Guidance

Affordable and Adaptable Unmanned Air Systems Autonomy

Updated 28 July 2023

1. Introduction

This competition seeks novel innovations to help give the UK an advantage through affordable and adaptable, autonomous air systems (UAS)

Increasing the Army’s efficiency

This Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition seeks proposals to boost the British Army’s domination of the ‘near surface’ (0-10,000ft above ground level). The goal of this initiative is to exploit emerging technologies to find affordable ways to deliver mass autonomous capabilities.

The Army is working on prototype autonomous capabilities that could increase the reach and impact of its units. However, these systems are often complex and expensive. Army Innovation is therefore searching for technologies that maintain capability and increase affordability.

To achieve this, affordable autonomous systems operating in the ‘near surface’ must be able to:

• Deliver low-cost reliable effects. Platforms must be able to scan an area of interest and target an identified adversary vehicle using on-board systems.
  • Search or scan a 4km² area to find vehicles of interest.
  • Target an identified vehicle after search for a subsequent action.
• Survive affordably on the modern battlefield. Counter-uncrewed air systems technology is advancing rapidly, increasing the cost of survival. Platforms must be able to:
  • Operate in a contested or denied electro-magnetic spectrum.
  • Survive in an airspace contested by modern layered air defence.

Successful solutions

Solutions must be incorporated into prototype platforms developed by a consortia of small and medium enterprises by January 2024. Further trials will continue through 2024. The best solutions that demonstrate cost-effective problem-solving with a high degree of success will be successful.

Army Innovation

This competition is funded by the Army Rapid Innovation and Exploitation Laboratory (ARIEL), a part of the Army’s Futures Directorate.

2. Competition key information

2.1 Submission deadline

Midday on 27 July 2023 (BST)

2.2 Where do I submit my proposal?

Via the DASA Online Submission Servicefor which you will require an account. Only proposals submitted through the DASA Online Submission Service will be accepted.

2.3 Total funding available

The total possible funding available for this DASA competition is £800,000 (excluding VAT).

DASA expects to fund several proposals for this competition.
There may be additional funding for further phases to incorporate successful solutions onto prototypes under development (using a different commercial arrangement through Defence Equipment and Support’s Aurora Engineering Partnership).

2.4 Supporting events

Q&A Webinar

On 5 July 2023, DASA hosted a webinar providing further detail on the challenge areas. Watch the webinar below.

Affordable and adaptable unmanned air systems: Webinar

3. Competition Scope

3.1 Background: low-cost autonomous effects

The Future Battlefield.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and terrorist groups throughout the middle-East has indicated a rise in the proliferation of low-cost autonomous or semi-autonomous platforms. Combatants have used these platforms to reduce the high workforce and financial cost of deploying large numbers of ground forces. These trends are likely to continue on the future battlefield. In the future, conflict may depend on easy to use, affordable, and modular or adaptable autonomous or semi-autonomous systems. To prepare for this, Army Innovation is looking for disruptive, high readiness and reliable ways to implement this strategy into both current and future forces.

Army Innovation is sponsoring this DASA competition to find disruptive solutions to incorporate into rapidly developing prototypes. These prototypes will focus on delivering low-cost (in money and training), reliable, approved, modular capabilities with an assured supply chain and a low logistics burden. Successful solutions discovered through DASA will be signposted to the prototyping programme.

3.2 Scope: Discovering future solutions

A better ‘brain in the plane’

Military systems need very high levels of assurance to operate reliably in the most demanding environments. There are increasing examples of civilian systems providing easy to use, modular hardware and software packages to improve performance of autonomous systems in more benign environments. There is an opportunity to incorporate the best of leading-edge, disruptive thinking from civil platforms into military systems. Incorporating dual use technology that is ready for use in multiple platforms will likely reduce costs and allow military users to take advantage of fast-development cycles. Army Innovation is looking for the best ways to improve the ‘brains’ in autonomous systems without excessive drains on power, increasing their ability to be detected, significant increase in all up platform weight, over-reliance on permanent reachback communications or increasing cost.

Example use case

• A deep reconnaissance unit operates by dispersal and remaining undetected. A mechanised infantry unit operates by manoeuvre and dominating ground.
• Both units need to be able to find and target enemy forces at long ranges, but cannot afford to reveal their position or expend soldiers on micro-managing autonomous platforms.
• Military units need the ability to launch a system and only give additional direction to it when it has arrived at a predetermined position and found a likely target.
• However, the modern battlefield is not an open plain and concealment is likely, so image recognition algorithms alone might not recognise partially obscured targets.
• Assuring communications links over long distances in a contested electromagnetic spectrum is also hard, particularly whilst remaining undetected.
• Finally, navigating to a target area when ‘conventional’ navigation systems become unreliable is challenging.
• Doing all of the above reliably, cheaply, and in a way that can be integrated into multiple platforms through simple common interfaces is key.

The future now: ready to field, proven, ready to integrate

Army Innovation is aware of multiple concept demonstrators, expensive, and proprietorial solutions to the above challenges. Through this DASA challenge, we are looking for disruptive ways to solve the above problems repeatedly, affordably, practically, and at scale across multiple different platforms. The initial prototype system is a low-cost loitering munition, that will reduce the cognitive burden on the user and increase mass at the forward edge of the battlefield. Successful solutions will offer viable ways to enable this and other platforms.

4. Competition Challenges

This competition has two challenges.

4.1 Challenge 1: low-cost reliable effects

To meet the demands of this challenge, the platform must be able to quickly search a location of at least 4km² and detect potential targets of interest within 15 minutes. After completing a search, the platform must be able to sort and identify targets for further action. Ideally, the system should also be able to cue a variety of actions, such as making an on-board decision or presenting a decision to an operator, through interoperability. The platform must be able to do this in all weathers during daylight hours and in reasonable weather at night.

Ideas that might help solve this challenge area may include:

• Optical systems able to scan, search, and lock on without the use of expensive stabilised moving parts.
• Low-cost novel sensors able to improve the likelihood of finding obscured targets, or increase the certainty of positive identification of a target.
• Software solutions to enable search or identification reliably, repeatably, and from limited data sets without being easily duped by physical countermeasures.

4.2 Challenge 2: low-cost survivability

An autonomous platform must be able to navigate to its destination despite challenges such as an unreliable GPS signal and electro-magnetic interference. It must also be able to survive against evolving counter-air and counter-uncrewed air system threats. Effective systems will provide simple and reliable solutions to changing threats, will increase survivability against direct fire and electro-magnetic interference, and will offer intelligible outputs that can interoperate with a number of different software backbones.

Ideas that might help solve this challenge area may include:

• Novel low-cost position, navigation, and timing solutions that can interface with multiple operating systems.
• Low-cost flight systems that improve manoeuvrability, either to increase agility, or to improve low-level flight.
• Low-cost flight systems that reduce operator input to the lowest level across all conditions and require minimal operator training.
• Novel, low-cost, reliable approaches to assured reach-back communications that minimise the signature of operators and platforms.
• Novel, low-cost signature management for uncrewed air systems that reduce their detection and increase survivability without change to the base platform design.
• Novel, low-cost targeting software that – without draining power, reducing payload, or relying on constant communication – enables a system to reduce its signature by being fire and forget up to the point of a decision or cross-cueing an action.

4.3 We are interested in…

We want novel ideas to benefit end-users working in UK Defence and Security. Your proposal should include evidence of:

• high technology readiness – able to reach TRL 6 by the end of the challenge.
• high and proven interoperability across systems
• low-cost (if scaled to mass-production)
• the ability to assure a supply chain in the UK
• the ability to scale to thousands of units if viable and subsequently proven
• theoretical development, method of advancement or proof of concept research which can demonstrate potential for translation to practical demonstration in later phases
• an innovative, disruptive (even ‘heretical’), novel, or creative approach
• clear demonstration of how the proposed work applies to any defence and security context

4.4 We are not interested in…

We are not interested in proposals that:

• could not be ready for integration onto a prototype platform in January 2024.
• are not broadly interoperable
• are effective, but are exquisite, need highly technical operators, are expensive, or cannot be scaled
• show no awareness of the contemporary military operating environment
• come from suppliers who will not be prepared to develop and integrate their solution cooperatively with users and other small and medium enterprises
• constitute consultancy, paper-based studies or literature reviews which just summarise the existing literature
• an unsolicited resubmission of a previous DASA bid
• offer demonstrations of off-the-shelf products requiring no experimental development (unless applied in a novel way to the challenge)
• offer no real long-term prospect of integration into defence and security capabilities
• offer no real prospect of out-competing existing technological solutions

5. Accelerating and exploiting your innovation

It is important that over the lifetime of DASA competitions, ideas are matured and accelerated towards appropriate end-users to enhance capability. How long this takes will depend on the nature and starting point of the innovation.

5.1 A clear route for exploitation

For DASA to consider routes for exploitation, ensure your deliverables are designed with the aim of making it as easy as possible for collaborators/stakeholders to identify the innovative elements of your proposal.

Whilst DASA recognises that early identification and engagement with potential end users during the competition and subsequent phases are essential to implementing an exploitation plan, during the competition phase there should be no correspondence between suppliers and DASA other than via the DASA helpdesk email at accelerator@dstl.gov.uk, or their local Innovation Partner.

All proposals to DASA should articulate the expected development in technology maturity of the potential solution over the lifetime of the contract and how this relates to improved capability against the current known (or presumed) baseline.

5.2 How to outline your exploitation plan

A higher technology maturity is expected in subsequent phases. Include the following information to help the assessors understand your exploitation plans to date:

• the intended defence or security users of your final product and whether you have previously engaged with them, their procurement arm or their research and development arm
• awareness of, and alignment to, any existing end user procurement programmes
• the anticipated benefits (for example, in cost, time, improved capability) that your solution will provide to the user
• whether it is likely to be a standalone product or integrated with other technologies or platforms
• expected additional work required beyond the end of the contract to develop an operationally deployable commercial product (for example, “scaling up” for manufacture, cyber security, integration with existing technologies, environmental operating conditions)
• additional future applications and wider markets for exploitation
• wider collaborations and networks you have already developed or any additional relationships you see as a requirement to support exploitation
• how your product could be tested in a representative environment in later phases
• any specific legal, ethical, commercial or regulatory considerations for exploitation

5.3 Is your exploitation plan long term?

Long term studies may not be able to articulate exploitation in great detail, but it should be clear that there is credible advantage to be gained from the technology development.

Include project specific information which will help exploitation. This competition is being carried out as part of a wider MOD programme and with cognisance of cross-Government initiatives. We may collaborate with organisations outside of the UK Government and this may provide the opportunity to carry out international trials and demonstrations in the future.

6. How to apply

6.1 Submission deadline

Midday on 27 July 2023 (BST)

6.2 Where do I submit my proposal?

Via the DASA Online Submission Service for which you will be required to register.

Only proposals submitted through the DASA Online Submission Service will be accepted.

6.3 Total funding available

The total possible funding available for this DASA competition is £800,000 (excluding VAT).

6.4 How many proposals will DASA fund

A number of proposals may be funded
Additional funding for further phases to incorporate successful solutions onto prototypes under development (using a different commercial arrangement through Defence Equipment and Support’s Aurora Engineering Partnership).

6.5 For further guidance

Click here for more information on our competition process and how your proposal is assessed.
Queries should be sent to the DASA Help Centre –accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.

6.6 What your proposal must include

• the proposal should focus on the Phase 1 requirements but must also include a brief (uncosted) outline of the next stages of work required for exploitation
• when submitting a proposal, you must complete all sections of the online form, including an appropriate level of technical information to allow assessment of the bid and a completed finances section
• completed proposals must comply with the financial rules set for this competition. The upper-limit for this competition is £800,000 (excluding VAT). Proposals will be rejected if the financial cost exceeds this capped level
• you must include a list of other current or recent government funding you may have received in this area if appropriate, making it clear how this proposal differs from this work
• a project plan with clear milestones and deliverables must be provided. Deliverables must be well defined and designed to provide evidence of progress against the project plan and the end-point for this phase; they must include a final report
• you should also plan for attendance at a kick-off meeting at the start of Phase 1, a mid-project event and an end of project event at the end of Phase 1, as well as regular reviews with the appointed Technical Partner and Project Manager; all meetings will be in the UK. Meetings may also take place virtually.
• your proposal must demonstrate how you will complete all activities/services and provide all deliverables within the competition timescales (3 months). Proposals with any deliverables (including final report) outside the competition timeline will be rejected as non-compliant

6.7 What your resourcing plan should include

Your resourcing plan must identify, where possible, the nationalities of proposed employees that you intend to work on this phase.

If your proposal is recommended for funding

In the event of a proposal being recommended for funding, the DASA reserves the right to undertake due diligence checks including the clearance of proposed employees. Please note that this process will take as long as necessary and could take up to 6 weeks in some cases for non-UK nationals.

You must identify any ethical / legal / regulatory factors within your proposal and how the associated risks will be managed, including break points in the project if approvals are not received.
MODREC approvals can take up to 5 months therefore you should plan your work programme accordingly. If you are unsure if your proposal will need to apply for MODREC approval, then please refer to the MODREC Guidance for Suppliers or contact your Innovation Partner for further guidance.

Requirements for access to Government Furnished Assets (GFA), for example, information, equipment, materials and facilities, may be included in your proposal. DASA cannot guarantee that GFA will be available. If you apply for GFA, you should include an alternative plan in case it is not available.

Failure to provide any of the above listed will automatically render your proposal non-compliant.

6.8 Export control for overseas partners

All relevant export control regulations will apply if a company ultimately wants to sell a developed solution to a foreign entity. All innovators must ensure that they can obtain, if required, the necessary export licences for their proposals and developments, such that they can be supplied to the UK and other countries. If you cannot confirm that you can gain the requisite licences, your proposal will be sifted out of the competition.
Additionally, if we believe that you will not be able to obtain export clearance, additional checks may be conducted, which may also result in your proposal being sifted out of the competition.

6.9 Supplier Assurance Questionnaire (SAQ)

On receipt of a ‘Fund’ decision, successful suppliers must prove cyber resilience data before the contract is awarded. The start of this process is the submission of a Supplier Assurance Questionnaire (SAQ). The SAQ allows suppliers to demonstrate compliance with the specified risk level and the corresponding profile in Def Stan 05-138, and the level of control required will depend on this risk level.

To expedite the contracting time of successful suppliers we ask all suppliers to complete the SAQ before they submit their proposal. The SAQ can be completed here using the DASA Risk Assessment RAR-260635306 and answer questions for risk level “Low”.

6.10 Defence Cyber Protection Partnership

The Defence Cyber Protection Partnership (DCPP) will review your SAQ submission and respond with a reference number within 2 working days. The resulting email response from DCPP should be attached (JPG or PNG format) and included within the DASA submission service portal when the proposal is submitted. You will also be asked to enter your SAQ reference number. Please allow enough time to receive the SAQ reference number prior to competition close at midday on 27 July 2023 (BST).

If the proposal is being funded, the SAQ will be evaluated against the CRA for the competition, and it will be put it into one of the following categories:

1. compliant – no further action
2. not compliant – if successful in competition and being funded, the innovator will be required to complete a Cyber Implementation Plan (CIP) before the contract is placed, which will need to be reviewed and agreed with the relevant project manager
   Innovators can enter a proposal without all controls in place, but are expected to have all the cyber protection measures necessary to fulfil the requirements of the contract in place at the time of contract award, or have an agreed Cyber Implementation Plan (CIP).
   The CIP provides evidence as to how and when potential innovators will achieve compliance. Provided the measures proposed in the Cyber Implementation Plan do not pose an unacceptable risk to the MOD, a submission with a Cyber Implementation Plan will be considered alongside those who can achieve the controls.A final check will be made to ensure cyber resilience before the contract is placed. Commercial staff cannot progress without it. This process does not replace any contract specific security requirements.
   Further guidance for completing this process can be requested by emailing the DASA Help Centre: accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.

Additional information about cyber security can be found at: DCPP: Cyber Security Model industry buyer and supplier guide.

6.11 Public facing information

When submitting your proposal, you will be required to include a title and a short abstract. The title and abstract you provide will be used by DASA, and other government departments, to describe your project and its intended outcomes and benefits. They may be included at DASA events in relation to this competition and in documentation such as brochures. The proposal title will be published in the DASA transparency data on GOV.UK, along with your company name, the amount of funding, and the start and end dates of your contract. As this information can be shared, it should not contain information that may compromise Intellectual property.

6.12 How your proposal will be assessed

At Stage 1, all proposals will be checked for compliance with the competition document and may be rejected before full assessment if they do not comply. Only those proposals that demonstrate compliance against the competition scope and DASA mandatory criteria will be taken forward to full assessment.

Mandatory Criteria

The proposal outlines how it meets the scope of the competition

Within scope (Pass) / Out of scope (Fail)

The proposal fully explains in all three sections of the DASA submission service how it meets the DASA criteria

Pass / Fail

The proposal clearly details a financial plan, a project plan and a resourcing plan to complete the work proposed in Phase 1

Pass / Fail

The proposal identifies the need (or not) for MODREC approval

Pass / Fail

The proposal identifies any GFA required for Phase 1

Pass / Fail

The proposal demonstrates how all research and development activities / services (including delivery of the final report) will be completed within 3 months from award of contract (or less) Pass / Fail

The bidder has obtained the authority to provide unqualified acceptance of the terms and conditions of the Contract.

Pass / Fail

Proposals that pass Stage 1 will then be assessed against the standard DASA assessment criteria (Desirability, Feasibility and Viability) by subject matter experts from the MOD (including Dstl), other government departments and the front-line military commands. You will not have the opportunity to view or comment on assessors’ recommendations.

DASA reserves the right to disclose on a confidential basis any information it receives from innovators during the procurement process (including information identified by the innovator as Commercially Sensitive Information in accordance with the provisions of this competition) to any third party engaged by DASA for the specific purpose of evaluating or assisting DASA in the evaluation of the innovator’s proposal. In providing such information the innovator consents to such disclosure. Appropriate confidentiality agreements will be put in place.
Further guidance on how your proposal is assessed is available on the DASA website.

After assessment, proposals will be discussed internally at a Decision Conference where, based on the assessments, budget and wider strategic considerations, a decision will be made on the proposals that are recommended for funding.

Innovators are not permitted to attend the Decision Conference.

Proposals that are unsuccessful will receive brief feedback after the Decision Conference.

6.1 Things you should know about DASA contracts: DASA terms and conditions

Please read the DASA terms and conditions which contain important information for innovators. For this competition we will be using the Innovation Standard Contract (ISC), links to the contract: Terms and Schedules. We will require unqualified acceptance of the terms and conditions; if applicable, please ensure your commercial department has provided their acceptance.

More information on DEFCON 705 can be found by registering on the Knowledge in Defence site.

Funded projects will be allocated a Project Manager (to run the project) and a Technical Partner (as a technical point of contact). In addition, the DASA team will work with you to support delivery and exploitation including, when appropriate, introductions to end-users and business support to help develop their business.

We will use deliverables from DASA contracts in accordance with our rights detailed in the contract terms and conditions.

For this competition, £800,000 (excluding VAT) is currently available to fund proposals. There may be occasions when additional funding may become available to allow us to revisit proposals deemed suitable for funding. Therefore, DASA reserves the right to keep such proposals in reserve. In the event that additional funding becomes available, DASA may ask whether you would still be prepared to undertake the work outlined in your proposal under the same terms.

7. Phase 1 Key Dates

Dial-in

05 July 2023

Competition closes

Midday 27 July 2023 (BST)

Feedback release

01 Sept 2023

Contracting

Aim to start September 2023 and end 3 months later in December 2023

8.Help: Contact the DASA Help Centre

Competition queries including on process, application, commercial, technical and intellectual property aspects should be sent to the DASA Help Centre at accelerator@dstl.gov.uk, quoting the competition title. If you wish receive future updates on this competition, please email the DASA Help Centre.
While all reasonable efforts will be made to answer queries, DASA reserves the right to impose management controls if volumes of queries restrict fair access of information to all potential innovators.