The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has developed the Digital RF Battlespace Emulator, or DRBE, to accelerate the creation of advanced radio frequency systems in response to evolving electronic warfare threats.

Addressing Complex RF Threats

DARPA said Tuesday the DRBE, the largest virtual radio frequency test range in the world, simulates complex electronic warfare scenarios. The high-fidelity real-time platform enables simultaneous interactions of synthetic RF entities in a software-defined environment, allowing artificial intelligence-powered EW capabilities to be tested.

The DRBE features a high-performance, wafer-scale computing architecture, which provides the massive throughput and ultra-low latency necessary to simulate complex RF engagements and modern EW tactics accurately.

DARPA aims to deliver the first DRBE system to the Navy in late 2025. The agency will then proceed with enhancing the DRBE system by integrating advanced optical interconnects to boost its bandwidth and enable connectivity between hundreds of wafer-scale computers. This expansion is intended to allow the system to support other mission domains, including battlespace autonomy, materials science and digital twins. 

Remarks From DARPA Executive

“DRBE is a leap forward in how we can prepare and equip RF systems against sophisticated adversaries,” said Anna Tauke-Pedretti, DRBE program manager in DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office.

“DRBE is not only setting a new benchmark for real-time simulation but is also accelerating our ability to develop and refine advanced electronic warfare capabilities that keep pace with emerging threats,” she added.

The Department of the Air Force, in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit, has unveiled Finance First, an initiative designed to accelerate development, deployment and financing of secure, resilient and reliable energy solutions at U.S. military installations.

Finance First Builds on Private Sector Practices

According to DIU, the program aims to improve energy resiliency and maintain uninterrupted mission operations by applying agile private sector practices to the design, financing and deployment of energy systems that can withstand grid instability, cyberattacks and other disruptions, while ensuring on-base power redundancy through an ‘all of the above’ approach to fuel sources and energy generation technologies.

Finance First will partner with private industry to create scalable, repeatable business processes that deliver proven technologies without requiring large upfront Department of Defense capital outlays. Program objectives include identifying installation energy gaps; developing comprehensive technology solutions that best address identified gaps; and creating turnkey energy mission assurance, where private industry designs, builds, finances, operates and maintains developed solutions.

ECC Energy Solutions, FESCO Energy and Ionic Blue Management were selected in April to develop prototype business processes, which will be tested at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. The processes could be adopted government-wide.

Nancy Balkus, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for infrastructure, energy, and environment, said the program will leverage proven commercial business practices to keep installations mission-ready. “Our ability to deter adversaries depends on secure, resilient, reliable, and efficient energy on our installations,” she explained.

Kirk Phillips, director of the Air Force Office of Energy Assurance, added that Finance First brings financing discussions earlier into project planning to identify the right resilience measures.

The initiative supports recently issued executive orders related to defense acquisitions and American energy.

Special operations forces, or SOF, will test the Wearable All-hazard Remote-monitoring Program, shortened to WARP, a device that can monitor vitals and warn command posts when an operator is exposed to dangerous chemicals and gases, by the end of 2025.

In an interview, Steve Carrig, product lead for strategic acquisitions at the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense, or JPEO-CBRND, said WARP integrates “sensors that warfighters are able to carry around and do that chemical sensing.”

“So you’re not only using the the physiological market signs that you’re detecting, you know, heat, stress, fatigue, etc, but then you’re combining it with that environmental monitor as a separate data stream to really inform the subject matter experts that are there in a tactical environment to say, ‘I’ve got this sensor over here going off with this individual and their heart rates spiked,” he told Breaking Defense.

Army’s WARP Wearable Device

WARP is being developed by LifeLens Technologies, a Warminster, Pennsylvania-headquartered company that specializes in health monitoring equipment.

In January 2024, Carrig’s team began exploring wearable devices under a rapid acquisition effort. The team eventually selected LifeLens’ product offering for its comfort and convenience.

“You may have the most amount of information you could ever possibly have on a wearable, but if an individual is not going to wear it for comfort reasons, then you’re kind of at a loss,” the official explained.

WARP is equipped with 25 tiny monitors and a fob-sized gateway that enables distributed sensor fusion. It can be attached anywhere on the body, but it is usually worn on the chest, according to Carrig.

The wearable sends information to MRI Global’s data visualization tools, which combine data from various sources into a tactical awareness kit that would enable end users and subject matter experts to see a wholistic view of a warfighter’s condition.

The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command inaugurated the Digital Simulation and Analysis Center on Aug. 7.

New Digital Simulation and Analysis Center

The Army said Friday the 8,000-square-foot research, development and analysis facility on Redstone Arsenal will serve as a central hub for computational and analytical capabilities for USASMDC Technical Center’s laboratories. The DSAC will help in advancing modeling and simulation, analysis, and integration efforts and facilitate partnerships focused on technological development. It will be utilized for R&D and engineering advancement for the Army’s modernization efforts, including the development of directed energy strategic weapons technologies.

SMDC Commanding General Sean Gainey on the DSAC

“DSAC gives us and our partners the space and tools to stay at the front of technology change and keep winning for the Army,” said Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey, SMDC commanding general.

“SMDC is the Army’s space and missile defense warfighting headquarters and part of what we do is take science and technology outputs and weave them into the fabric of Army units, creating formation-based transformation that comes with some teeth, improving lethality,” Gainey continued.