Precision Strike Mission Area
Program Areas
Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Targeting Program Area
The Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Targeting (ISR&T) Program Area develops, integrates, and demonstrates innovative APL technology through rapid prototyping and experimentation to introduce new capabilities into operational systems and exercises. The program area works across the effects chain to deliver impact.
Our staff members possess foundational capabilities that enable us to understand the threat and current operations and apply the systems engineering process, especially for rapid prototype development.
We have a portfolio of formal programs in:
- ISR&T
- Technology Assessment
- Kill Chain Engineering, including:
- Advanced Concepts
- Advanced Weapons
- Targeting Cells
- Battle Management Command and Control
Electronic Warfare Program Area
Electronic warfare (EW) involves the use of electromagnetic energy with the intent of degrading, deceiving, and denying enemy combat capabilities. Our critical challenge is to provide technical insight and thought leadership to assist in the development and operation of a national EW system of systems. Over the past 50 years, the EW Program Area has helped the United States develop and support airborne, land-based, and dismounted EW systems to defeat radar and communication threats. Emerging areas of research include modular EW, distributed and autonomous EW systems, and multidomain operations.
Our program area possesses expertise in the development of:
- Operational tactics, techniques, and procedures
- Operational requirements identification
- System concept development
- Technology assessment
- System development
- Lab and field testing
- High-fidelity modeling and simulation
Strike Weapons Program Area
The Strike Weapons Program Area enables the Department of Defense to rapidly and affordably develop offensive, high-speed kinetic weapons that respond to inputs from multimode sensors, third-party targeters, and other weapons in all-weather and contested environments. The team works to ensure reliable strike from proliferated platforms, giving the warfighter a credible kinetic deterrent.
The Strike Weapons Program Area excels at strike weapon system-of-systems development and integration. The team employs a weapon design paradigm that holistically incorporates sensor, aerodynamics/propulsion performance, manufacturability, and materials requirements into the design, accounts for survivability in all phases of flight, and assures the command and control chain of custody between the sensor/tracker, launch platform, and weapon.
Air Dominance Program Area
Air Dominance comprises programs focused on comprehensive, layered air superiority to extend the air domain offensive sanctuary with advanced capabilities and crewed-uncrewed teams. Our programs include:
- Naval Aviation Systems, which exists to maintain a unique focus on critical challenges faced by the naval aviation community
- Air Force Weapons, which seeks to establish APL as a routine resource to the Air Force for solutions to technical challenges in the research, development, and successful fielding of weapons into service
- Naval Weapon Systems, which provides expertise to the Navy for evaluating advanced concepts and technologies for precision strike weapons
- Intelligent Combat Platforms, through which APL pursues trusted agent and performer roles on emerging development and science and technology programs related to advanced intelligent, autonomous air combat systems
Our staff members possess expertise in the following domains, both classified and unclassified:
- Air combat training support
- Tactical aircraft development
- Modeling and simulation
- Aircraft launch and recovery support
- Open-architecture development support