Business Rules Management Software for Clean Energy Regulator

The Australian Clean Energy Regulator has issued a Request for Tender for a "Business Rule Management System". The description of the system includes mention of a diagram of "the conceptual use of rules engine" but there is no diagram in the tender announcement. A commercial off the shelf system (COTS) is required, with a start date of June 2012. The regulator is tasked with overseeing the new carbon pricing scheme which comes into force from that date:

Provision of Business Rule Management System Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Software Package
ATM ID RFT CER2012/456
Agency Clean Energy Regulator
Category 43230000 - Software
Close Date & Time 1-Jun-2012 2:00 pm (ACT Local time)
Publish Date 23-May-2012

Description

A Business Rules Management (BRMS) is a complete set of software components for the creation, testing, management, deployment, and ongoing maintenance of business rules in a production operational environment. A BRMS contains elements targeted at developers and other ICT staff as well as elements intended for less technical users. These BRMS features give business users and business analysts the ability to make routine changes and updates to the business rules that drive Decision Services, while freeing IT resources to concentrate on higher value-added projects and initiatives.

The business processes this BRMS addresses are very rich in rules which involve complex mathematical formulae as well as those that are event / workflow / logic based. The need is to find or develop a rules engine capability that is oriented towards easy creation and management of mathematical formula based rules. These rules take inputs from fields on a screen and calculate values to be output into fields in a database that are then displayed on a screen. The diagram below illustrates the conceptual use of rules engine modularisation

Other Instructions

This RFT was previously advised in the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency's Annual Procurement Plan for this financial year as agency reference Jan-12 (Business Rule Management System software package).

The RFT documentation can be obtained by sending an email ...

The resultant Contract is expected to commence late June 2012.
Estimated Value (AUD) From $400,000.00 to $450,000.00 ...

Small Stealth UAV?

An alternative to piloted F-35 stealth aircraft for Australia might be small UAVs. These would cost around $2M each, allowing forty to be purchased for the cost of one F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter or F/A18F. The UAVs would use engines and weapons from the Australian military inventory and off the self electronics.

The US built Ryan Model 324 Scarab/BQM-145A UAV is used by the Egyptian Air Force for reconance. The Scarab is launched from a truck mounted rail with rocket assistance, and recovered by parachute. The Scarab is essentially a reusable unarmed cruse missile. In contrast the EADS Barracuda UAV is a larger conventional wheeled aircraft, allowing it to take off from a runway and with provision for weapons to be carried.

The turbojet engine of the Scarab is similar to that of the Harpoon cruse missile currently in service with the RAAF. The Teledyne J402 turbojet gives the missile a high subsonic speed and good fuel economy. The Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) planned for introduction to the RAAF has a similar engine. The AGM-158A has inertial navigation, GPS, an imaging infrared seeker and data link making it, in effect a disposable armed UAV. However, the cost of JASSM is high, as it can only be used once.

The small turbojet engine design of the Scarab could be combined with the wheels and weapons of the Barracuda to produce a small armed UAV which could operate from a conventional runway. Such an aircraft might be 4 m long, with a 2m wingspan, weigh 1,000 kg, with a speed of 800kph and range of 2,000 km. Typical armament would be one AGM-114 Hellfire air to ground missile or two FIM-92A Stinger air to air missiles (as used on Australian Tiger Helicopters).

The aircraft would be transportable in an NH90 Helicopter or a standard shipping container. To lower the cost, Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) computers could be used. The aircraft could be equipped with an airborne web server and controlled via a web browser. Automotive components, such as the Controller Area Network (CAN) could be used to further lower cost.

The aircraft would be a limited Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV), unlike systemns such as the Boeing Joint Unmanned Combat Air System X-45. The X-45 is much larger with a 10.31m wingspan comparable with a small piloted aircraft. However, at a much lower cost a small UAV would be useful for limited surveillance and attack. It would cause an adversary considerable difficulties, as they would not easily detected.

The small UAV would be useful for attacking small low value targets such as vehicles and small ships, including improvised fighting vehicles ("technicals") and vessels ("boghammars"). Due to its limited armament, the UAV would be less likely to cause concern to Australia's neighbors than full size stealth aircraft and long range cruse missiles.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Adelaide, set the building of a miniature radio controlled F-35 VTOL model aircraft as a project in 2004. A conventional larger model would be much less difficult a task. The development of at least an unarmed UAV would be within the capabilities of Australian university researchers.

The US has had difficulties building such Medium Range UAVs, with one program being cancelled in 1993. However, the technology has advanced since then, with carbon fibre being used for UAVs, such as the Australian Aerosonde and COTS computers and low cost commercial avionics being available.