Barone Consulting’s, RF communications systems and flight test expertise contracted by DARPA I2O to provide BLADE Phase 3, adaptive electronics warfare program support.
Washington, DC (October 1, 2013) – The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), through the Information Innovation Office (I2O), has awarded Barone Consulting, a $532K task order for the Behavioral Learning for Adaptive Electronic Warfare (BLADE) Phase 3 Program, systems engineering, and technical assistance (SETA) support effort.
“Barone Consulting is excited to continue its support of the adaptive BLADE electronic warfare jamming system by following it into its phase 3 development and field testing. With Phase 2 we were pushing the envelope to see what innovative algorithms the performers could bring to BLADE. In Phase 3, we’ll see how well those algorithms hold up in a tactically relevant environment,” said Kevin Barone, President and CEO of Barone Consulting.
The BLADE Program is developing the capability to counter new and dynamic wireless communication threats in tactical environments; enabling a shift from today’s manual-intensive lab-based countermeasure approach to an adaptive, in-the-field systems approach. The program is achieving this by developing novel machine learning algorithms and techniques that can rapidly detect and characterize new radio threats, dynamically synthesize new countermeasures, and provide accurate battle damage assessment based on over-the-air observable changes in the threat.
Under this task order Barone Consulting will provide subject matter experts responsible for overseeing the technical development of implementing the BLADE Phase 2 solution into a deployed hardware framework, and execution of the Phase 3 ground and flight testing activities. Either Lockheed Martin Advanced Technologies Laboratories in Cherry Hill, NJ, or BAE Systems in Nashua, NH, will be down selected as the BLADE Phase 3 performer.
The work for the BLADE Program was awarded under a task order to Booze Allen Hamilton’s DARPA/I2O contract vehicle. All work will be completed onsite at DARPA’s new headquarters in Arlington, VA, over the next 18-24 months.
Founded in 2009, Barone Consulting provides system engineering and technical assistance services to the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. They provide a cadre of elite subject matter experts to the government in support of game-changing, cutting edge technologies that help performers bridge the “valley of death” between R&D and fielded tactically relevant products. To find out more, please visit www.baronedc.com.