News story

Accelerator innovation network event: autonomous last mile resupply

The Defence and Security Accelerator held an event in London on 23 May 2017 to provide information on the autonomous last mile resupply themed competition.

Autonomous last mile resupply vignette 1

Suppliers attended the event and heard presentations about the autonomous last mile resupply themed competition which seeks to develop and demonstrate the use of autonomous systems to deliver mission-critical supplies, focusing on the challenging ‘last mile’ resupply in the land environment.

The competition is seeking new technologies, processes and ways of working to improve the way we deliver mission-critical supplies, focusing on the challenging ‘last mile’ resupply in the land environment.

It involves delivering combat supplies from the forward-most location to personnel engaged in combat operations. Although relatively small in distance, these resupply activities are challenging as they are in an environment that is typically hostile, complex and contested. These activities need to quickly and efficiently deliver vital supplies in order to enable successful mission outcomes.

The challenges of this Accelerator competition are to develop and demonstrate:

  • Challenge 1: unmanned air and ground load carrying platforms
  • Challenge 2: technologies and systems to allow load carrying platforms to operate autonomously
  • Challenge 3: technologies to autonomously predict, plan, track and optimise resupply demands from military users

Up to £3 million is available in total across phase 1 and 2 of this themed competition.

View the presentation slides:

Defence and Security Accelerator update

Autonomous last mile resupply: strategic context

Autonomous last mile resupply: challenge overview

Autonomous last mile resupply: competition process

Short form contract brief

Updates to this page

Published 27 April 2017
Last updated 30 May 2017 + show all updates
  1. Presentation slides now added.

  2. First published.