US Navy’s Neptune project seeks new RF payloads

May 17, 2021

from Carlo Munoz

The U.S. Naval Research Service (ONR) is working to develop a new class of sub-miniature radio frequency (RF) signal processor payloads for the growing arsenal of unmanned marine platforms, as requested by the industry on May 13.

The new RF processing payload system, developed under the ONR program, called the Neptune Payload prototype project, will be designed to “support multiple RF missions with a limited set of hardware, the capability of a stand-alone transceiver with standalone software defined or reconfigurable. hardware – accelerated processing as required ”, the Solution Notice (RFS) from Strategic and Spectrum Missions Advanced Sustainable Trust Systems (S)²MARTS), another transaction authority (OTA) designated.

“Candidate component technologies available for integration to meet ONR payload requirements include currently available integrated broadband RF transceiver chips, programmable port array (FPGA), RF integrated circuit (RF ASIC) , a radio frequency chip system (RFSoC) and high-performance microcontrollers’, the application added.

Navy officials have set a five-year period to develop a prototype of Neptune’s payload at an estimated cost of $ 3.7 million for the duration of the effort, according to RFS. ONR engineers are open to integrating software-defined commercial-based radio (COTS) radio technologies into the proposed prototypes, given that these COTS technologies meet the “current levels of high-tech readiness (TRL)” defined by the program, the application said.

An employee of the U.S. Navy’s main airbrush with naval mines and anti-submarine command in Corpus Christi, Texas, oversees the deployment of an autonomous submarine (AUV). (US Navy)