Southwest Research Institute 2006 Annual Report, Signal Exploitation & Geolocation

Communications intelligence, direction finding, signal intercept and other electronic warfare systems are becoming increasingly complex in today’s crowded communications spectrum. Southwest Research Institute is assisting U.S. and friendly foreign governments by developing these systems, as well as others for surveillance, tagging and tracking. Recent work in data exfiltration has included commercial clients as well. Our scientists and engineers work directly with clients to provide optimized hardware and software solutions for specific operational problems. SwRI systems range from one-of-a-kind, commercial-level designs to large-scale, fully documented, deployment-ready production units.

Our communications intelligence and geolocation systems for land, sea and air use a variety of custom-designed software based on our Frontier design architecture. The Frontier series of communication intelligence systems offers signal handling capacities an order of magnitude greater than those available from other suppliers. By harnessing the processing power of hundreds of computers, our COMINT systems sift through the radio spectrum looking for radio signal energies, isolating and analyzing the signals, and determining their geographic location, signal type and transmission content.

The Frontier architecture supports a U.S. Navy shipboard system that provides critical intelligence information to forward-deployed naval assets. Based on initial success, additional systems will be installed on Navy ships in the future.

Our Signal Intercept from Low Orbit equipment suite uses low-Earth-orbit satellite tracking and global positioning system technology to determine latitude, longitude and altitude from any host platform. Using a two-way communications link, SILO® beacons communicate line-of-sight with command and control equipment used for worldwide tracking and mobile operations.

Our sustainment and life-cycle support services ensure continued operation of SwRI systems years after delivery. For example, we are overhauling direction finding antenna systems that have been in use for 20 years by the Canadian Navy. Staff members are replacing cables and connectors, stripping paint and coatings, applying new paint and stenciling, upgrading electronic assemblies and testing the overall components. Additional systems are expected for overhaul. All of this work is performed under ISO 9001:2000 standards, and we are implementing additional processes to Level 3 of the Software Engineering Institute’s CMMI-SE/SW.

With internal funding, we are developing expertise in the design and implementation of application-specific integrated circuits, which will allow us to assess and design customized, reprogrammable and non-reprogrammable integrated circuits to execute novel processes. These ASICs can significantly improve the performance, environmental tolerance, size, weight, power consumption and cost of embedded electronic systems.

SwRI provides a wide range of analysis, simulation and evaluation capabilities in the areas of electromagnetics, DF system performance, RF signal propagation, communications links and radar cross section to optimize systems before they are even built.

SwRI is also developing technology to address data fusion, in which different sources of information — radio frequency signals, imagery and other sources — are combined to create a rich data bank from which intelligence can be determined.

To build on client services, we are increasing laboratory and office space by more than 50,000 square feet. New technical efforts will be directed at expanding capabilities in communications, communications intelligence, signals intelligence networks, data exfiltration and tracking, as well as extending the frequency ranges of our equipment.

Copyright© 2006 by Southwest Research Institute. All rights reserved under U.S. Copyright Law and International Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to the Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, Texas 78228-0510, phone (210) 522-3305, fax (210) 522-3547.