According to a recent request for information (RFI), such see-through technology would allow soldiers “to map the structure and detect hidden rooms, passages, alcoves, caches, etc. including those underground.” The project is being collaborated on by the Army’s Special Operations Forces; Combat Capability Development Command; Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate; and Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR).
The RFI describes the potential technology as a “Sense Through the Wall (STTW) System.” The purpose of the technology, which will “track, locate, isolate, range, and count personnel and animals in a building or structure,” includes “rapidly discriminating between friend and foe” by accessing their biometric data, the document adds.
The technology would also be used to locate any traps, explosives or hidden weapons within structures and garner data that can create three-dimensional maps of structures.
The RFI also notes that the technology will need to perform “through dense foliage.”
“All of the data will need to be displayed on a wireless tablet using avatars/icons or Cursor on Target (CoT) to make sense of the sensor data,” the RFI adds.
According to the Defense Technical Information Center, a CoT is “a simplified messaging format that is rapidly gaining acceptance throughout the military as an enterprise integration solution.”
During his State of the Union address Tuesday, US President Donald Trump boasted about the strength of the US military.
“To safeguard American liberty, we have invested a record-breaking $2.2 trillion in the United States military. We have purchased the finest planes, missiles, rockets, ships and every other form of military equipment, and it’s all made right here in the USA,” Trump said.
Congress has also approved a $738 billion defense spending bill for fiscal 2020.
