Navy seeking players to go up against its SIGINT team

The Navy, looking to use simulations to improve training for its signals intelligence operators, has issued a solicitation looking for vendors to provide various SIGINT technologies for a training exercise featuring Marine Special Operations Forces. The exercise will simulate a realistic scenario in an unfamiliar environment to test full spectrum operations. 

Intelligence collection is one of the most important objectives tasked to the military. Described by the National Security Agency as “intelligence derived from electronic signals and systems used by foreign targets, such as communications systems, radars, and weapons systems," SIGINT is likely the most important of the intelligence disciplines. It covers a wide range of collection and platforms, including unmanned aircraft and satellites, ensuring military personnel have the most up-to-date equipment and knowledge to collect and act upon. 

The solicitation says that the contract is a set-aside limited to small businesses and while it doesn’t offer a contract amount, notes that the average size of small business deals is $15 million.

The SIGINT package for the simulation will include personnel acting as civilians and enemies, such as SIGINT role players and aggressor, and SIGINT experts that can provide training. The exercise will provide simulations and training for SIGINT analysis, collection and targeting. 

Contractors must be able to provide detailed analysis to Marine Special Operators in specified target areas, such as organization, report writing, meeting preparation, asset validation, utilization of all intelligence disciplines, quality control, risk identification, and evaluation and mitigations. Furthermore, the contractor should be capable of simulating and training operators for indications and warnings for green on blue threat and green on blue attacks – a term used to describe the event of a trainee force turning on their trainers during the NATO mission in Afghanistan.    

In terms of technologies and SIGINT products required, contractors must provide standardized reports, previous unit summaries, a historical signals of interest list, known targeting-related information on persons of interest, current target deck – or interested targets – and radio frequency characterizations.

The simulation will take place from March 8-20 at Camp Atterbury and the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Indiana. Additional sites could include Indianapolis, Ind., and Cincinnati, Ohio. The response date to the solicitation is Feb. 17.