward-deployed troops and a prototype system that uses open source data to give commanders a more complete operational picture.
SCO has started 15 projects since the office was founded three years ago, its director William Roper told lawmakers Tuesday during a Senate Armed Services emerging threats subcommittee hearing. By the end of the year, it plans to transition six of the 23 capabilities it is working on so that the services can begin procuring them.
After the hearing, Roper would only specify one technology that is ripe for transition—an anti-ship version of Raytheon’s [RTN] Standard Missile 6. The rest are classified, he told Defense Daily.
“We haven’t failed to transition a program yet,” he said. “The 23 capabilities that are in the pipeline, six will be out of it. But all the others are still in play to transition on time.”
The Defense Department has only recently disclosed the existence of SCO and scattered details about the capabilities its pursuing (Defense Daily, Feb. 2). On Tuesday, Roper revealed a plethora of new SCO initiatives as well as additional details on those already in the public eye.
A ground based version of an F-15 radar is among the newly unveiled technologies the office is pioneering, he stated in written testimony. SCO is partnering with the Missile Defense Agency to develop a prototype radar that the department hopes will help protect troops at forward operating bases from missile raids.
SCO is also working on options to upgrade the Army’s Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), and plans to build and demonstrate a prototype that can give the Army “multiple options for next generation fires.” Those modifications are higher risk than some of the other munitions upgrades that SCO is pursuing, Roper noted.
Some of the office’s projects involve integrating commercial technologies. The Information Common Operating Picture (iCOP), for instance, uses commercial big data, analytics and deep learning technologies to compile open source data.
The prototype iCOP allows “operators to understand the effects of U.S. actions as well as foreign attempts to undermine them,” he stated. “Just last week, we released the first beta test version to support the ongoing U.S.-Philippines Balikatan exercise.”
One SCO effort that highlights how the office moves technologies across service lines is the Miniature Air Launched Decoy-X (MALD-X). Developed for the Air Force, the original MALD was designed to be launched from a fighter jet ahead of a battle, allowing the U.S. military to gather data about its adversary once it begins attacking the disposable decoy.
The MALD-X program involves substituting the payload from a typical MALD with a Navy-developed payload module that includes an Air Force jammer. The hope is to launch MALD-X from Navy aircraft, Roper said after the hearing.
One of the office’s most anticipated capabilities is the so-called “arsenal plane” that will transform a legacy aircraft into a flying weapons repository. The arsenal plane will allow stealthy fifth-generation fighters to focus on penetrating enemy air defenses without having to continually land to resupply its weapons. SCO plans to build and test an operational prototype by fiscal year 2020, he said.
The office also recently conducted a demonstration of its “Sea Mob” capability that turns small Navy boats into unmanned swarms capable of conducting surveillance. In the recent test, the unmanned boat sailed more than 800 kilometers off the East Coast under the supervision of a manned ship. The boat had to detect and avoid obstacles using an autonomy kit based on commercial tech.
“The way it works [is] you have cameras and radars with a lot of government developed algorithms running so that the boat can go out and navigate, obey the laws of the sea [and] avoid running into obstacles,” Roper said.
In the future, the Navy may be able to send in ship with fleet of unmanned small boats that can go out to islands and send back information, he said. “There are a lot of other applications we’re exploring, but it’s a fairly versatile truck for carrying in payloads that may be of interest.”
Unlike the traditional defense acquisition process—which begins with a service setting requirements based on operational needs and ends with the production of a technology—SCO works in reverse, beginning with taking a look at an existing system and adapting it for different problem sets than those for which it was originally created, he said.
“All of our projects are two- to four-year prototyping efforts, and they’re all based around [situations where] we have a cool idea, but there’s a lot of risk in it. So we partner with the service and fund it under OSD (Office of the Secretary of Defense) to try to see if we can burn down the risk and prove the concept,” he said. “The transition occurs when our money runs out. That’s when the service needs to take it.”
The office plans to release a Broad Area Announcement to industry in about a month. SCO is “looking for advantage, wherever we can find it,” Roper said, but some areas of interest include big data analytics, deep learning and inexpensive sensing and processing capabilities.
“We really hope a lot of people with great ideas will submit,” he said. “We also are hoping for some people who maybe haven’t worked with the DoD before, that we can be an outlet for them to get involved.”
The department requested $902 million for SCO in fiscal ’17, and of that sum, 36 percent will go toward Navy programs, 24 percent for the Air Force, 18 percent for the Army and 22 percent for other defense organizations and agencies, Roper stated in his testimony.
That ratio is determined by the needs of combatant commands, he said after the hearing. There are SCO teams located with Pacific Command and European Command.
“Our job is to make sure the things that we fund target their highest priorities, their highest objectives,” he said, adding that SCO helps technology transfer among the services. “I’ll tell you this, a lot of times if money is going to a particular service, it very well be going to that service because we’re going to field a capability for a different service.”