Rook Platform(tm) for B-52 AgilePod

AFWERX · AFWERX TACFI · AFWERX

AI-Readiness Score

15/25

Pathway Speed

4/5

Timeline Realism

3/5

Problem Framing

3/5

AI / ML Fit

2/5

Award + Transition

3/5

Award

$1,500,000

Award ceiling

PRAESES, LLC

Awardee

Posted May 31, 2024

Description

Building upon Department of the Air Force (DAF) and Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) mission needs in the area of command, control, communications, and battle management systems (C3BM) - particularly in support of long-range strike - Praeses proposes this TACFI. The work proposed in this TACFI effort will build on a tool called Future Oriented Rook Geospatial Engine (FORGE), which is designed to fuse data from multiple sources and provide edge processing of sensor data within the B-52’s AgilePod. FORGE will ultimately present this fused data to aircrew through a Graphical User Interface installed inside the aircraft. In this manner, Praeses intends to leverage data management approaches to address the needs of AFGSC’s prioritization of rapid and open modernization, implementation updates,and integration of new technologies across weapon systems architectures in a timely manner to ensure the command’s ability to provide long-range strike capabilities to the Joint Force.

Score Rationale

TACFI is a genuinely fast-track instrument and scores well on pathway speed, but this is a sole-source-flavored effort proposed by Praeses on their own FORGE tool, limiting openness to AI-native competitors. The AI/ML fit is the weakest dimension — the core work is sensor data fusion, edge processing, and GUI integration on a specific aircraft platform, which is fundamentally an integration and systems engineering problem with AI/ML as a potential component rather than the central challenge; 'data management approaches' is not an AI-shaped problem statement. The $1.5M ceiling with TACFI implies a plausible transition pathway to follow-on production, but no explicit next phase or production program is named.

Source

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