The United States Military is seeking affordable small and medium Unmanned Underwater Vehicles to enhance operational capabilities in subsea and seabed warfare; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); and expeditionary warfare domains.

Problem

Current and legacy systems are designed to be multi-mission, exquisite systems requiring long production timelines, significant training, reconfiguration prior to mission, and technical experts to process data. However, there are situations where a single use, mission specific UUV can be more desirable to the end user in the kinetic, ISR, and expeditionary domains. 

Opportunity

The Department of Defense is seeking to address two unique problem sets:

• Kinetics — The DOD needs a kinetic, one-way attack UUV. The solution should have the flexibility to be deployed from a government-provided platform or pier; the host vessels can either be surface or housed subsurface and most likely be uncrewed. The vehicle must be able to deliver a payload with the speed and endurance necessary to hone in and interdict a static or moving target. Additional specs and requirements are available.

• Sub Launched — The submarine-launched solution should demonstrate a path to torpedo tube launch and recovery without the use of divers. For deployment out of a torpedo tube, the vehicle must not exceed 21-inch diameter, 256-inch length, and 4000 lbs at the time of launch. Again, additional specs and requirements are available.

Submissions

The Defense Innovation Unit is seeking solution briefs on these topics, but you need to clarify which one you’re responding to. The DOD is saying that submission titles REALLY need to start with either “PS1” or “PS2” for the problem sets, above.

Deadline

Submission deadline is July 24.

Next Steps / More Information

Complete the form and submit your solution brief here.

The DIU has provided guidance on solution briefs, and we also had Sarah Pearson of the DIU provide Israeli startups with specific insights on how to do this right.

Difficulty Level

Low. Simple submission form.

Questions

Contact Scott Cohen of The CET Sandbox at scott@cetsandbox.com.