>"The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) seeks Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) Partners that possess the expertise, capabilities, facilities, and experience in the field of manufacturing, testing, and distribution of cardiac pacemakers.
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=409766e...
From the 'Dahlgren' website http://www.navsea.navy.mil/nswc/dahlgren/ET/DEWO/default.asp... we see they are researching directed energy weapons of many types.
Directed energy (aka "EMP") weapons are said to be useful for disabling computers and electronic devices. Humans are by-and-large highly INsensitive to long electromagnetic waves (radio) until the waves become short enough to heat burn your skin (infrared, lasers) or your retinas. There's evidence of cancer at high exposures to short wavelengths, but causing cancer is not viable as a combat tactic.
But if you're going to deploy a directed energy weapon, you're going to want to have a reasonable idea of the effect on both electronics and the humans in the target area. They have a test range built for this. So it sounds to me like they need some help studying the effect of EMP weapons on people with pacemakers who might just happen to be in the target area. In other words:
Are these non-lethal weapons systems? If not, just how lethal are they?
Should we let an experienced officer continue to serve on a surface ship after he needs a pacemaker? Would he need any special precautions?
If someone dropped one on us, how many civilian casualties would we sustain? ("data on the demographic distribution of pacemaker devices domestically")
If we dropped one on country X, how many? ("and internationally")
I don't think this RFP gives any evidence to suggest that the US Navy is interested in doing the sort of medical device hacking that Barnaby Jack pioneered.