Booz Allen to integrate high-power electromagnetics (HPEM) into cyber and electronic warfare (EW)

KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. – RF and microwave experts at Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, Va., are helping U.S. Air Force researchers find ways to integrate high-power electromagnetics (HPEM) into military cyber and electronic warfare (EW) systems.

Officials of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directed Energy Directorate's High-Powered Electromagnetics Division (RDH) at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., announced a $10 million contract to Booz Allen this week for the High Power Electromagnetics (HPEM) Cyber Electronic Warfare Applications program.

The HPEM Cyber and EW project seeks to find ways to apply HPEM technologies to military cyber and EW applications by conducting experiments, demonstrating concepts, and documenting results.

Booz Allen experts will develop components, RF devices, software packages, and support systems operating at brass-board levels equivalent to technology readiness levels (TRL) 3 and 4, which amounts to proof of concept in a laboratory environment.

Related: Air Force reaching out to industry for high-power electromagnetics for directed-energy weapons

The HPEM Cyber and EW program will use existing and emerging HPEM RF source and software technologies suitable for existing and future military systems by developing and refining a library of potential mission scenarios that contrast how business is conducted today, and how HPEM technologies could improve cyber and EW development in the future.

Booz Allen experts will conduct experiments to identify RF parameters such as carrier frequency, pulse repetition frequency, and incident power density as design guidelines for new HPEM sources.

Electromagnetic and cyber realms overlap, Air Force researchers point out, because cyber technologies operate in the electromagnetic spectrum more than ever before. The HPEM Cyber and EW program seeks to investigate concepts beyond the obvious front door coupling paths into routers and other wireless devices.

On this contract Booz Allen will do the work at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M., and should be finished by June 2020. For more information contact Booz Allen Hamilton online at www.boozallen.com, or the Air Force Research Laboratory's High-Powered Electromagnetics Division at www.kirtland.af.mil/Units/AFRL-Directed-Energy-Directorate.

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