Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX) event 21-4 kicks takes off next month and 45 experimentation proposals were received in the last two weeks for this Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Rapid Reaction Technology Office (RRTO) sponsored event! Notifications of technology experiments approved for JIFX 21-4 will be sent by 30 July 2021.
According to the recent update sent by the Deputy Director of JIFX,
The team is reviewing all of the proposals. Based on the information you provided, we’re already working with our supporting staff sections to receive the necessary approvals to operate your systems on our installations. The first review is for experiments that include a flying platform is the Department of the Navy Commercial Unmanned Aerial Systems Waiver Board. We submitted the information to the Waiver Board Wednesday evening. We expect results from the Waiver Board review no later than [6 August 2021]. In the meantime, we may reach out to you for additional information on your flight system, if necessary. The second major review is to ensure approval for all of the frequencies for experiments that include [radio frequency] emitting devices. Again, we may be reaching out to you for additional information or clarification of system specifications. This review is a rolling process and we’ve already received approvals for a number of your experiment proposals.
In the coming week we will conduct additional team internal vetting of your proposals for other safety considerations as well as to ensure we have the capability to support your experiment as proposed. Again, we may contact you to discuss options for implementing your proposed experiment.
[The JIFX team] will let each of you know the results of our proposal review process as rapidly as possible. At the latest all non-flying experiments will be notified not later than Friday, July 30, while for flying experiments [the JIFX team] will let you know as soon as we have the results of the Waiver Board - no later than Friday, August 6.
For the few experiments that may not be approved to participate in August, [the JIFX team] will let you know the reason. We want you to be able to participate in JIFX so we will provide recommendations to overcome any identified issue. The primary reason for experiments not being approved is incomplete information being provided about the technical specifications of flight and/or electronic systems that an experimenter intends to use [Emphasis added].
For all those experiments approved to participate in the upcoming JIFX, you can expect to receive emails from members of the team with more detailed operations, facility, and administrative information in preparation for the event.
We will begin our experimenters’ coordination and preparation virtual meetings in August. We currently utilize “zoomgov” for these meetings and will send invites with virtual connection instructions in the following weeks. At least one person from each experiment team is required to attend each of these calls. We highly recommend that the person leading the experiment participate in all of these virtual meetings along with your primary pilot or key equipment operator. For your planning purposes meetings run between 30 and 60 minutes depending on content and questions. [The JIFX team] remain on the virtual link after the meeting to ensure we answer lingering questions. Our goal is to ensure you have all the information needed to prepare for and successfully meet your experimentation goals during JIFX. The dates of the meetings and the topics to be covered are:
- August 4 – Experiment Introductions
- August 6 – Flying Experiments Only
- August 11 – Event Logistics
- August 18 – Event Logistics
Discover more about how this RRTO-sponsored field experimentation program is expanding its reach and facilitating the transition of commercial technologies to Department of Defense programs at Hybrid JIFX Leverages Virtual, Field Experimentation for Record-Setting Event.