A -- AUTONOMOUS REAL-TIME GROUND UBIQUITOUS SURVEILLANCE- IMAGING SYSTEM (ARGUS-IS)

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Information Exploitation Office (IXO), announces a Briefing to Industry (BTI) associated with the intended release of Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) 07-23, the Autonomous Real- time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) Program. The purpose of the BTI is to outline the ARGUS-IS Program technical goals and problems to potential Proposers. All presented materials will be made available via Internet when the BAA 07-23 is published, along with a FAQ including all questions and answers. The BTI is scheduled for 8 February 2007, and will be held in Arlington, VA, from 8:30 AM to 2:00 PM. Because the location for the BTI has limited seating capacity, it is desired that organizations restrict representation to two attendees. Detailed information about the BTI may be found at: https://www.schafertmd.com/argus/. A no-cost, pre-registration for the BAA 07-23 BTI is required. A list of attendees, including name, organization, phone number, and (optionally) specific teaming interest will be posted at that URL. The deadline for the BTI pre-registration is 6 February 2007. The full BAA 07-23 solicitation is anticipated to be released on or about 2 February 2007 through FedBizOpps. Attendance is not required to propose to the BAA 07-23. Similarly, attendance will have no direct bearing on proposal evaluations. The objective of the ARGUS-IS program is to develop a system that provides a real-time, high-resolution, wide area video persistent surveillance capability and transition this capability to the military. The ARGUS-IS program is seeking to provide an expanding range of capabilities enabling wide area persistent surveillance. ARGUS-IS is composed of three major technology components/subsystems, a Gigapixel Sensor Subsystem, an Airborne Processing Subsystem and a Ground Processing Subsystem. The ARGUS-IS Airborne Subsystem is formed by integrating the Gigapixel Sensor and Airborne Processing Subsystems together. The packaging of the airborne subsystems should be compatible with a variety of UAS including Extended Range/Multiple Purpose (ER/MP), Aerostat, and A-160 (Hummingbird). The ARGUS-IS system will be tested and evaluated during a series of flight experiments utilizing a surrogate UAV. It is expected that a 200 megabit per second data link will be utilized for these flight experiments. Interested parties to this notice are cautioned that nothing herein obligates the Government to issue a future solicitation. Additionally, the Government will no provide cost reimbursement for attendance to the ARGUS-IS BTI.