Notice

Competition document: persistent surveillance from the air

Published 12 June 2015

1. Persistent surveillance from the air

The Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) presents this SBRI themed competition in association with UKDSC, as part of the Defence Growth Partnership (DGP) Innovation Challenge.

Centre for Defence Enterprise themed competitions with the UK Defence Solutions Centre

We’re seeking innovative sensor and communications technologies as enablers for persistent surveillance operations from the air. We’re seeking a significant step change in persistent surveillance capability to that already in use with the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

This competition was briefed at the CDE Innovation Network event with the UK Defence Solutions Centre (UKDSC) on 8 July 2015 in London and at a webinar on 15 July 2015.

Proposals must be submitted by 5pm on Thursday 6 August 2015. Submit your proposal using the CDE online portal.

2. Background

Persistent surveillance allows areas of interest to be monitored to get a better understanding of your surroundings (ie develop situational awareness). This informs decision makers and can be used to understand the pattern of life.

Persistent surveillance is the sensing, detection, classification and analysis of data to provide trustworthy information over a sustained period of time. It can be provided by a single sensor type or by the combination of a number of capabilities. This can provide a higher level of confidence in the information that’s gathered, which then needs to be sent via a communications network for analysis. Persistent surveillance capabilities must be able to loiter and collect information during the day and night and through various weather conditions.

In recent operations, persistent surveillance has provided intelligence feeds to military commanders, often in the form of electro-optical (EO) and infrared (IR) high-resolution imagery alongside full motion video (FMV). These feeds have been used to support both tactical operations and strategic planning. High-altitude and space assets have been successfully used for wide-area surveillance, observation of pattern of life and detection of change. Sensors on land and at sea are also used to provide tactical and operational information.

The size, weight, power and cost requirements for sensor systems are crucial. This is particularly important for systems in long-endurance, high-altitude platforms. It can be challenging to integrate new innovative sensor technologies into existing platforms. For this reason, we want to use open and published international interface standards from the outset when designing future persistent surveillance capabilities.

With improvements to sensors, the emphasis for persistent surveillance will move towards how to present relevant information to military analysts and decision makers in the most efficient way. This may be achieved by using more sophisticated on-board, auto-filtering techniques prior to transmission over a network. This will reduce cognitive workload on human operators, and reduce bandwidth demands on communications infrastructure.

3. Technology challenges

This CDE themed competition seeks innovative sensor and communications technologies to carry out persistent surveillance from the air.

We’ve chosen air as this is considered the most challenging environment and we really want to encourage the development of new technologies. However, once developed, we intend to exploit new and innovative sensor and communications technologies funded by this competition into other environments.

For this competition, persistent surveillance is defined as providing continuous ‘eyes on’ an area or military object of interest for at least weeks, preferably months.

The challenges focus on the sensor and enabling communications sub-systems and not the platform it is mounted on.

Research is already underway into the exploration of space-based earth observation, and persistent surveillance from the land and at sea, which we don’t want to replicate in these challenges.

We’re interested in technologies that benefit high-altitude, low-weight, persistent aerial platforms, where we can either extend endurance or reduce size, weight, power and cost of the following:

• EO and IR high-resolution optical sensors
• electromagnetic (EM) transmission/detection
• novel sensor types

Ultimately, we want sensor and communications packages that can be fitted to high-altitude pseudo-satellites (HAPS). However, we also want solutions that are compatible with other airborne platforms and systems, for example by using standard connectors, to improve export potential.

Other airborne platforms and systems could include larger high-altitude, long endurance (HALE), medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE), and small consumer radio-controlled remotely piloted vehicles.

Sub-systems (sensor and communication packages) should be able to operate within the following constraints:

• altitude: up to 23,000 metres (above sea level)
• power consumption: up to 50 watts average power is available over a mission of up to 1,000 hours
• weight: up to 3 kg (total package: less than 3 kg is desirable)
• ambient temperature: ~-70 to +40 Celsius
• ambient pressure: ~20 to 1,000 millibar
• dimensions of the desired sensor package: in the region of 800x300x100 millimetres
• the maximum length of a single antenna that can be mounted is 25 metres
• time: in continuous mode for weeks or months

3.1 Challenge 1: sensor technologies

We’re looking for new sensor technologies (or innovative re-purposing of technologies from other industries) that can capture intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) information from HAPS, or similar, platforms. These could use:

• EO
• IR
• FMV
• light detection and ranging (lidar)
• multispectral imaging
• hyperspectral imaging
• EM and radio-frequency (RF) sensing
• acoustic sensing
• radio detection and ranging (radar), including passive radar
• synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
• moving target indication (MTI)

They could also use on-board/off-board processing techniques.

In addition to these traditional sensing methods, you’re encouraged to submit innovative proposals for methods of sensing that may not be covered in this list.

We invite proposals for innovative single sensor types or a potential networked array of sensors to provide persistent surveillance. We’re particularly interested in meshed sensors for ISR and virtual sensor networks (VSN) operating in a collaborative wireless network.

3.2 Challenge 2: sensor communication networks

Having the most capable sensor package mounted on the most capable HAPS platform or remote sensing system will be nothing without the ability to control that sensor and transmit the sensor feed to the decision maker quickly, accurately and easily.

EM spectrum availability, bandwidth allocation and quality is an ever-increasing issue as frequencies become more congested. This makes maintaining secure, reliable military communications between sensors, networks of sensors, analysts and decision makers more difficult.

We want innovative methods and technologies to maintain secure, resilient communications across these network links.

We’re seeking novel ways of providing secure, resilient communication links between disparate sensor nodes, particularly when thinking about high-altitude, low-mass, remotely piloted aircraft. These need to minimize size, weight and power consumption, be flexible in how they are configured and operate, and be available for weeks or months. We’re interested in technologies that provide on-board processing and efficient transmission of information, while managing RF power requirements.

We also want to make more effective use of the available radio spectrum and non-traditional communications methods (such as laser optical communications, or even using civilian networks, including the internet).

Where possible, the high-level architecture and protocols used by the communications package will need to be understood so that it can be used with legacy equipment. It must adhere to published international standards for sensors and communications equipment. If not, the proposal must include how you will achieve interoperability and communicate between nodes when common protocols and standards can’t be used.

4. What we want

Your proposal must:

• include a proof-of-concept demonstration and a fully costed proposal for phase 2 as deliverables of phase 1
• identify the technologies proposed and how they will operate
• consider the trade-off between minimum size, weight, power and cost and overall performance
• indicate the optimum range and resolution at which the innovation operates
• indicate the type(s) of information that can be collected by the sensor, along with the resolution and quantity of data acquired
• for challenge 1, consider and articulate the communications network required to transmit sensor information to a decision maker
• outline the standards and high-level architecture to which the concept is designed
• consider systems and implementation issues
• include an outline of future work required to fully develop your solution
• articulate how the sensor or communication package could be deployed and exploited from a HAPS, HALE or MALE remotely piloted vehicle or other platform

We’ll consider research proposals for the defence application of technologies that are mature in other sectors. These proposals must be research focused and include a significant proportion of work that is clearly within the research and pre-commercial development space of the innovation life cycle, at less than technology readiness level (TRL) 6. The diagram below shows the technology innovation life cycle, how this maps with TRLs and where this CDE competition fits in. For a description of TRLs access MOD’s Acquisition System Guidance.

All phase-1 projects must complete by no later than 31 March 2016 (but can complete earlier). This is so that they deliver in time to present at a marketplace event during April 2016 and for entry into the phase-2 competition.

5. What we don’t want

Under this CDE themed competition we’re not looking for:

• paper-based studies
• marginal improvements in capability
• solutions that offer no significant defence and security benefit
• technology watch or horizon scanning
• roadmaps or technology prediction
• demonstrations of existing technology products used in a traditional way

6. Exploitation

This CDE themed competition is split into 2 phases:

1. Phase-1 projects will be up to 6 months in duration and seek technologies at a component level. Up to £1 million will be made available for phase 1 and funding will be considered on a per-project basis. We anticipate that a number of phase-1 projects will be funded from a range of suppliers. Phase-1 projects should produce outputs within the pre-commercial development, solution exploration stage of the innovation life cycle at least at TRL 3 to 4.

2. Following assessment and down-selection of the phase-2 proposals a number of successful phase-1 projects may be taken forward with a second stage of investment. This will be for a further 6 to 8 months and outputs are anticipated to be within the pre-commercial procurement, prototype development stage of the innovation life cycle, at around TRL 5 to 6. The aim of phase-2 projects will be to integrate several phase-1 outputs into systems that can be demonstrated in a realistic environment. Successful bidders may therefore be expected to collaborate to deliver phase-2 objectives. At least £1.25 million will be made available for this second phase and funding will be considered on a per-project basis.

Phase-1 projects producing a successful output may be offered accelerated development through the commercialisation phase by UKDSC to enhance the potential for exploitation.

7. Important information

This competition will be supported by presentations given at the Innovation Network event on Wednesday 8 July 2015.

Proposals for funding must be submitted by 5pm on Thursday 6 August 2015 using the CDE online portal.

Please mark all proposals for this themed competition with ‘persistent surveillance’ plus challenge 1 and/or 2 as appropriate as a prefix in your title. You can submit a single proposal offering a solution to meet both challenges.

Read important information on what all CDE proposals must include.

There is no cap on the value of proposals, however it’s more likely that at phase 1 a larger number of lower-value proposals (up to £100,000) will be funded. At phase 2, it’s likely that a small number of the successful phase-1 proposals will be funded to a higher value.

Successful proposals will be 100% funded.

Suppliers should note that Dstl won’t provide data sets to support the development, testing or refinement of proposed projects. Suppliers must either supply their own or use relevant third-party data sets to demonstrate how their proposals are relevant.

Proposals will be assessed by subject matter experts from UKDSC (working under a non-disclosure agreement), MOD and Dstl using the MOD Performance Assessment Framework (PAF).

Collaboration often strengthens a proposal so we welcome joint proposals from academia or small and medium-sized enterprises and larger companies. One of the collaborators must act as the lead so that MOD can contract with a single entity.

Each project will be assigned a technical partner in Dstl who’ll provide the interface between the project and the defence and security community and will assist in developing potential routes to exploitation within this community as appropriate. Subject matter experts from UKDSC will be available to companies throughout phases 1 and 2 of the competition to maximize the opportunity for exploitation of projects.

Deliverables from contracts will be made available to Dstl technical partners and are subject to review by UK MOD. UKDSC won’t automatically have rights of use of the deliverables, but each funded proposer will have the opportunity to engage with UKDSC to enhance the likelihood of exploitation of their technology. This is likely to take the form of confidential face-to-face meetings and marketplace-style events to provide an opportunity for successful proposers to demonstrate capability to MOD, UKDSC, and UK and international defence customers.

8. Key dates

8 July 2015	Competition briefing at Innovation Network event
15 July 2015	Webinar
6 August 2015	Competition closes at 5pm
End of September 2015	Contract placement initiated and feedback provided
31 March 2016	Latest date for the delivery of phase-1 proof-of-concept research
April 2016	Marketplace event
April 2016	Phase-2 funding decisions made

9. Queries and help

While you’re preparing your proposals, you can contact us if you have any queries: [email protected]

Capacity to answer these queries is limited in terms of volume and scope. Queries should be limited to a few simple questions or if provided with a short (few paragraphs) description of your proposal, the technical team will provide, without commitment or prejudice, broad yes/no answers. This query facility is not to be used for extensive technical discussions, detailed review of proposals or supporting the iterative development of ideas. While all reasonable efforts will be made to answer queries, CDE and Dstl reserves the right to impose management controls when higher than average volumes of queries or resource demands restrict fair access to all potential proposal submitters.