AAWSAP Statement of Objectives, July 2008

This Statement of Objectives, dated 18 July 2008, is from the Defense Intelligence Agency's Acquisition Support Division. It sets out the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, which would study breakthrough aerospace technologies bearing on the foreign threat through 2050. The contractor was to study lift, propulsion, power generation, spatial/temporal translation, signature reduction and human effects. Other terms include TS/SCI security requirements, monthly and final threat assessment deliverables, and a five year firm fixed price contract.

From the source: Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 7/18/08, Washington, D.C.. Released with redactions. This document is an administrative or programmatic record related to the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)-administered program active from 2008 to 2012. AAWSAP’s official scope of work identified 12 technical research areas relating to potential aerospace threats over a time horizon of more than 40 years. As an administrative record, the file documents how AAWSAP was scoped, organized, tasked, funded, or described at a particular point in time. This July 2008 Statement of Objectives defines AAWSAP as a contractor-supported research effort intended to assess far-term foreign aerospace threats by understanding the physics and engineering of possible breakthrough technologies out to the year 2050 rather than extrapolating from then-current aerospace trends. It identifies 12 technical study areas, including lift, propulsion, control, power generation, spatial or temporal translation, materials, configuration and structure, signature reduction, human interface, human effects, armament, and related supporting topics. The document also sets out the program’s expected work structure, requiring monthly status reports, technical-area program management plans within 60 days, comprehensive research reports and briefings by the tenth month, and a final integrated threat assessment.

STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES
FOR THE
ADVANCED AEROSPACE WEAPON SY~'TEM APPLICATIONS PROGRAM
18 July 2008
PAN:#
1. BACKGROUND: The Acquisition Support Division (DWO-3) of the Defonse Intelligence
Agency (DIA) has the responsibility to provide guidance and oversight to the Department of
Defense (DoD) acquisition process along with leveraging the DoD Intelligence Community to
coordinate, produce and maintain projections of the future threat environment in which U.S. air,
naval, ground, space, missile defense and infonnat:ion systems operate. In order to accurately
assess the foreign threat to U.S. weapon systems, a complete as possible understanding of potential
breakthrough technology applications employed in future aerospace weapon systems must be
obtained.
2. OBJECTIVE: One aspect of the future threat environment involves advanced aerospace
weapon system applications. The objective of this program is to understand the physics and
engineering of these applications as they apply to the foreign threat out to the far term, i.e., from
now through the year 2050. Primary focus is on breakthrough technologies and applications that
create discontinuities in currently evolving technology trends. The focus is not on extrapolations
of current aerospace technology. The proposal shall describe a technical approach which
discusses how the breakthrough technologies and applications listed below would be studied
and include proposed key personnel that have experience in those areas.
3. REQUIRRMENTS:
a) The contractor shall e-0mplete advanced aerospace weapon system technical studies in the
following areas:
1. lift
2. propulsion
3. control
4. power generation
5. spatial/temporal translation
6. materials
7. configuration, structure
8. signature reduction (optical, infrared,
radiofrequency, acoustic)
9. human interface
I0. human effects
11. annamcnt (RF and DE\V)
12. other peripheral area,:; in support of(1-11)