Guidance

Market Exploration Document: How Clean is your Hull?

Published 7 September 2022

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is investigating ways to ensure a clean, covert and capable submarine fleet.

1. Summary

On behalf of the Royal Navy, DASA is searching for innovative ways to clean submarines. We are seeking submissions from across the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) spectrum that mitigate the negative impact of bio-fouling on a submarine’s signature and performance. Building a better understanding of current market capability will inform decisions on how best to preserve the battle-winning edge of the submarine fleet, and support efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the Royal Navy.

Whilst potentially successful technologies and concepts may be exploited within any future acquisition programs, please note that this request for information is not a commitment to subsequently launch a formal DASA competition.

2. Background

Over time submarines accumulate biological material on their hulls. This has an undesirable impact on the submarine’s sensors, as well as its ability to avoid detection and move at speed. Efficient and effective ways of cleaning (de-fouling) the hull will mitigate these effects and ensure that the submarine can function at maximum capability.

3. What we want

Our investigation into technical solutions to the problem of biofouling is open to mechanical and chemical methods of cleaning, or novel ways of detecting and classifying different types of biological material.

We are looking for innovations that:

• can deal with the complex hull geometry and often small surface areas of submarine structures
• do not damage or interfere with the purpose of acoustic tiles or sensor arrays
• are environmentally compliant and do not pose wider risk to the natural environment

De-fouling could be undertaken when the submarine is at sea or docked in port. If your solution is to be used while the submarine is at sea, it should be battery powered and no larger than 1.5m x 1m x 0.5m. It would be advantageous if solutions were easily transportable, allowing them to be used without complex base infrastructure support.

If your idea could also apply to de-fouling a surface vessel please state this in your submission.

4. What we don’t want

We are not interested in literature reviews, paper-based studies, consultancy, non-technical solutions or marginal improvements to existing capabilities.

We are not looking for innovations that rely on:

• coatings on the hull
• diver based solutions
• anything that requires the submarine to be in dry dock

This is not a competition and therefore we are not asking for costed proposals at this stage. How Clean is your Hull is a request for information exercise and we do not commit to subsequently launch a formal DASA competition.

5. How to submit a Market Exploration Submission to DASA

Responses to this Market Exploration must be submitted via the DASA submission service, for which you will need to register. We recommend you use a Google Chrome browser to access the DASA submission service.

You will be asked for a title and short summary of your innovation, along with questions related to your organisation, your idea and technology maturity. In addition to your current TRL, please include an estimate of how long your technology will take to be implemented. We are seeking to understand what and how much further development is required for a complete solution to meet requirements, or whether a combination of separate solutions are required. The information you provide will assist in developing a statement of requirements for potential future activities.

Submissions must be submitted by 16 November 2022. Unfortunately we are unable to accept any submissions after this point.

Please only provide details of one product/capability per submission. If you have a number of potential solutions, then please submit multiple forms.

If you have any questions then please email accelerator@dstl.gov.uk with “How clean is your hull?” in the subject line.

6. How we use your information

Information you provide to us in a Market Exploration Submission, that is not already available to us from other sources, will be handled in confidence. By submitting a Market Exploration Submission you are giving us permission to keep and use the information for our internal purposes, and to provide the information onwards, in confidence, within UK Government. The Defence and Security Accelerator will not use or disclose the information for any other purpose, without first requesting permission to do so.

We may also share information submitted in this Market Exploration with partners in allied nation governments as part of the AUKUS initiative (comprised of Australia, the UK, and the United States).