Bandwidth-Efficient Data Communications for Battlefield Commanders
Date: May 5, 2025
U.S. Army researchers are actively collaborating with industry partners to develop low-latency and bandwidth-efficient data transport solutions aimed at transmitting video footage from the frontline directly to battlefield commanders. This initiative seeks to enhance the ability to detect and rank targets in real time.
The Army Applications Laboratory (AAL), based in Austin, Texas, recently released a broad agency announcement (W911NF-25-S-A2V2) that focuses on innovative technologies associated with accelerated and automated visual verification (A2V2).
Enhancing Real-Time Video Transmission
Current real-time video feeds of potential targets are primarily sourced from uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), where the data gets stored at UAV control stations. However, sending this data to commanders often requires excessive network bandwidth, which is frequently inaccessible in complex and contested environments, leading to delays in target recognition.
To address these challenges, the Army is seeking advancements that will enable the processing and transmission of images and videos instantaneously, thereby improving situational awareness, expediting decision-making, and reducing the risk of misidentification of targets.
Key Technologies in Demand
The Army is interested in developing several technologies to support these capabilities, including:
- Real-time video input from standard military interfaces such as HDMI and SDI.
- Onboard processing and encoding of video using embedded graphics processing units (GPUs).
- Support for both visible and infrared video stream processing.
- Customization of target priority lists by operators.
- Transmission of only essential imagery required for visual verification.
- Low-bandwidth communication capabilities over tactical radios or LTE/5G networks.
- Ruggedized, portable hardware that has extensive power access from batteries and vehicle systems.
- Robust encryption for secure data transfer and simultaneous video streaming with object detection functionality.
Invitation to Industry
Organizations interested in contributing to this effort should submit white papers by June 2, 2025, to a2v2@army.mil, including “A2V2 Special Notice” in the subject line. Proposals should address topics such as full motion video, aided target recognition, data prioritization, data size reduction, low-bandwidth data transmission, and near-edge data analytics. Selected candidates may be invited to develop their proposals further, with a total project budget of $6 million.
For queries, contact Army officials Maj. Rickey Royal at rickey.royal@army.mil, Molly Thomson at molly.thomson@army.mil, or Rodolfo Estrada via email at rodolfo.estrada@army.mil.
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