Basic Technology Research and Feasibility Demonstration of Tactical Secure Long-Range RF Communications and Geolocation for Remote Autonomous Health Status

At this time, there is neither a strategy nor a capability to collect relevant physiologic and environmental variables in conjunction with geolocation capability, provide feedback on the overall health status of the warfighter, and/or report the health status of a team of warfighters back to command during multi-domain operations. The integration of conventional commercial off the shelf communication hardware and protocols common to human performance andmedical devices is problematic for military use due to device security, secure communications, combined health and geolocation capability, and a SWaP (size, weight, and power) conscience design. Taking advantage of ongoing ONR physiologic monitoring platform development, our technical approach is to focus on the development of an ultra-low SWaP radio frequency (RF)integrated circuit (IC) that may be incorporated into physiologic monitoring platforms. Benefits of integrating the RC communications path into an IC include reduced size, reduced power, i.e. increased battery life, reduced manufacturing costs, and increased performance and functionality. If successful, the developed RF IC will permit real-time autonomously monitor of physiologicaptitude of free-living warfighters through low probability of intercept and detection (LPI/LPD) radio frequency (RF) methods to address the primary need to provide real-time feedback to operators as well as the secure transmission of relevant physiologic, environmental and geolocation data back to command. (Approved for Public Release.)