To boost signal-intelligence (SIGINT) capabilities, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has found help close to home (Rome, NY), in the form of software development at Assured Information Security. The Air Force awarded AIS a $11,928,615 cost-plus-fixed-fee completion contract for development of Signals Intelligence Tactical Analysis and Reporting Gateway (STARGate) prototype software. The software is intended to automatically track and catalog radio signals and communications networks, with development work allowing integration of data from the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms of multiple government agencies and nations. Work will be performed in Rome, NY and is expected to be completed by May 7, 2024.
STARGate, which was developed by AFRL in Rome, NY is designed for integration into manned and unmanned airborne vehicles for extensive signal capture. The software is based very much on the efforts of AIS research computer scientist Chris Poole (see the figure), who enabled the software to run on a single computer while capturing and sorting signals from many different types of RF and microwave radios. The software can characterize many different device emitters across different frequency bands. The contract is meant to fuel the evolution of the STARGate software so that it can be applied over existing and emerging radio sources, such as 5G radios.