Color Weather Radar (WXR) System   2

Background
The United States Air Force (USAF) is requesting information pertaining to the Color Weather Radar (WXR) System for the KC‐135 aircraft. The purpose of this request for information (RFI) is to solicit industry options and possible solutions for providing a replacement of the KC‐135 WXR system. The current KC‐135 Color Weather Radar System detects weather to a maximum range of 320 Nautical Mile (NM) and is capable of detecting precipitation‐based turbulence to a range of 40 NM. The WXR detects windshear up to 0.25 NM left or right of aircraft heading (0.50 NM total). Alerts are issued in three forms: windshear icons displayed on the multi‐function display (MFD), aural messages, and WS caution and warning annunciations on the MFD.

Work Details
The proposed solution or system shall have no impact on the KC‐135 aircraft’s primary mission of refueling other aircraft, replace the RCP, R/T, R/T Mount, Antenna, and integrate into MFD/EEID, operate with minimal integration to the current aircraft’s avionics suite, have no extensive modification to the main aircraft structure, leverage other DoD weapon system solutions, demonstrate the ability to integrate into KC‐135 avionics, exhibit capabilities comparable or superior to the WXR 701, and have LRUs capable of software upgrade by USAF technicians.

The KC‐135 has three‐phase electrical power of 115/200 VAC at 400‐Hz, single‐phase 28 VAC, limited 28 VDC in addition a 1KVA Copilot Instrument Power System (CIPS) with an output of 115/200 VAC at 400Hz and 28VDC and (2) batteries, the main and auxiliary batteries rated at 24 volts, 35 amp‐hours.

Period of Performance
Availability information for the proposed system should be provided detailing the availability of the proposed system. Respondents should provide a tentative schedule estimate based on months to perform the steps required to achieve Milestone C approval as defined by 10 USC § 2366(e)(8).

Place of Performance
Tinker Air Force Base (TAFB)